Grilled chickens on skewers are a great summer treat.
Ras El Hanout chicken skewers are eaten with cauliflower hummus. Roni Lehti
The most famous spice mix in all of North Africa is undoubtedly the ras el hanout, which was also a chef Risto Mikkolan as an inspiration when he thought about good barbecue food.
The classic Moroccan spice mixture is tasty, spicy and appropriately fiery. The spice mixture is not burning, but the taste can be better described with the word rich. The taste comes from many different spices, which are mixed in just the right proportion to each other so that no one flavor clearly overpowers the others.
Ras el hanout spice mix is also called “seven spice mix”. The name of the spice mixture means “trader’s best”, but it is also called the king of spices. It often contains at least cardamom, cumin, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, dry ginger, chili pepper and turmeric.
The spice mixture is really suitable for many dishes, especially meat and chicken dishes.
Pomegranate belongs to North African cuisine. Adobe Stock / AOP
This time, Mikkola decided to season the chicken with it.
– Since the idea of this dish is in the spice mixture, you can use any part of the chicken, for example chicken legs, Mikkola states.
The chef always buys one piece of chicken for his home. Mikkola prefers steak.
– It has more fat and flavor. It’s tastier to my mouth, he reasons.
To accompany the grilled chicken skewers, Mikkola prepared cauliflower hummus and mint-flavored tzatziki.
Cauliflower is cooked for hummus. You can either grill it or roast it in the oven. Cauliflower brings variety to the taste of hummus, and mint refreshes the tzatziki.
If you use wooden skewers, remember to soak them in water for a long time before grilling. Otherwise, there may be a risk of the sticks catching fire.
Broiler becomes delicious on the grill. Roni Lehti
Ras el hanout broiler skewers
400 g of chicken fillets or steaks
50 g of ras el hanout spice
½ dl rapeseed oil
salt
pepper
skewers
1. Cut the chicken into pieces and mix the ras el hanout seasoning and rapeseed oil into them. Let marinate for a few hours.
2. If you use wooden skewers, soak them in cold water ahead of time so they don’t burn during grilling.
3. After a few hours, put the chickens on skewers and grill them on both sides for a total of about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Cauliflower hummus
1 cauliflower
½ dl tahini
2 cans of canned chickpeas
Juice of 1 lemon
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp chopped parsley
salt
sugar
pepper
1. Put the whole cauliflower in the oven at 180 degrees to roast for half an hour.
2. Puree all the ingredients in a food processor into a coarse paste. Season with salt, sugar and pepper.
Mint tsaki
3 pnt mint
400 g of Turkish yogurt
4 garlic cloves, chopped
juice of half a lemon
0.5 dl of high-quality olive oil
sugar
salt
pepper
1. Chop the mint, mix all the ingredients together. Season and serve.
Pomegranate
1 pomegranate
1. Remove the seeds from the pomegranate and decorate the portion.
Terre del Barolo Barbera d’Alba Biologico 2018, Italy (€14.98)
The aroma world of the medium-bodied organic wine, tinged with red berries, opens with sour cherry, currant and a slight smoke. This wine has nice tannins and refined acidity.