Ultimate Spice Guide: North African

Let's continue our spice journey and this time, let's get to know the staple spice of North African cuisine. With this visual provided by Cooksmarts.com, we will get up close and personal with African flavors.

Let's get to know the spices up close:

• Cardamom - native to the Middle East, North Africa, and Scandinavia, this pungent spice are available in three types: green cardamom, black cardamom and Madagascar cardamom. This spice goes well with chicken, duck, lentils, and rice.
• Cinnamon - the only spice in the list that is being used on both sweet and savory dish. Obtained from the inner bark, this sweet and fragrant spice is also used in traditional medicine due to its anti-clotting and anti-microbial properties.
• Cumin - sometimes spelled as "cummin", this spice belongs in the parsley family. Native to the Mediterranean, cumin is hotter to the taste, lighter in color, and larger than caraway, another spice it's sometimes confused with. It has a distinctive bitter flavor and strong, warm aroma due to its abundant oil content.
• Paprika - used heavily in Eastern European cooking, this sweet, mildly hot spice is derived from grounded paprika peppers. Mainly used as garnish for dishes especially deviled eggs.
• Turmeric - known as one of a key ingredient in making curries, this peppery warm spice is used not only as an aromatic but also in herbal medicine and textile dye.
• Ginger - one of the most common spice all over the world aside from garlic and onion. This pungent and spicy aromatic is perfect not only for Asian stir-fry but also with sweet dishes and fruit concoctions. It is also known for its medicinal properties particularly aids in gastrointestinal health.
• Ras El Hanout - a spice mix just like Indian's Garam Masala. It consists of cardamom, cumin, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, allspice, dry ginger, chili peppers, coriander seed, peppercorn, sweet and hot paprika, fenugreek, and dry turmeric.

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