Day 190 – Nutmeg Love

4

July 8, 2016 – OK, I’ll be honest, I was tired after getting soaked in the rain this morning while I was moving fish around from the hatchery, to my truck, to UBC. Following that I was cleaning and setting up a lab for my course next week. And then it was home to try and get my lectures in order and reformatted into a different program and in a different projector scale. It’s been a week of prep work, and the weekend will see more, and then it’s a full week of teaching, followed by a collapse next weekend probably. I’m knackered.

So it was a random kitchen dig to throw something on a plate for a photo.

But I’m actually pleased with this. I would imagine that not many people have nutmeg in three forms in their kitchen.

I always have ground around for baking, and the whole nutmeg has been a staple for many years. A quick grate of whole nutmeg imparts so much more flavour than the pre-ground stuff, and it’s so good over hot chocolate, buttermilk pie, or in any cream sauce, sweet or savoury. It’s fabulous in any cream based pasta cause.

But the whole seed pods are a new treasure and will probably always stay decorative.

How cool are they!

They remind me of little alien eggs or something.

I bought them in Jamaica this spring, I hadn’t ever seen them like this before. When you shake the pod you can hear the seed rattling around inside.

The pale coloured streaks across the pods, when dried, becomes the spice mace and the entire pod is found inside a fruit. Nutmeg is the seed of the tree, roughly egg-shaped and about 20 to 30 mm (0.8 to 1.2 in) long and 15 to 18 mm (0.6 to 0.7 in) wide, and weighing between 5 and 10 g (0.2 and 0.4 oz) dried, while mace is the dried “lacy” reddish covering or aril of the seed. (Wikipedia)

I know it’s not actually a nut, it’s a seed, but it has “nut” in the name 🙂

Mmmm…nutmeg…chocolate…..a hot chocolate might be a nice little nightcap….

116 Photos in 2016 – 15. Nuts