Day 4: all spice
I need to take a minute here to reflect on this dear little ingredient - the all spice. I pottered well into my twenties believing all spice and mixed spice were one in the same and I can safely assume, in fact I know, on occasion - that I would have muddled these up in some recipes convincing myself so. Then about a year after meeting my husband Marcin, we went to his hometown in Poland and his Mum cooked up feasts for the entire five days we stayed. I have never felt more barrel-shaped than I did that week. Waddling about on a high-protein - high-starch diet consisting of slow cooked meats, potatoes and an array of side-salads, which were often mayo-rich. I really began to think that perhaps vegetarianism was something scowled upon in Poland, and that one would probably have to live in isolation or emigrate to enjoy a meat-free diet, but then it become quite obvious I was being given extra special treatment and this wasn’t, in fact, every-day food.
Anyway, I digress - as usual. There was a mellow, warming and comforting flavour in many of the dishes I was eating - something I hadn’t come across before in savoury food. And, I kept crunching down on these these little - slightly larger than peppercorn-sized - balls, which I then realised were responsible for gifting this unique flavour. To cut the story short, you sigh in relief, this was all spice - in it’s original whole, berry form - and they have become a staple in my kitchen since. They are great added to stews, stocks and soups and when used whole offer a controlled depth of warm-spice that elevate the simplest of dishes.
Nigella’s Carbonnade a La Flamande
Slow cooked meat - in beer. Sold. After claiming to have such a long history with all spice, when it came to making Nigella’s Carbonnade a La Flamande I didn’t even have it in ground form. I considered subbing for whole ones but to match the intensity of 2 teaspoons of ground I would need probably a good handful, and I might as well say this now - I really don’t like my eating interrupted. And by that, I mean spending time fussily fishing through for the smaller, pellet-sized inedibles, missing one and then crunching down to an unpleasant taste as you take a mouthful. It puts me in a bad mood, but I’m working on this!
If I had some cheese cloth, I would have made a kind of all-spice teabag or, even, grounded it myself - but I feared I’d not get it fine enough and we’d have the same issue with unwanted crunch. Using ground all spice though, as in this recipe, seemed to add an almost chilli/pepper-like kick - one I don’t think you achieve using in whole form. A very pleasant taste; tender beef (which, against recommendation, I did sub for braising steak) with the warm, rich flavours of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and pepper (from the allspice).
Nigella’s Carbonnade a La FLamande was a breeze to prepare, and then simply left in a moderate oven for several hours to work its magic.
Flavour musings
The peppery heat really shone through from the all spice, further amplified by pungent sweet heat from cloves and the deep comfort of cinnamon. It really is a great spice. Note, braising steak is no real substitute for shin of beef, but - I did cut it against the grain for maximum bite-size tenderness.
It’s not the conventional stew/casserole I cook in the house - so I consider this very much another success in adding variety to our table.
