Middle eastern food is spicy and new to western world. However, there are variety of mouth watering dishes for vegetarian as well as non-vegetarians. A very commonly used spice blend in almost every home is called Baharat. I have seen this blend in many middle eastern super markets and always wondered about it. I started reading about Iraqi and middle eastern cooking and came across a basic ingredient list with ratios for making baharat. This spice blend has many variations just like curry powder and garam masala in Indian cooking.
Baharat is a plural of bahar and it represents a mixture of wide variety of spices. Bahar is an Arabic word originally used for Black pepper. Baharat varies from region to region, tribe to tribe and even family to family. In middle east, every kitchen has a good selection of spices to make different dishes. Different type of mixture blend is prepared for cooking meat, vegetables, lentils. Most of the spices in middle east are imported from India and the subcontinent. Town of Basra in Iraq is famous for spice blends especially for dates.
You can make a Baharat for yourself by mixing following ingredient proportions. One can experiment with quantities to come up with his/her own Baharat.
You can make a 1 lb of Baharat using the following ingredients. You can choose whole or powder form of spices.
1) Indus Organics Malabar Black Pepper Powder, 2 oz
2) Indus Organic Paprika Powder, 2 oz
3) Indus Organics Cumin Powder, 2 oz
4) Indus Organics Turmeric Powder, 2 oz
5) Indus Organics Coriander Seed/Powder, 2 oz
6) Indus Organics Gourmet Cloves, 5 tbsp
7) Indus Organics Ceylon Cinnamon Powder, 5 tbsp
8) Indus Organics Nutmeg Powder, 5 tbsp
9) Indus Organics Premium Cardamom Pods, 5 tbsp
10) Indus Organics Ginger Powder, 1 tbsp
11) Ground Dried Limes, 5 tbsp
Mixing these ingredients will make a tasteful Baharat spice blend than you won’t find in typical Middle Eastern grocery store. You can buy a pre-mixed garam masala spice blend that is very similar to Iraqi Baharat.
** Above Recipe for Baharat is taken from The Iraqi Cookbook by Lamees Ibrahim.
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