Sunday, February 3, 2013

Homemade Baharat Spice Blend Recipe

In the past while, I've explored many different cuisines from around the world, and one thing I've noticed is that most of them tend to have a mix of spices, often similar spices, that are staples in their cuisine. Chili powder in Tex Mex cooking, garam masala in Indian cooking, hawaij in Yemenite cooking, berbere in Ethiopian cooking, etc...  If you went through the list of ingredients in those spice mixtures, each of those would have a large overlap.
I recently discovered this spice mixture called Baharat. Its an Arabic spice blend that, to be honest, reminds me a lot of garam masala. In fact, one day I made something with garam masala for supper, and the next day for lunch served a dish with baharat, and my husband thought it was the same thing! ;) He doesn't have the most refined taste buds. But at the same time, I could see where he was coming from. The flavor of baharat spice mix is like garam masala. Mixed with regular curry powder. And chili powder. And hawaij.
Basically, it's good. If you like the various spices within, and like these other spice mixtures that I've mentioned, you're sure to like this one as well.

Baharat is used on chicken, meat, fish, in stews, soups, sauces, etc...
Try it out. You won't regret it!
P.S. The recipe usually contains black pepper. I left it out. I'd rather add heat to my food separately from the rest of the seasonings.

Baharat Spice Blend

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
2 teaspoons smoked paprika (or 2 more of regular paprika if you don't have smoked)
1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
3/4 teaspoons cardamom pods- 8 pods
1 tablespoons cumin
1/4 teaspoons whole cloves
2 3 inch cinnamon sticks
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon whole corriander seeds

Instructions:
1. Stick all the ingredients together in a coffee grinder.

2. Grind until fine.

Have you ever heard of baharat spice mix? Ever used it before? Ever made it? If you've made it, what was in yours? If you used it, how did you use it? What is your favorite use for it?


3 comments:

  1. cool! you probably know that there are three different kinds of baharat: Leabanese, Iraqi and Syrian. This recipe I think is the Syrian kind

    ReplyDelete
  2. Just used it for the first time a few weeks ago in an Iraqi chamin recipe. Bought it in a local spice shop. I wondered what it was made up of and now I know. Thanks!

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  3. My mother in law uses baharat to make some kind of meatball in the shape of a finger. She uses baharat and sauce and cooks the ground meat in it till done. She is from the Middle East, so she has been using it for years

    ReplyDelete

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