The Spice is Right: Discover Cardamom
Creative cooks find delicious new uses for this ancient, aromatic herb.
December/January 2009
By William Woys Weaver
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The papery green pods of true cardamom contain aromatic seeds, prized for cooking.
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Cardamom Recipes:
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Once considered one of the world’s most precious spices—reserved for holidays, weddings and other special occasions—cardamom is captivating a new generation of admirers. With a hint of clove, the spiciness of ginger, and overtones of vanilla and citron, cardamom can add layers of complex, subtle flavor to any dish.
Native to the monsoon forests of southern India and Sri Lanka, true cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) is a perennial herb and member of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae. Like ginger, cardamom has a fleshy rhizome and long, lance-shaped leaves. Delicate white flowers appear at the base of the tall plants in springtime, giving way to green seed pods (or fruits) in autumn. Within the papery pods are cardamom’s prized seeds, richly aromatic and intensely flavored. Many other cardamoms (mostly Amomum spp.)—including Cambodian, Bengal, Siamese and Java—grow throughout Asia and Australia, but these black-podded types lack the complex flavor of true cardamom.
Because of its woodland origins, cardamom proved a perfect shade-loving secondary crop for tea and coffee plantations, and the spice has been a favorite flavoring for both beverages for centuries. In Arabic countries, cardamom commonly is ground and brewed with coffee, while in India, it often is added to tea.
Growing Cardamom at Home
Cardamom can be grown as an outdoor perennial only in Zones 10 and 11 (southern Florida, Puerto Rico and Hawaii). Elsewhere, grow this tropical herb in a pot. I maintain a large pot of cardamom given to me some 30 years ago by an elderly plant collector who was downsizing her possessions. To be honest, that plant has thrived on abuse. It even froze once and came back from its rhizomes without extra pampering.
True to its original habitat, cardamom prefers rich, woodsy soil, filtered shade and room to grow. If pot-bound, it often refuses to flower, so you must keep dividing the plant and passing it out to friends (a great gift, by the way). Even if your plant does not bloom, you will have an abundant supply of fragrant leaves, which I find as desirable as the spice itself.
Cardamom does not like chilly weather, so move your plant indoors in fall, as soon as the temperature drops into the 40s. It will thrive on a sunny windowsill, especially if you mist it
periodically, or shower it in the bathtub from time to time. In the wild, cardamom thrives on abundant rain; a potted cardamom also needs ample moisture, but it won’t tolerate poor drainage, which can cause the rhizomes to rot. To improve drainage, simply mix some sand into the potting soil.