Spice (24 page)
Authors: Ana Sortun
A
LLSPİCE
, C
İNNAMON, AND
N
UTMEG
These three fragrant spices—which I sometimes refer to as “pumpkin pie seasonings”—blend well together and can be used almost interchangeably, as they lend similar warm, earthy, and sweet qualities to a dish. Cinnamon, however, may not always work as a substitute for allspice or nutmeg.
Allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg are extremely strong and must be used carefully. They are delicious in dishes with squash and pumpkin, raw beef, stewed beef or lamb, and legumes like chickpeas. They perk up rice pilafs or rice stuffings and marry nicely with nuts or mushrooms. Because these spices add warmth, they work well in fall and winter preparations.
A
LLSPİCE
Allspice is the dried and cured, unripe berry from the tropical evergreen pimento tree. Some of the best allspice grows in Jamaica, where strict harvest laws and curing regulations keep the quality consistent. Its flavor is reminiscent of clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg; it gives pumpkin pie its unique taste, and it gives Jamaican jerk that distinct flavor. Allspice is also used in the Scandinavian preparation for pickled herring.
Combined with black pepper, allspice is great on red meat. In Arabic cooking, it flavors rice dishes, raw meat
köfte
(similar to the French steak tartare), vegetables, and chicken broths.
Use ground allspice, unless you are flavoring a broth or pickles and want to remove the berries. The allspice berry contains a lot of natural oil and can be revived easily if it has been sitting on a shelf too long. See tips for reviving spices on page 3.
C
İNNAMON
Cinnamon comes from the rolled, paper-thin layers of inner bark from a tropical evergreen tree related to the avocado and sassafras. The bark can be found ground or in whole quills or sticks, ranging from 3 inches to 3 feet. Although it grows wild in places such as the Seychelles and Indonesia, true cinnamon comes from Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), where they are serious about harvesting and sorting quality.
When the spice is ground, the perfume is sweet and pleasantly woody. Cinnamon is often confused with cassia, which grows mostly in Asia. Cassia’s flavor is strong and slightly bitter, but pure cinnamon is not bitter at all. In England, it is illegal to sell cassia as cinnamon; in France the word
canele
means both cinnamon and cassia; in the United States, there are no restrictions on the labeling of cinnamon or cassia. You might find cassia labeled “baker’s cinnamon.”
Whole cinnamon is difficult to grind yourself, so I suggest keeping some ground cinnamon on hand. You can use whole cinnamon to flavor broths, ciders, hot chocolate, chutneys, and dishes in which the sticks are easy to remove before eating.
Like allspice and nutmeg, cinnamon flavors both sweet and savory preparations and lends its distinct taste to apple strudel and Mexican chocolate. It’s combined with saffron in North African dishes and with garlic and lamb in Greek moussaka. A mixture of cinnamon, cumin, and allspice added to rice, sweet and hot peppers, and red meat makes for delicious dolmas, or stuffed grape leaves.
A good online source for true Ceylon cinnamon can be found at www.penzeys.com.
N
UTMEG
Nutmeg has the strongest and sweetest flavor of the three spices in this chapter. It is the seed of a fruit from a tropical evergreen tree that grows in many hot-climate countries.
Nutmeg and mace are often confused. Mace is actually the placenta of the nutmeg. It has a lighter, subtler flavor and is much more expensive. A ripe nutmeg looks like a small nectarine but is very sour and almost inedible. When a nutmeg is broken apart, the mace is blood-red and turns dark orange after drying. The mace is removed from the nutmeg and then processed separately. It is rare to find the mace still attached to the nutmeg.
Although you can buy ground nutmeg, it is often stale, so I prefer to grate whole nutmeg. I use the tiny-gauge side of a box grater, which can also be used as a zester. You can also use the long, single-sided handheld graters that are used to grate Parmesan cheese. In any case, the grater’s holes should be small enough to powder the nutmeg. Hold the nutmeg between your thumb and first three fingers, being careful to grate the nutmeg and not your fingers. Also, you can find grinders or mills made especially for whole nutmeg at kitchen shops and through online sources, such as www.amazon.com.
Nutmeg flavors eggnog, but it is also the perfect perk for the classic béchamel, Mornay, or white sauce. It adds a sweet, caramel fragrance to tomato-based pasta sauces (with or without meat), winter squashes, spinach, and cakes and pies.
PEELING AND SEEDING TOMATOES
Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil over high heat. Meanwhile, cut off the tops of the tomatoes, and then score them with your knife by running a shallow slit from the top to the bottom. Add the tomatoes to the boiling water, and let them sit in the water for 45 seconds to 1 minute, or until the slits start to separate and the skin pulls away from the flesh. Drain the tomatoes immediately and plunge them into ice water or cool them under running cold water. Peel the skins off and cut the tomatoes in half. Remove as much seed as possible and squeeze them gently in your hand to drain off some of the water.
RECIPES WITH ALLSPICE, CINNAMON, AND NUTMEG
S
QUASH
K
İBBEH WİTH
B
ROWN
B
UTTER AND
S
PİCED
F
ETA
C
HİCKPEA AND
P
OTATO
T
ERRİNE
S
TUFFED WİTH
P
İNE
N
UTS
, S
PİNACH
, O
NİON, AND
T
AHİNİ
C
RANBERRY
B
EANS
S
TEWED WİTH
T
OMATO AND
C
İNNAMON
S
WİSS
C
HARD
D
OLMAS WİTH
A
YFER’S
R
İCE
H
ALİBUT
C
OOKED İN
M
İLK WİTH
C
İNNAMON
, F
RİED
A
LMONDS, AND
S
PİNACH
B
LACK
K
ALE
M
ALFATİ İN
C
HESTNUT
S
OUP WİTH
M
OSCATO
W
İNE
P
OACHED
F
İGS İN
S
PİCED
R
ED
W
İNE WİTH
C
RÉME
F
RA CHE
B
AVARİAN
P
ERSİMMON
P
UDDİNG
C
AKE WİTH
M
APLE
S
UGAR
C
RÈME
B
RÛLÉE
Squash Kibbeh with Brown Butter and Spiced Feta
This version of
kibbeh
(Arabic) or
köfte
(Turkish) is simple to make. The kibbeh is baked and steamed, which gives it the consistency of a dumpling: soft and pliable with a creamy center. I mold the kibbeh in a jumbo espresso cup, stuff it with spiced cheese, and then bake it in the oven just before serving. Then I invert the espresso cups to remove the kibbeh before serving. I love the spices in the feta combined with the brown butter and squash flavors.
The kibbeh is a wonderful accompaniment to rich red meat—such as beef sausage or rib eye or a gamy entrée like pheasant or venison. You can make the squash purée, kibbeh, and filling ahead of time (up to 3 days) and assemble and bake them right before serving.
I prefer red kuri squash for this recipe because it’s dense and contains very little water. The goal here is to choose a squash that makes a very creamy purée. Butternut squash is a good substitute for red kuri, although the flavor is more delicate and the kibbeh will be softer.