Description
- In Indian cooking cardamom forms one of the main ingredients of Garam Masala, a combination spice for many vegetarian and non vegetarian dishes. It is also an important ingredient in curry powder which is widely used in Indian cooking.
- Tea and coffee made with cardamom are pleasantly aromatic and refreshing. Try Cardamom the Arabic way and add a little to your ground coffee before brewing, then sweeten and top with cream.
- In India we also tend to associate cardamom with the paan (betel leaf).
- Whole green cardamom pods are as esteemed as the seeds they contain - many pulaos, curries and hot dishes call for cardamom to be added whole. It slowly infuses the dish with its essence and the shell disintegrates as it cools. Hence, is often used to provide aroma to biryanis, pulaos and kebabs.
- Indian desserts like Kheer, phirni etc as well as sweets like gulab jamun, gajar ka halwa etc use cardamom to lend a distinctive flavor. Western desserts like flans, rice pudding and porridge also use this spice.
Cardamom has a strong, unique taste, with an intensely aromatic, resinous fragrance. Black cardamom has a distinctly smokier, though not bitter, aroma with a coolness some consider similar to mint.
