Moroccan Ras el Hanout Gravy

Ras el hanout means top of the shop, the blend the spice merchant is proudest of, and no two are the same. It usually runs to a dozen or more spices with rose petals and cardamom in there somewhere, which makes it perfumed rather than hot. Built into a gravy with saffron and preserved lemon, it turns a roast lamb or chicken dinner into something that smells like a Marrakech kitchen.

Ingredients

Makes about 550ml, enough for six

• 3 tbsp olive oil, or fat from the roasting tin
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, grated
• 15g (½oz) fresh ginger, grated
• 2 tbsp ras el hanout a Moroccan spice blend, warm and floral rather than hot. Every supermarket stocks one now, and Middle Eastern grocers have better ones
• 1 pinch saffron threads steeped in 3 tbsp hot water for ten minutes
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 600ml (1 pint) hot lamb or chicken stock
• 30g (1oz) ground almonds
• ½ preserved lemon, flesh discarded, skin very finely chopped salted lemons in a jar, sold in most supermarkets and every North African shop. The skin is the part you eat
• 1 tbsp runny honey
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
• salt and black pepper

Kit

• Heavy pan or roasting tin
• Wooden spoon
• Small bowl
• Sieve

Method

1. Heat the oil in a heavy pan over a medium low heat. Add the onions with a pinch of salt and cook slowly for fifteen minutes until completely soft and pale gold. They should not brown hard, since this gravy wants sweetness rather than a roasted note.

2. Stir in the garlic and ginger and cook for two minutes until fragrant.

3. Add the ras el hanout and stir it into the oil for one minute, keeping the heat low. Add a splash of water if the pan looks dry, because these spices are finely ground and burn in seconds.

4. Stir in the tomato puree and cook for two minutes until it darkens.

5. Pour in the stock and the saffron with its steeping water. Bring to a simmer and cook uncovered for fifteen minutes, until reduced by about a fifth and the kitchen smells strongly of the spice blend.

6. Whisk in the ground almonds. They will thicken the gravy gently over the next few minutes and give it a soft, slightly grainy body rather than the smooth coat of a flour gravy.

7. Simmer for five more minutes, then stir in the chopped preserved lemon skin and the honey. Cook for one final minute.

8. Taste and season carefully, remembering the preserved lemon brings a lot of salt. It should be fragrant and gently sweet with a sharp salty lift from the lemon. Blend it smooth with a stick blender if you prefer, then stir through the coriander and parsley and serve over roast lamb, chicken or couscous.

Tips worth knowing

• Ras el hanout blends vary wildly. Smell yours before you commit to two tablespoons, and if it is heavy on cinnamon and clove start with one and a half.
• Only the skin of a preserved lemon is used. Scrape out and throw away the soft pulp, which is unpleasantly salty and slightly bitter.
• Ground almonds thicken gently and keep working as the gravy sits, so stop a little thinner than you want it.
• If you have no preserved lemon, use the finely grated zest of half a lemon plus a teaspoon of lemon juice and a good pinch of salt. It is not the same but it is in the right direction.

Keeping and reheating

Keeps four days in the fridge and freezes for three months. The almonds can look slightly separated after freezing, so whisk hard while reheating. Add the fresh herbs after reheating rather than before freezing.

Questions people ask