Today I bought cardamom for the first time in my life. I don’t know what it is, but now I own some. I bought it because I got suckered once again into buying one of those Skinny Fool coffee add-ins that sounds good and turns out to be a syrup of artificial sweetener and almost nothing else; the one that caught me this time was a Chai Spice flavor. And I DID like the chai spice part! But that was like 1% of it, and the other 99% of it was Artificial Sweetener; I couldn’t add as much chai spice flavor as I wanted without having about 99 more times artificial sweetener than I wanted. I wondered: could I just add the chai spices to my coffee, without the Skinny or the Fool? Hey, maybe it would work to brew my coffee using one of my many, many chai spice tea bags? But then I thought WAIT: I could do this in a way that expends more money and effort! Anyway now I have cardamom.
Right after buying the cardamom, I remembered why it sounded so familiar: my boss was telling us the other day about a recipe she made that she was never going to make again. She mentioned that she spent eight dollars on cardamom and used a teaspoon of it, and that if any of us ever needed cardamom we should let her know and she would be happy to bring us some.
I order chai or masala tea (which is cardamom heavy) to go from an Indian restaurant when I’m craving one. So good, easy, and better than anything I can conjure at home. We have a bunch of places near us, and they’re all good, although slightly different from one another. Now I want to order Indian for dinner.
D’OH!
Haha I have made cardamom rolls (similar to cinnamon rolls) and while I loved them, they were not a hit with the children so now I have a lot of cardamom to share as well.
If you’re ever in the DC metro area, I invite you to come see my powdered ginger collection
LOL!
The best chai I ever made was using chai spices from a specialty tea shop (https://www.teasource.com/products/teasource-chai-spice-blend-chai-tea)
You mix 1 tbsp. (or more*) of the spice with a can of sweetened condensed milk and it makes a “chai goop” that you keep in the fridge and then add a spoonful or two to a cup of freshly brewed black tea. *You can make the goop as spicy as you like.
I wanted to add that you can also use the “chai goop” in coffee. Done that, very good.
Just ordered this and am so excited to try it! Love chai tea lattes but not the price at coffee shops.
Now I want to order tea and have gotten completely overwhelmed by the selection. This happened the last time I wanted to order tea too. Well that and the tea website felt very colonialism was great, actually. This feels less that but still assam? oolong? first flush? WHAT???
I’m also supposed to be doing something not shopping for tea right now and reading the “learn about tea” section feels like it could be helpful but will only take more time. Sigh.
Cardamom is actually a really nice spice that can go into things when you use cinnamon. I has a nice warming flavor.
I have made both these cookies: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1014116-cardamom-walnut-crescents
and these buns: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020437-swedish-cardamom-buns
and this chicken: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1013537-braised-chicken-thighs-with-chile-cinnamon-cardamom-and-coriander
It is sometimes nice to have a new spice…
I have used this recipe with great success. I never have rose petals and skip that. Sometimes I add allspice or something. And I’ve been drinking tea so I brew it in/with tea but in the past Ive made something similar steeped in milk, strained and refrigerated and then I would brew a cup of tea and add this (sweetened with honey) instead of plain milk. Should work in coffee just fine that way and lasted a while in the fridge. I’d make a gallon or so at a time . If you bought ground cardamom, a little goes a long way. Start small, like 1/4 teaspoon, in the pot, toast with the other spices, see how you like it and go from there.
https://masalaandchai.com/chai-concentrate/#recipe
I love this lemon cardamom loaf! I usually skip the glaze as it’s more work than it’s worth. The unglazed loaf disappears faster than almost any other baked goods in my house. https://thespicetrain.com/lemon-cardamom-cake/
This recipe looks delicious, yum!
I love cardamom! I often use it instead of cinnamon because if I mix the two it gets overpowered by the cinnamon. It goes well in a lot of Indian dishes, but really shines in peach desserts. I find it pairs well with candied ginger.
We sprinkle cinnamon and turmeric on top of our coffee grounds before brewing. I bet cardamom would be good, too. Will add that tomorrow morning.
It is! My mom bought a Christmas coffee blend that included cardamom and it was very tasty!
Cardamom is my MOST FAVORITE spice, yummm! If I could bathe in the smell of it I would!
I make this Chai tea concentrate and it’s very good. You can add ground cardamom instead of the pods. Also, instead of the vanilla bean, I usually add vanilla extract after the mixture has cooled. It’s less expensive and I almost always have the extract on hand.
https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/homemade-chai-tea-recipe/
There is a little bakery near our home that makes cardamom rolls, kind of like cinnamon rolls only their’s are more like a pastry than a yeast roll. SO good. To me, the flavor is more delicate than the cinnamon.
This is lovely if you like cardamom and sesame (I love both): https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-drink/recipes/129338875/tahini-and-cardamom-cookies-recipe
Oh cardamom is my favorite! I will use cardamom and nutmeg in any dessert recipe that calls for cinnamon because while I think cinnamon is okay, I LOVE cardamom and nutmeg. I make these brown butter cookies with spiced brown butter filling that are just ridiculously good, they’re my best friend’s AND my kid’s favorite cookies ever.
Oh, whoops!!!
Cardamom is delicious. I use it in my pumpkin soup. It is great in hot cocoa and coffee.
Something similar happened to me with saffron. Saffron is so expensive.
I do love cardamom, and yes, making my own blends for chai is so simple and I prefer to make them far less sweeter than the syrupy mixes sold
In stores.
I get all my spices online from Penzey’s, and somehow I have wound up with three jars of tarragon. I mean, I USE tarragon, it’s not like I have never heard of it, but it will probably take me years to finish this.
I actually need to put in an order (vanilla, cumin, rosemary, garlic powder) but no tarragon!
The Now Curry from Penzey’s is also delicious if you ever use curry powder!
I am overrun with nutmeg, though in my case it was my husband who wanted some minute quantity of nutmeg during the couple-of-times-a-year he cooks something that’s not on the BBQ and goes out and buys a fresh tin each and every time.
I appreciate the impulse to do a simple, inexpensive thing in a complicated and expensive way. This is my usual approach to life— and, especially, to teaching.
This made me laugh, because my violin teacher used to berate me (in a loving way) for ALWAYS choosing the most complicated way of playing something… he’d laugh and say “You know the positions are invented to make things EASIER, right?”
Me, your non-cooker friend, going to google “cardamom” lol
I commend your adventurousness. :) I feel fancy when I add peppermint or coconut to my coffee. Anything else gives me a little panic.
And now I know if I need cardamom, I will just let you know :)
Ha! I do this too. More often I just buy something without really THINKING about it. Which is why I now have two full containers of smoked paprika when I do not LIKE smoked paprika and meant to buy regular paprika which we continue to be out of.
I have made Swedish cardamom buns before (and they were fine, but I didn’t like them as much as cinnamon buns) (the novelty of making/trying them made it worthwhile though). I also made these chai sugar cookies in December, and they were DELICIOUS: https://joythebaker.com/2021/11/taylor-swifts-chai-sugar-cookies/#tasty-recipes-41630-jump-target At 1/4 teaspoon of cardamom per batch, they will not eat away at your stores very quickly, but they really are so good. And I have a couple of savory recipes that use cardamom, but otherwise I don’t find that I use it often.
Did you buy cardamom pods or ground? I like using the pods with other whole spices in Indian Spice Rice. I couldn’t find this recipe online, but it’s adapted from Good Housekeeping magazine. My kids enjoy picking out the whole spices themselves from the rice.
Ingredients: 1 Tbl vegetable oil, 2 cinnamon sticks, 10 whole black peppercorns, 6 whole cardamom pods, 4 whole cloves, 1 tsp cumin seeds, 1 cup regular long-grain (basmati) rice, 1 3/4 cup water (check rice package), 1/4 tsp salt.
Directions: In a 2-qt saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add spices and cook until they begin to darken and pop. Add rice and cook, stirring for 1 minute. Stir in water and salt and heat to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat, cover and simmer, without lifting lid or stirring, until rice is tender and all liquid has been absorbed, 15 minutes, or as rice package indicates. Remove from heat and let stand (covered) for 5 minutes. Remove whole spices (or after serving) and fluff rice with fork. Serves 4.
We made a similar recipe from Cook’s Illustrated (it was attached to their butter chicken recipe in the magazine), so good! and also was like, “remove spices,” after the rice was cooked and who is doing that? Needle/haystack if you ask me. Instead we would occasionally go, “WHAT??” and pull out a crush cardamom pod or clove.
I sometimes make rice pudding with leftover rice and chai spices (I just plop ’em in, cinnamon, turmeric, ginger…) and this rice was a lighter version of that. Excellent with the butter chicken. We might try it with the chicken curry we make (Chetna Makan, on you tube or Deb at Smitten Kitchen did it too, slightly adapted)
I loooove cardamom! I’ve made a Finnish cardamom sweet bread called nisu every Christmas for the past 30 odd years, and when I was in college I actually infused some alcohol with cardamom pods and used it as perfume for awhile.
WHOOPS
I occasionally sprinkle cardamom in my coffee, like you might cinnamon, and it’s delicious. It will not quickly use up a bottle, though. I have been toying with the idea of cardamom cookies, which might use more? And now I’m thinking about the bottle in my own cabinet and the possibility of cardamom cookies this weekend…
If it’s pods you can just crush them lightly (push on them with your hand on a flat surface until they crack) and then drop them into a cup of tea at the same time as the leaves/bag. I use black English tea and two pods is about right for a mug of tea. Best with milk and sugar. Delicious!
I have made pistachio paste with cardamom, which is delicious as well. I’ll try find the recipe.
This is one of the strangest cookies I’ve ever made. It has so many interesting steps I’d never had to do before and frankly, it’s a bit of a PITA. Oh, but the magenta glaze is so very pretty and delicious, and the almond flour cookie is satisfyingly chewy. For a chocolate-free cookie, we mow them down at a surprising pace. And yes, it will use up a few tiny particles of cardamom: https://www.thekitchn.com/gluten-free-cranberry-glazed-almond-cookies-recipe-23102345
One side effect of the pandemic is that I have developed a wing-it cooking style that gets deployed more often than formal recipes do these days. I tend to lean on more familiar spices when I’m winging it– things where I know I know what the flavor result is likely to be if I just shake things in without measuring. I’m not that far along with cardamom. I have it and use it a few times a year when it’s an ingredient in something I’m trying. I’m good with as a flavor–I just don’t have it far enough into my repertoire to use it without a recipe. I say look for recipes that feature it that you think sound good, and experiment.