Morocco
SEASONINGS
Moroccan cuisine combines sweetness with savor and adds spiciness without overwhelming heat. Cumin, coriander, saffron, ginger, and cinnamon are the main spices that give a distinctive profile compared to more subtle Mediterranean cuisines. Dried and fresh chili peppers are used lavishly; mint, fresh cilantro, and parsley freshen up dishes; bell peppers, tomatoes, onions, and garlic prevail in aromatics; olives and preserved lemons bring a tangy kick. Orange flower, jasmine, and rose petals water infuses exotic aromas into desserts. In many stew or slow-cooked dishes, cooks frequently use raisins, apricots, prunes, almonds, pine nuts, and other nuts to create a sweet-savory contrast.
RAS EL HANOUT – a dried spice mix popular in Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria, blends from a dozen to 80 spices. The name means “head of the shop” – the best spices the seller has to offer. Each shop, company, or family may have their own blend. Common ingredients, though, include cardamom, cumin, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, allspice, dry ginger, chili peppers, coriander, black pepper, sweet paprika, fenugreek, and turmeric.
LA KAMA – a lesser-known but traditional Moroccan spice blend that includes black pepper, turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Also popular in Moroccan cooking are:
Levantine ZA’ATAR – dried oregano, thyme or marjoram, sumac, sesame seeds, salt.
Arabic BAHARAT – black pepper, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, nutmeg, paprika.
SAUCES
HARRISA, a hot chili pepper paste made from a variety of chiles, could be the baklouti, guajillo, anaheim, chiles de arbol peppers, along with garlic, coriander, caraway, cumin, and lemon juice (or preserved lemon) and olive oil and is widely used as a marinade, dip or sauce.
CHERMOULA is a marinade and relish used in Moroccan, Algerian, Libyan, and Tunisian cooking, it slightly reassembles the Latin American chimichurri. In Morocco its often used for fish. Frequent ingredients include fresh cilantro, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice or preserved lemon, cumin, paprika, chili peppers, salt. It can come in different hues and tones: green (without paprika and red elements, with red tone due to sweet paprika or harrisa and yellow tone due to turmeric (source).
Moroccan cuisine is exclusive with four distinct cooking styles that are both cooking techniques and flavor combinations on the same time: m’hammer (red), m’chermel (marinated), m’qali (fried) and q’dra (skills).
M’HAMMER is a classic way of preparing tagine in which roasted meat is doused in a sauce made of onions, paprika, and cumin. A generous amount of paprika is used, giving sauce a brownish red color, and the meat is cooked in the sauce, its later taken out, charred under the broiler (source) and put back.
M’CHERMEL is a cooking style that is characterized by marinating food in chermoula sauce.
After marinating, food can be cooked in any other style, but the term m’chermel describes the process and style of cooking with this particular marinade.
European tradition cooks usually pan-brown the meat in the beginning before stewing. M’QALLI method is vice versa – first, the meat is stewed, and when it absorbs the broth and becomes tender, is fried. Compulsory spices are ginger, saffron, and turmeric.
Q’DRA is also the name of deep cookware unique for this type of cooking. It involves cooking meat very slowly, until it becomes exceptionally tender. This will be considered the most casual cooking technique; literally what Moroccans will prepare almost every day. (source) A liquid yellow broth is made with saffron and turmeric, pepper, cinnamon, parsley, and smen, while paprika and ginger are never used for this style.
Syrian Arab Republic
SEASONINGS
Syrian food is fragrant, colorful, spiced, and moderately heated. Mint, parsley, and cilantro are used extensively, and thyme, in dried form, features a popular za’atar mix. Spices are used even more generously than herbs – cumin, sumac, coriander, paprika, allspice, turmeric, cinnamon, cloves, mahlab, and mastic are staples. Fragrance comes from rose petals, orange blossoms, and saffron.
Syrians like their food tart, so they heavily use citrus, sumac, and fruit molasses – a thick, concentrated syrup, particularly from pomegranates.
One of the star spices in Syrian kitchens is Aleppo pepper – sun-dried, coarsely ground, and packed with character. Its popularity stretches well beyond Syria, finding a place in Turkey, Lebanon, and across the Mediterranean and Middle East. Peppers themselves came a long way before becoming a Syrian staple. Native to the Americas, they traveled through Spain and North Africa, eventually arriving in the Ottoman territories. Along the way, new varieties emerged, and one of the most celebrated was the Halaby pepper – Aleppo. As a major hub of the trade, Aleppo was popular. Today, though, the original Aleppo pepper has become harder to source due to the ongoing conflict in Syria, and much of what’s available now is grown in neighboring Turkey.
What makes it special is its balance: a deep, smoky flavor with natural saltiness and earthiness, plus a gentle kick of heat – milder than cayenne but hotter than jalapeño. Instead of blasting you with spice, it layers in complexity and depth. Toward the end of the pepper season, farmers and home cooks in Aleppo turn their surplus into a rich red paste known as debs flefleh, or ‘pepper molasses.’
In Syrian cooking, a few spice mixes show up everywhere—like za’atar, baharat, and the Aleppo seven-spice blend.
ZA’ATAR spice mix – thyme, sumac, toasted sesame seeds, and salt.
BAHARAT / 7 SPICE MIX, a complex Arabic spice blend that can include black pepper, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, and sometimes paprika.
ALEPPO SEVEN-SPICE local Syrian variation, whose constituents may vary but usually consist of allspice, black pepper, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom, and cloves, all ground into fine powder.
SAUCES
MUHAMMARA – roasted red peppers, walnuts, Aleppo pepper, garlic, olive oil, breadcrumbs, and pomegranate molasses.
TARATOR – sauce made from tahini, lemon juice, garlic, and water. It’s used as a dip or a sauce for falafel or fish.
SHATTAH – A hot sauce made from red chili peppers, garlic, and salt. It’s similar to North African harissa but with its own Syrian character.
TOUM – A strong garlic sauce made by emulsifying garlic with oil, lemon juice, and salt.
