Cardamom

Cardamom is a delicious spice that adds a wonderful warm and earthy flavor to dishes, and is perfect to use during the holiday season.

Green cardamom belongs to the ginger family and it originates from South India, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The plant is a reed-like shrub and forms greenish-yellow seed pods on its branches. The pods have three compartments, with each one containing four to eight seeds that simply smell delicious. In the Middle Ages cardamom was known as a genuine treasure and today it is still one of the most expensive spices in the world after saffron and vanilla. The cardamom seeds are a popular coffee spice in Arabia and they also give curry and Asian dishes a special touch. You can either lightly squish the cardamom capsules and let them naturally enhance your dish or you can crush the pods to release the seeds, which can be ground into a powder using a mortar and pestle. Which ever way you add them though, you can be sure of a delicious dish.