Luxury seasoning: where to add cardamom to make it worth its price?

Cardamom is a seasoning for real gourmets, one of the three most expensive spices in the world. It has an amazing aroma and taste - both gentle and hot, sharp and soft, with a hint of eucalyptus and camphor. It is refreshing, invigorating and has many beneficial properties.

Cardamom is not only consumed as food, but also used in the production of perfumes.

Cardamom - what is it?

Like ginger and turmeric, cardamom is a member of the ginger family. Only the spice is obtained not from the root, but from the seeds. They are located in small dense pods.

The plant looks like a reed. But cardamom is very whimsical - it grows and ripens only at a certain humidity and temperature. And its seeds are collected only by hand. Therefore, the price for it is relatively high - about 320 rubles per 100 g of grains and 80 rubles per 10 g of ground product.

Motherland

The homeland of cardamom is India. It was from there that it spread throughout the world. In India, cardamom has been and remains very popular. It is included in numerous garam masalas (spicy mixtures), which Indians add literally everywhere: in the first, second, various flatbreads, sauces, etc. They also prepare sweets with the royal spice: carrot halwa, paizam, ladoos, jalebi and others.What can we say if citizens of the country chew cardamom grains on the go instead of chewing gum. And in decent restaurants, aromatic seeds are served on a tray along with the bill - so that the client freshens his breath and removes heaviness in the stomach.

Kinds

There are several varieties of spices. Each type has its own characteristics:

• Real cardamom. It has small seeds and is produced in India. This is exactly the same valuable species with an incredible aroma and taste. Asian and African species have significantly larger seeds and lower quality.
• Green. The most common and universal type. It is distinguished by a bright fresh smell and a rather pungent taste. It is capable of interrupting other odors and dulling the taste of foods, so it is used in cooking in limited doses.
• Black (Bengali, Javanese). It has a resinous smell and notes of smokedness. It is added exclusively to savory dishes.
• White cardamom. It is an artificially bleached green variety of the spice. After processing, it loses its pungency and becomes sweetish.

Cardamom is a well-known aphrodisiac that provokes men and women to love exploits.

Use in cooking

Cardamom is a universal spice. It can be added to any dishes: sweet, salty, meat, mushroom, vegetable, gravy, sauces, sausages, canned food, marinades. It is used in all cuisines of the world.

• Cardamom is invariably present in oriental sweets: almond rolls, baklava, Indian halva, sharotse, green tomato, eggplant, and walnut jam.
• The spice is used in Europe, Russia, and Ukraine for preparing desserts and baked goods: buns, cookies, poppy seed pies, pancakes, gingerbread cookies, milk puddings, and curd spreads.Confectionery perfumes are made with it to flavor dough, fillings and creams for pastries and cakes.
• In England and Germany, beer is brewed with cardamom. It is found in Chartreuse and Curacao liqueurs. Non-alcoholic drinks are also enriched with spices: jelly, compotes, coffee, tea, kvass.
• Cardamom makes excellent marinades for preserving mushrooms, fruits, and vegetables. Sea fish (herring, sprat, etc.) are marinated with it and canned fish are prepared.
• In Western European cuisine, spice is added to dishes with rice and potatoes, soups with legumes: lentils, beans, peas.
• Asian pilaf is prepared with cardamom seeds.
• In the cuisines of many countries, the seasoning is used to prepare veal, lamb, and beef dishes. With it, meat is stewed, fried, baked, boiled, and made into barbecue.
• Sauces for seafood and boiled fish are prepared with spice.
• In industry, cardamom is used to prepare pates and sausages.

Add 0.2–0.3 g of spice to liquid dishes, 0.3–0.5 g to dough and meat, and 0.5 g to sweets (per 1 kg or 1 liter of finished product).

Where do you add ground cardamom?

Cardamom powder is used in cooking even more often than whole seeds. It is added to all of the above dishes. Most often prepared with this spice:

• soups (meat, fish, solyanka);
• gingerbread dough, muffins, cookies, muffins;
• drinks (tea, milk, coffee);
• vegetable and meat stews;
• dishes with meat and fish.

Ground cardamom quickly reveals its taste and aroma. It is added 3 minutes before the dish is ready. It is often used together with other spices: ginger, saffron, different types of pepper, cumin, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and others.

For poultry, mix cardamom with garlic and onions, for baked dishes - with cayenne pepper, fried - with red pepper, for boiled fish - with cumin and saffron, for aspic - with marjoram.

How to use cardamom beans?

Whole seeds, and especially pods, retain their taste and aroma longer. They sound brighter and richer in dishes.

Cardamom beans can be used in different ways:

• add whole to drinks and dishes (broths, sauces, mulled wine, tea). To do this, the pod is cleaned immediately before cooking. The grains are thrown into the dish at the very beginning. They need 15–20 minutes to fully develop their smell and taste. After this, the seeds are most often taken out and thrown away;
• grind in a mortar or grind in a coffee grinder. This is what true gourmets do. They claim that you can feel the real taste of the spice only if it is freshly ground. After grinding, cardamom is used in any dishes: fish, meat, vegetables, desserts, drinks, etc.

And, of course, you can chew the grains to freshen your breath, as the Indians do.

If you want to prepare any folk remedy for an illness, it is better to take cardamom in pods - it has more benefits, and it is much more difficult to replace with other spices than ground.

How to add cardamom to tea?

No one can say for sure how to properly add cardamom to tea. Different recipes do this differently. In India, tea is brewed from a mixture of spices or the seeds are added directly to the drink in the pods.

The easiest and most versatile way to brew tea is to pour 350 ml of boiling water into 1 tbsp. spoon of tea leaves, 1 teaspoon of cardamom (preferably whole seeds) and leave for 15 minutes.

Cardamom tea is drunk not only for pleasure, but also for healing purposes.The seeds are believed to have healing powers. In Rome they were used to treat the consequences of gluttony. Tea helps with flatulence, chronic fatigue, apathy, chills, and sore throat. And in China they say that it adds wisdom.

Recipes

There are about 40 recipes for cardamom tea. We will list only the most popular:

• Tea with milk. Pour 250 ml of water and the same amount of milk into a small saucepan. Bring the liquid to a boil. Add 0.25 teaspoon of grated ginger root, 2 tbsp. spoons of Darjeeling tea and 2 tbsp. spoons of sugar. Cook over low heat for 3 minutes. Add 5 cardamom pods and boil for another 2 minutes. Strain the drink before drinking.
• Green tea with cloves and star anise. Add 2 tbsp to the kettle. spoons of green tea, 2-3 cardamom seeds (or 0.5 teaspoon of ground seasoning), 2 star anise flowers, 3-4 dried cloves. Pour 450 ml of boiling water over the spice mixture. Leave for 15 minutes. Pour through a strainer.
• Traditional Indian tea. Place a container with 400 ml of water and 1 tbsp. spoon of black tea on the fire. Bring to a boil and set aside for 1 minute. Then add 0.5 cups of milk, 2 teaspoons of sugar, 3 boxes of cardamom, 2 black peppercorns, a cinnamon stick, 2 anise stars to the tea. After 3 minutes, turn off the heat and add 2 cloves. Let the drink brew for 10 minutes.

Why is cardamom added to coffee?

Coffee and cardamom seem to be made for each other. The spice perfectly emphasizes the taste and aroma of coffee beans. But they add it not only for smell and taste. It is believed that cardamom seeds reduce the side effects of the drink: tachycardia, high blood pressure, headache.

Surprisingly, tea with cardamom has warming properties, while coffee does the opposite: it can refresh even in the most intense heat.Coffee with cardamom is also called Bedouin. The Bedouins have special coffee pots, the spouts of which are filled with cardamom seeds. A hot drink, when poured into a mug, washes the fragrant grains. As a result, coffee is imbued with aromas, surprisingly fragrant and refreshing in hot weather.

Mix 2 teaspoons of roasted coffee beans and 8-10 cardamom seeds. Grind in a coffee grinder. Pour the ground powder into a Turk, add 120–160 ml of water, stir and simmer over low heat. When foam begins to appear, remove the Turk from the heat and add sugar (at your discretion).

Cardamom is a pleasant, fresh and slightly pungent spice, the taste and aroma of which is liked by many. You can cook absolutely any food and drink with the spice. It is versatile and healthy. The only thing that separates many from regular use of cardamom is the price: real Indian spice in pod boxes is relatively expensive.