Cardamom. What can you tell me about it?

[Amerigo Vespucci]

I have a recipe for Greek Egg & Lemon Soup...it calls for 4 green cardamom pods, crushed, along with lemon zest and bay leaf, all of which get simmered for about 20 minutes in chicken stock before you discard them and add egg.

My concern is that the recipe says "4 green cardamom pods or two whole cloves" and I'm not really a clove fan. How overpowering is cardamom? What's it taste like?

And YES, I know someone's going to say "tastes like chicken" or "tastes like CARDAMOM, you MORAN"...but that's the risk you take when posting a thread like this.

:-)

[Chan790]

1. Cardimom is strong.

Have you ever had chai? Other than the black tea, it's the primary flavor, a bit stronger than the cinnamon. It doesn't taste like cloves though, there are also cloves in chai.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

2. Never had chai...

...but if you had a soup that started with chicken stock, rice, bay leaf and lemon zest, and then finished with lemon juice and eggs, would you use cardamom or cloves? Sounds like cardamom would be the more overpowering of the two.

[freshwest]

3. Check the link, sounds perfect to me:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardamom

Anythin that tastes like Ginger would go well. And provide some heat.
I love chai tea. Great fragrance and taste. Try some, you may like it.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

6. I think I'll try the tea before I buy the pods for the soup

If I know what it tastes like I'll have a better idea of how I'd feel about it in the soup.

:toast:

[Chan790]

8. I'm assuming Jamaican or Indian?

I'd use the cardamom if that's what the recipe calls for. It's a curry spice among other uses. (As an aside, there is no spice called curry. It, like chili powder, is a blend of other spices and most spice purveyors keep their proprietary blend a close-held secret.)

Most people have had cardamom before but don't know it, it's unique in flavor. Used in a lot of "spice" pastries, curries, pickles, aquavit, rice dishes.

A food dictionary I have compares it most closely with eucalyptus with lemony notes, black varieties being more blunt and camphorous.

[XemaSab]

4. Might be hard to find

I know that powdered cardamom is second only to saffron in terms of price.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

7. Yep...saffron is insane. A couple of threads for mucho dinero.

And the best part of the recipe is the variation that calls for cardamom AND saffron. Fortunately, the local Lunardi's sells TINY little packets of spices, so you can actually buy them without taking out a second mortgage.

:-)

[GoCubsGo]

19. Don't buy it powdered.

Buy the seeds and grind them yourself. When you grind it, the oils volatilize and the flavor weakens pretty quickly. Freshly-ground has a stronger flavor, so you can use less. It's also cheaper. The same goes for cumin, coriander, mustard, pepper...any of the seeds.

[Brickbat]

5. I don't think it's like cloves at all. It's like a darker, more savory cinnamon. I have had it only

in sweet recipes, however, such as cardamom bread. I've heard it's good in apple pie as well.

[handmade34]

9. cardamon has unique flavor

(not at all like cloves) ...very good in smoothies... I would go with the cardamon in the soup

I've got quite a bit ... I'll send some pods in an envelope if you want to pm me an address...

[Amerigo Vespucci]

13. Thank you, that's very kind...

...I have a friend who's got practically every spice you can think of, and I asked if she had cardamom and she said yes, so she'll give me what I need.

:toast:

[Swede]

10. I think that was a planet in Star Wars

or possibly Star Trek.

[clyrc]

11. I love cardamom

If you are using cardamom pods, they won't give an overpowering taste.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

14. That was the major concern...thanks for the clarification.

:toast:

[Throd]

12. I hear it it the best way to flatter a mom. "I'll have to see some ID for the beer, young lady".

[MrsBrady]

15. you can probably find it at an indian grocery

I get my whole cumin there and they have all kinds of other things in bulk.

[Aristus]

16. All I know is that cardamom makes Turkish coffee taste heavenly.

Also, I've never noticed a difference in intensity of flavor using whole pods for flavoring, or crushing them in a mortar. Whatever works for you...

[GoCubsGo]

20. It's really good spreinkled over vanilla ice cream, too.

Ground, of course. :-)

[snagglepuss]

17. It's lovely. I used it in curries but that soup sound delish . What I do

is split open the pod and shake the seeds into whatever i'm making. Hard taste to describe.

[surrealAmerican]

18. To me, it tastes like those insanely sweet little ...

... Indian candies that I can never remember the name of.

not at all like cloves

Do be sure to remove the pods when you take the bay leaf out.

[LynneSin]

21. It's important to card a mom - it makes them feel younger and thus happier!!

Just a secret from an ex-bartender

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

22. It's sort of clovish-cinammony but not exactly.

You'll find it in, of all things, julekage (Norwegian Christmas bread). My grandmother used to make julekage, and for years that was the only thing I ever knew of that had cardamom in it. More recently it turned up in a cup of coffee I had an Ethiopian restaurant. Apparently it gets around.

[HopeHoops]

23. Always get it from a "healthfood store" and go for the green ones (flat ocre green).

The tan ones are still okay, but don't have the same flavor. You can also find them in most Indian or Asian food markets. Do NOT use the pod casing. When they say crushed, they mean break the thing open, dump out the seeds, and crush those.

As for taste, there is nothing else like it. It is really strong if you don't use it regularly but much less so if it is a common ingredient. Sort of like garlic and hot sauce - you build up a taste for it. Still, four pods sounds like a lot. Open one and taste a seed. You can probably get away with just one pod's' worth of seeds. If it can take more, add more before adding the eggs. I'm assuming the "disgard them" part doesn't include the crushed cardamom because that's sort of like asking you to remove black pepper from a soup.

Remember: With strong spices, you can always add more to taste, but you can't take it away if you over do it.

[LiberalEsto]

24. It's the secret ingredient in REAL cheese Danishes

and other Scandinavian goodies

[applegrove]

25. Cardamon is the most wonderful flavour. It is in the syrup of gulab jama (an indian dessert).

You can also add about three cardamon pods to tea, uncruched, to zoom up the flavour.

[msanthrope]

26. Use the cardamom. It is far more subtle than the cloves, not bitter.

Find an Indian or Middle Eastern grocery.

You will have to 'peel' the pods--they will have a papery husk, but that isn't tough.

It is delish--a flavor that really is all its own.