Eating can be adventurous sport taste and discovery of African cuisine can be an experience we all enjoy. Africans have developed a distinctive food pallet using a myriad of spices, fresh seafood, fruits and vegetables. There are more exciting spices than salt and pepper, below is a small exampling of common herbs and spices used in African cooking:
African Bird Pepper- this pepper comes in a scorching 70,000 -150,000 Scoville Heat Units. African bird pepper, commonly referred to also as piri piri (pepper-pepper)
Cardamom- has a gingery pine flavor and if using whole seeds crack before using.
Cinnamon- made of ground dried tree bark, sometimes left whole. Most of the cinnamon comes from trees of the "cinnamon cassia" family.
Coriander- the seed of the cilantro plant, the taste is citrus sweet flavor. The African counties of Morocco and Egypt produce a lot amount of the world’s coriander.
Cumin- a member of the parsley family and has a strong earthy favor. During the middle ages, people believed that a joyful life would come to the bride and groom who carried Cumin seeds during the entire wedding ceremony.
Fenugreek- extremely fragrant and the taste are robust, sweet, and a bit bitter. In cooking, there is not really a substitute for this unique spice.
Garlic- related to the lily family, grows in heads or clumps of cloves, and garlic is a relative of the onion. Cooks use garlic fresh and dried in recipes, garlic and has a strong favor and concentrated aroma.
Ginger- a clean, citrusy warm intense taste too much ginger translates to hot and spicy on the tongue. Ginger is one of the most popular spices in Africa.
Lemon Grass- has a strong citrus flavor, substitute for lemon zest in a recipe.
Nutmeg- sweet, nutty, heady fragrance and tastes warm and a bit sweet.
Saffron- the world’s most expensive spice, Saffron threads are the stigma of the purple crocus and it takes 175,000-225,000 manually selected flowers to make a pound of saffron. Saffron has a strong aroma and a pungent, sweet taste and gives foods a brilliant yellow color.
Tamarind- native to the tropics of Africa tamarind is a brownish slightly sour tasting pod popular in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
Turmeric- sharp, peppery, slightly musty, earthy aroma with an astringent flavor. Turmeric also adds a vivid yellow color to foods.
Somaliwood? Yes, Somaliwood is the name is a portmanteau of the words Somali and Hollywood. Somaliwood is an unofficial surname for a upstart Somali-language film production company located in Columbus, Ohio.
Morocco is located in Northern Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, between Algeria and Western Sahara. Morocco is slightly larger than the U.S. state of California. It's climate is Mediterranean, with more extreme heat in the interior of the country. It's terrain has northern coast and the interior is mountainous subject to earthquakes, periodic droughts but with rich coastal plains. Morocco languages are as follows;Arabic (official), Berber dialects, French which is often the language of business, government, and diplomacy. Main agriculture products are barley, wheat, citrus, wine, vegetables, olives and livestock. One such recipe for preserved lemons is a kitchen stable for most Moroccans.
