Thursday, November 10, 2016

Ras el Hanout and other flavors

Dinner tonight: I tried using Moroccan spices to flavor turkey breast, squash, and broccoli. The broccoli is not to
my knowledge Moroccan at all. But it's kind of an experiment. Served with wine and Zingerman's cranberry bread.
The turkey breast was cooked with preserved lemon, sage leaves, crushed garlic,
melted butter, lemon and lime juice, a chopped jalapeño pepper,
and a Moroccan spice blend called ras el hanout. The squash was baked and
then mashed with butter, ginger, and a bit of the turkey seasoning.
Garnish: a slightly altered version of Charmoula, another Moroccan blend.
My charmoula contained chopped parsley and cilantro, oil, lemon juice, cumin, and paprika. I omitted the garlic that is characteristic of this blend because there was a lot of garlic in the meat preparation. I'm not really very experienced in Moroccan cuisine, but I find their combinations of spices to be very pleasing, so I'm trying to learn how to use them. I based my choices on several recipes that I found on the web. Eventually I'll try some of the recipes from my cookbooks.

7 comments:

Claudia said...

Mae, what an exotic and flavorful meal. A great way to ratchet up a turkey breast, which I am wanting to try.

Vicki said...

I love trying new flavors and I love turkey breast, squash and broccoli so I'm pinning this.

G'day Souffle said...

Mae, you certainly are adventurous to combine the Moroccan flavors with a Mexican jalapeno pepper. I just made a cranberry bread that would go well with your dinner (but not sure if it would be better than 'Zingerman's' cranberry bread)!

(Diane) bookchickdi said...

I'm pinning it too, it sounds so interesting.

Carole said...

Yum. Have a great week. Cheers from Carole's Chatter

Molly said...

I want to start traveling the world ... in my kitchen :) I will definitely save this recipe for a cold winter evening when I want to escape the Midwest for someplace more exotic.

Beth F said...

Very different ... and in a good way.