Cardamom Spice, Recipes to Warm a Heart

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Warming and Flavorful Spice for Your Cooking

While better known today because of its addition to Chai drinks and Indian cuisine, cardamom has long been a favorite in Scandinavian kitchens and in my kitchen, too. It add a "je ne sais quoi" to many dishes ranging from the well known Chai beverages to such diverse cuisines as Scandinavian, Indian, and Israeli.

In fact, it is a favored spice in many Middle Eastern recipes, and is sold in open markets there. One of the best places to purchase the spice here in the USA is from an Indian grocery, although Amazon is quick and easy. And most spice displays in your grocery carry it, too. "Decorticated" ground spice seems more flavorful, although you can also buy the pods and grind them yourself.

For me, Christmas baking just isn't the same without my Cardamom rolls and Cardamom spiced cookies. I want to share the delightful and fragrant spice with you, whether it is an old favorite or new to your taste buds.

Scandinavian Cuisine

Cardmom is no secret there...

Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, and Danes all use cardamom in their cuisine. These cooking traditions are world famous for their baking and coffee drinking is part of their culture. It is common to invite people over for coffee and cakes, an intrinsic part of the hospitable culture. Spicing up the cookies or coffee with cardamom can be one of the delightful elements of this repast. (Try a dash of cardamom in your coffee for a real taste treat!)

Cardamom Seeds 14oz (Decorticated Cardamom)



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Nutritionally

Cardamom is a good source of minerals like potassium, calcium, and magnesium.

Cardamom Rolls

not just for Christmas time

Cardamom and Lime: Recipes from the Arabian Gulf

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Middle Eastern Dream Custard

cardamom and rosewater

The Cardamom Plant

True Cardamom

Botanical name: Elettaria cardamomum
Family: Zingiberaceae, the ginger family

Cardamom is native to the monsoon forests of India and Sri Lanka, but is cultivated throughout tropical Asia. Cardamom may be grown as an outdoor perennial in Zones 10 and 11which include southern Florida, Puerto Rico and Hawaii, in most parts of the USA it can only be grown indoors. If you chose to grow a container plant of cardamom, keep it moist, but not soggy. Keep it on a a sunny windowsill ( facing west or south) and give high humidity, by way of a bed of rocks or a mister.

Culinary Cardamom can be either the true or green Cardamom, which is this plant, or its close relative the black Cardamom. Green, this species, has the more desirable, delicate flavor.

"It is fruity, floral, citrussy and pungent, and its essential oil contains cineole, which gives it a dash of warming eucalyptus" - [1]

History notes:
"It's a well-travelled spice, too, believed to have been brought from India to Greece by one of Alexander the Great's soldiers in the fourth century BC, where it was used in both medicinal as well as culinary concoctions. In the ninth century, the Vikings took it from Constantinople to Scandinavia, where it's still a fragrant favourite in baking and even in some versions of pickled herring." [1]

Important!

Fresh Spices Make A Difference

Like most spices,cardamom loses it flavor strength over time. You can refrigerate for longer preservation, but be sure to use your spice and replace it when it seems less potent.

Fabulous Cardamom Cookies

Rich Buttery Cookies

Love Love Love

A choice of cardamom

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Tandoori Chicken

Bakto Flavors Natural Cardamom Extract (1 FL OZ) Pack of 3

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Christmas Cookie

Cardamom Pistachio Cookies

Links To More Cardamom Recipes

Baked Goods

Ground cardamom flavors yeast breads with a sweet,yet refreshing nuance. Cardamom bread,a traditional Swedish baked good, is often flavored with a combination of cardamom and almonds.
Swedish Cardamom Rolls
Raisins, walnuts, orange peel and cardamom give these golden, tender sweet rolls real holiday appeal.
Braided Cardamom Bread (Pulla) Recipe - Saveur.com
This cardamom-spiced bread is eaten with coffee or tea in Finland.
Cooks.com - Recipes - Cardamom Bread
Long list of Cook's recipes for cardamom breads
Not So Humble Pie: Cardamom Shortbread Cookies
Shortbread cookie with amounts adapted to European cooks

Cardamom rolls

What is Cardamom? / Cardamom Rose Water Almond Cookies Recipe
by danieldelaney | video info

46 ratings | 3,150 views
curated content from YouTube

Cardamom Cookies and more

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Your Kitchen Needs

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The everyday pan is one of the most truly useful and beautiful pans you will ever own. I love mine and it really is for "every" day.

The cookie sheets and racks will be ones you remain thankful for- cookies bake to perfection.
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Your Opinion on this Spice

Used to flavor rice pudding, cakes, chutney and crème brûlée, it is included in Indian spice mixtures like Garam Masala. Scandinavians flavor glogg, yule cake or aebleskivers ( apple pancake puffs) with generous sprinklings of Cardamom, too.

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Your Favorite Spice is...

  • TransplantedSoul May 5, 2012 @ 6:24 pm | delete
    Cardomom and Saffron

More about the Health Benefits

Cardamom Spice

  • 1Cardamom is a good source of minerals like potassium, calcium, and magnesium.
  • 2The pods are rich in many vital vitamins including riboflavin, niacin, vitamin C
  • 3Improves digestion and stimulates the metabolism
  • 4Reputedly used in love potions as found in the tales of the Arabian Nights, which make frequent reference to it.
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by

Ilona1

Cardamom is my favorite spice. I put it in my coffee and my cardamom rolls are famous in my family, always a part of our Christmas. more »

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