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10 Great uses for Cardamom |
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Cardamom is an extremely versatile spice that is used in both sweet and savory cooking. It should be an essential store cupboard staple that can be used to add a touch of exotic flavor to bland dishes. There are two main types of cardamom that are used for cooking – whole pods, and ground cardamom. The pods are fairly expensive and tend to be used more sparingly. In fact, cardamom is one of the world’s most expensive spices, after saffron and vanilla. Ground cardamom is used a lot in baking, especially in bread and cake recipes, but also in buns, biscuits, flans and pies. In fact, cardamom can be used in everything from main dishes to desserts, and drinks to cocktails.
Here are just some of the recipes and foods that will benefit
from the addition of cardamom. |
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1 Smoothies |
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Add some cardamom to fruit smoothies to give them an extra edge. It doesn’t matter what flavor the basic smoothie is – in fact, the more exotic the better. Mango, pineapple and guava are particularly good matches for this heady spice. |
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2 Fruit loaves |
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If you want to jazz up your banana bread or add a bit of life
to your tired fruit loaf recipe, then a touch of ground cardamom will make a
world of difference. Just add the spice when you are mixing in the rest of
the dry ingredients and you will get a lovely warm, rich flavor from the
finished loaf. |
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3 Bread |
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As with fruit loaves, a sprinkling of cardamom will do wonders for your bread rolls and loaves. Don’t worry about the cardamom turning savory breads into sweet; the spice will just a hint of warmth to the flavor and you can add as little or as much as you like, depending on taste. |
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4 Puddings |
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Many desserts benefit from the addition of cardamom – rice pudding works especially well, but you could also try adding a little ground cardamom to ice cream, set custards, yogurt, and baked fruit. |
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5 Casseroles |
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A few pods added to a casserole dish will give a lamb, chicken or vegetable casserole an extra zing and makes a great entertaining or moving house meal. |
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6 Rice |
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A lot of people a couple of bruised cardamom cloves to the pan when they cook rice. It adds a subtle flavor to the rice, which works really well with Indian curries and vegetable dishes. You can do with any kind of rice – basmati, brown, white, etc and it also works well with rice dishes like pilaff and biryani. |
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7 Roast meat |
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Cardamom is strong enough to hold its own with any grilled or roasted meat and yet it only adds to, and never detracts from, the main flavor of the recipe. Try adding a few pods to the roasting pan. The juices will make fantastic gravy once the meat has cooked. |
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8 Soups |
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Spices always work well with soup, but have you tried cardamom yet? As it works equally well with sweet and savory dishes, you can experiment with any kind of soup – try it with carrot and coriander, or a chunky root vegetable soup. |
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9 Tea |
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Yes, that’s right; a couple of cardamom pods can transform a cup of tea into an exotic drink. Chai tea traditionally includes cardamom, as well as a number of other spices, but you can create your own drink based on your favourite flavors. Hot milk has a natural affinity to warm spicy ingredients and cardamom is no exception. Cardamom tea recipe. |
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10 Breath freshener |
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Popping a cardamom pod in your mouth can help get rid of unwanted food smells and give your breath a nice, fresh odour. It makes a change from chewing gum and is great to chew after a spicy meal. |
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That’s just a small selection of the uses of this gorgeous spice and it’s easy to see why it’s loved all around the world and has made its mark on so many cuisines. Once you’ve tried adding cardamom to your dishes on a regular basis, you will be hooked on its subtle flavor and warm tones. Try mixing it with other spices or adding different amounts of it to dishes, until you’ve worked out the ideal amounts for your favorite recipes. Begin with just a pinch in a bread or cake recipe, or a pod in with casseroles or stews and work up from there. |
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| Buying Cardamom Spice | |||||
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