Herbs and Spices Untitled Document

Cardamom

Kardemumma

Plant Description

Spice: Cardamom (or cardamon) is used for herbs within two genera of the ginger family Zingiberaceae, namely Elettaria and Amomum.
Elettaria (commonly called Cardamom, Green Cardamom, or True Cardamom) is distributed from India to Malaysia.
Amomum (commonly known as Black Cardamom, Brown Cardamom, Kravan, Java Cardamom, Bengal Cardamom, Siamese Cardamom, White or Red Cardamom) is distributed mainly in Asia and Australia.

Season:

Uses in Cooking:

Sweet and aromatic, cardamom has been used for millennium to flavor cakes, cookies, pastries, breads, curries, custards and punches. It is as popular today as ever with cooks and bakers alike.

Elettaria cardamomum (the usual type of cardamom) is used as a spice.
Amomum is used as a spice and as an ingredient in traditional systems of medicine
In South Asia green cardamom is often used in traditional Indian sweets and in tea.
In the Middle East and Turkey, green cardamom powder is used as a spice for sweet dishes as well as traditional flavoring in coffee and tea.
In Northern Europe, cardamom is commonly used in sweet foods. It has also been known to be used for making gin. is a common ingredient in Indian cooking, and is often used in baking in Nordic countries.

Possible Substitutes:

Coriander
Ginger

How it comes:

Spice Mixes

Cardamom comes as small, dark-colored pods that contain seeds that you need to crush in order to flavor foods. They have a gingery-lemon, aromatic flavor. The recommended way of buying it is as whole pods but they are available as seeds and ground.

Garam Masala
Advieh/Bāhrāt

Other Uses:

In South Asia green cardamom, is broadly used to treat infections in teeth and gums, to prevent and treat throat troubles, congestion of the lungs and pulmonary tuberculosis, inflammation of eyelids and also digestive disorders.