Spooky Spices: You know they are lurking there: Way in the back of your spice drawer. There lie the herbs, spices, or rubs that are getting dusty because you’re afraid to use them… you simply don’t know what to do with them! Well, pull them out and show us a recipe you created to deliciously conquer that fearful spice. (Or maybe the recipe was a flop – and the spice still give you nightmares?!)
Despite living in a big city with easy access to shops, I tend to stock pile pantry items – like herbs, spices and rubs. There are also always baking basics, tinned tomatoes and tinned beans in my pantry. This month’s Recipe ReDux topic, spooky spices, inspired a good old pantry clean out, where I discovered a tin of NOMU Moroccan Rub I got as a free gift with an online order. I do like to cook with herbs & spices, but tend to stick to Mediterranean flavours – parsley, oreganum, thyme, basil… The Moroccan rub is a combo of cumin, coriander, parsley, cinnamon, chilli, ginger, nutmeg, turmeric, cloves, orange oil, salt & pepper – some distinct flavours. Other than sprinkled over roasted vegetables I haven’t really known what to do with it. Another cooking fear I’ve been working on conquering is cooking fish. Cooking fish usually falls to my husband, unless extremely simple – steamed with avocado oil & fish spice or grilled.
I was lucky enough to meet Sarah Graham from A Foodie Lives Here last month and spend a day cooking and enjoying some of her lovely recipes. So armed with some of Sarah’s recipes as a base (from the NOMU August 2013 recipe cards) I was excited to conquer my ‘spooky spice’. And here is the delicious result:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tin chopped & peeled tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
- 1 teaspoon garlic, crushed
- ½ teaspoon fish spice
- 2 - 3 teaspoons NOMU Moroccan Rub
- ½ teaspoon crushed dried chillies (optional)
- salt & pepper, to season
- 2 firm white fish fillets (I used hake), approx 200 g
- drizzle of olive oil
- 1 tin cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
- juice of half a lemon, or to taste
- fresh flat-leaf parsley, to garnish
- Heat half the olive oil in a saucepan, add the tinned tomatoes, ginger, garlic, fish spice and 1 teaspoon of NoMU Moroccan Rub. Add chilli (optional), season to taste with salt & pepper and stir well to combine. Allow to simmer for 5 minutes.
- Sprinkle 1-2 teaspoon NoMU Moroccan Rub onto the fish fillet, drizzle with the other ½ tablespoon olive oil and into the tomato sauce. Cover with a lid and leave the fish to steam for 8-10 minutes or until the flesh just starts to flake apart with a fork.
- Meanwhile drizzle some olive oil into a small saucepan and add the cannellini beans. Warm through, season to taste with salt & pepper, add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, to taste, and roughly mash.
- Serve immediately with the fish, tomato sauce and garnish with the fresh parsley.
Be sure to check out what other Recipe ReDuxer’s have got up to to this month…
Cheryl x

Thanks so much ladies! I’m feeling much more spice and fish cooking confident, I hope you do too. Cx
OK, that rub sounds DIVINE! I don’t cook with those spices enough – this recipe looks mighty tasty.
This is absolutely delicious and easy to make!!