August 17th Cooking With Cardamom

The recent food challenge over at Foodlovers.co.nz had one of the ingredients as Cardamom. My reaction was Carda ...MOM!!  Carda...MOM!!   I certainly had heard of Cardamom, but to use cardamom as an ingredient would definitely be a new experience for me. I nearly hyperventilated and thought up excuses why I couldn't cook this week.. I had just got my fingernails to a never before length? I needed to simultaneously watch the clock and outside as the days are getting longer, and out of interest, what time does it get dark now? No excuses seemed to cut the mustard, and the purpose of the food challenge, is to challenge yourself so I had to woman up, pull the granny undies up to my chin and go where I hadn't gone before.. and cook and/or bake with Cardamom.

There is powdered variety of Cardomom (not so good apparently as it can contain a lot of husks), or the pods. So my trepidation was not only finding a recipe, but also trying to find the pods. I was pleasantly surprised at the weekly shop at Rak n Rave (formally known as Pak n Save), to find the cardamom pods on sale - that was unexpected

Recipe wise.... I then stumbled upon a website when I went a-googling and around 3 years ago they had an actual competition with cardamom as a necessary ingredient. Trolling through, I came upon not one but two recipes I would like to try. On the savory side, a Chicken Curry which had cardomom, fresh ginger, cinnamon, coriander and turmeric amongst the ingredients. On the sweet side a Biscotti. I have been meaning to attempt to make my own Biscotti. The recipe I found was a Cardamom and Crystallised Ginger Biscotti.  Both recipes were sensational.

As for Cardamom... it is going to be a staple in my pantry from now on. The scent of the Cardamom is just beautiful. When baking the Biscotti, I wish I could have captured the smell that wafted through the house

When is technology going to allow us to share not only photos but smells?