Baharat

Toronto has a very diverse food scene with restaurants serving food from around the world, but somehow I have never managed to try any Middle Eastern cuisine.

Here in Brisbane, Turkish pides and gozlemes are pretty popular and once I tried them, I was hooked. Unfortunately, constantly going out to satisfy my cravings was really hurting our budget so I thought I'd try my hand at making it at home. The idea is simple enough - flatten out some dough, add your choice of fillings, like cheese, chopped vegetables and shreds of delicious, flavourful meat, fold it and cook.

The most intimidating part for me was making a tender and flavourful meat and for that, I knew needed a good spice mixture, or baharat. Once I found this recipe, I was ready to try my hand at making kabobs to eat and add to other dishes.

I must say, I am always fascinated by the amount and variety of spices that go into these recipes.

BAHARAT (from Epicurious)

Ingredients

1 1/2 tbsp dried mint

1 tbsp dried oregano

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp ground coriander

1 1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Directions

Using a mortar and pestle, mash all ingredients 2-3 minutes. 

Note

I don't have a mortar and pestle so I used the back of my measuring spoon and a small bowl to grind the spices into a fine powder mix.