Mountains of the Middle East

I totally fell in love with the food of Jerusalem when I was out there. 

Vegetarian Mark is staying with me again for a couple of weeks so a little bit of food preparation is the order of the day.

As Yotam Ottolengi taught us in The Guardian away back, Middle Eastern spices give vegetarian food a new dimension.

I spent this afternoon roasting and grinding a blend which normally accompanies lamb. This time however I am going to use it to marinade a roasted cauliflower. 

This is not as odd as it seems. One of my favourite restaurants, Berber&Q roasts cauliflower in slightly milder spices to go as an accompaniment to wood roasted meat. Why not make the cauliflower the main event.

FYI the spices here are: black pepper, cloves cardamom, fenugreek seeds, fennel seeds. cumin seeds, star anise, cinnamon stick, nutmeg, ginger powder, paprika, sumac and salt.