Clove. Or in Dutch: kruidnagel, in Swedish: kryddnejlika and Danish: kryddernellike. It appeared in my recipe for stewed cinnamon pears. Clove. A word that makes me think of the Dutch Golden Age, back in the 17th century. Holland ruled the world and spices were brought back to Holland to sell with great profit. Clove. Worth a fortune back then, but do we still use this?? And how does it taste? And where do you actually get it?

Well, the last answer should be easy: the spices section in the supermarket. I wish it was. I think I stood there frozen for about 5 minutes. First the quick scan: clove, clove, clove… no clove. Then the bit slower scan: clove… clove… clove… Arggg!! Still no clove. Where is this stupid clove! Ok, one by one… Damn there is a lot of spices… The other people shopping must have thought I was hypnotized by the spices. Last one… no clove. Oi… Did it miss it? Well, I am not going through them one by one again! Screw the clove!! ;-)

Lack of time… yes, seriously… prevented me from searching in more shops for the clove. The pears had to stew for at least 3 and a half hours, so it was all (without the clove) or nothing if I wanted to eat the stewed pears that evening. And to be honest, I don’t think it mattered that much. Or I would be surprised if it did. As the stewed cinnamon pears, made without clove, turned into a lovely desert! Served with some ice-cream and some sauce the pears where stewed in; Jammie! Maybe even more “Jammie” with the cloves next time! :-)

Stewed cinnamon pears with ice-cream

This entry was posted on Friday, December 16th, 2005 at 23:09 and is filed under Food & drink. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.