Cardamon
[caption id="attachment_873" align="alignleft" width="258" caption="Cardamom Seeds"]
[/caption]One of my favorite spices that is used in one of my favorite teas from India, called Chai is Cardamom. It is a spicy, aromatic spice that is pungent, intense and sweet all at the same time. It is actually a seed that is related to the ginger family (Zingiberaceae) and is called the Elettaria Cardamomum. These seeds are oval shaped and can be anywhere from a quarter of an inch to one full inch in length. Cardamom is geographically indicative of Guatemala and India. Most people are familiar with Cardamom because of it's association with Indian foods and spice stores.There are two major types of Cardamom in use today and they are Elettaria: We call this Cardamom, Green Cardamom, or True Cardamom and it comes from India and Malaysia. The other type of Cardamom is Amomum: This is generally called Black Cardamom, Brown Cardamom, Kravan, Java Cardamom, Bengali Cardamom, Siamese Cardamom, White Cardamom and Red Cardamom. This type of Cardamom comes mainly from Asia and Australia. Both of these types of Cardamom are used as flavorings in beverages, spice in baked goods and an added ingredient in cooking and as a medicine.
Cardamom is a major constituent in Indian cuisine and is used in many of the hundreds of curry blends from the region. It is widely utilized in the Scandinavian region of the world in the new Scandinavian cuisines and is added to baked goods widely. Now, here is a kicker: The greater majority of Cardamom in the world is used in the Arabic countries as an additive to black tea and coffee's, I have some of the flavored tea in my cupboard and believe me it is delicious!
Cardamom as a medicine has been used throughout all of Asia to help treat infections in the teeth and gums and to aid in ailments of the throat and to treat inflammation and digestive disorders. It has supposedly been used to help in breaking up kidney and gall stones. There is also some claim that Cardamom has been used in the treatment of snake bite and scorpion bites as a anti-venom, although I could not find any information to that fact. Cardamom has also been used in the practice of Ayurveda medicine practiced in India and in traditional Chinese naturopathic medicine. In the past Nepal was the largest producer of Cardamom, but that has changed with Guatemala now being the number one largest producer and exporter of Cardamom to the world. As with most herbs and spices store your Cardamom in an airtight container and keep in a cool, dark and dry place and try to not have the temperature go above 75 degrees F.
Photo Courtesy Of: FotoosVanRobin
Hey Mr. Blaine:
ReplyDeleteI just love your info. I would not have known all this stuff about
cardamon and yet it is a spice that I like and use in my cooking. You
always have interesting info on your site.
Keep up the good work, as I plan to keep on watching.
M.
Glad you stopped by and that you like the info. When it comes to the spices that we use in cooking on a daily basis I think people would like to know more about them than just the fact that you use it for just cooking whatever it is that they are cooking. I like being complete!
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