Recipe No 326 spice blend Original 2013

Baharat spice blend

This spice blend is used in Lebanese sfihas—spiced meat in a bread dough basket. It can be used as a dry rub for virtually any fish or seafood.
Time

Prep:

Total:

Difficulty
easy
Yield
4 serves • 36 g
Metric Imperial

Processes

  • Cassia bark, whole (2½ tsp)
    6.5 g
  • Coriander seeds, whole (2 tsp)
    3.7 g
  • Black pepper, whole (1 tbsp)
    6.9 g
  • Cloves, whole (1 tsp)
    2.2 g
  • Cumin seeds, whole (2½ tsp)
    5.3 g
  • Cardamom, seeds only, whole (⅛ tsp)
    0.3 g
  1. 01
    Roast in a dry pan in a 170°C / 340°F oven for , stirring every .
  2. 02
    Transfer to the bowl of spice grinder.

  • Sumac (optional) (1 tsp)
    2 g
  • Nutmeg, freshly ground (1 tsp)
    2.2 g
  • Paprika
    1 tbsp
  1. 03
    Add to bowl and grind to a fine powder.
  2. 04
    Pass through a fine sieve.
  3. 05
    Repeat step 03 and step 04 for additional yield.

Notes

Roasting whole spices and grinding them yourself will give you a much better result than any pre-ground spice. The method of roasting in the oven in a dry pan gives us more control and consistency, but still requires vigilance to avoid burning.

You can use a mortar and pestle to grind this blend, though it would be useful to pound on the cassia bark for a while before adding the other ingredients.

It is not necessary to pass through a fine sieve, but we find the sumac has an undesirable mouthfeel if not ground finely.

You will need to process the cardamom before anything else, if using whole pods, to extract the seeds from the pod. Gently crack open the pods to extract the seeds and discard the husk. You will need quite a lot of pods to get the right amount of seeds. (They can be purchased as seeds only.)

Making ahead

Prepare the whole recipe ahead of time and store in an air-tight container out of direct sunlight. Alternatively, roast the spices and store, ready to grind just prior to use.

Storing

Keeps for 3 months in an air-tight container out of direct sunlight

Food pairings

Sfihas

Drink pairings

Syrah

Categorisation

Category
spice blend
Meal
component
Cuisine
lebanese
Diet
vegan vegetarian
Tags
arabic baharat middle east spice spice blend spices