Tons of Cardamom Pods

[ziggylu]

A miscommunication between husband and myself has resulted in quite an excess of cardamom pods...probably a couple cups worth.

Any ideas on what to do with so much? Savory applications preferred to sweet...

[Ora]

Make a batch of Garam Masala -- Julie Sahni's version is excellent on lamb and other meats.
Garam Masala Spice Mix -- http://www.funhouse.com/~jfw/dinner/garam_masala.html

Cardamom Tea is popular -- http://www.plantcultures.org/activiti...

[lintygmom]

Many Swedish breads are traditionally made with cardamom. Excellent with cheese!
An example (and you'll easily find more):
http://recipes.epicurean.com/recipe/2...

[bakergal]

I know you don't want sweet things, but I have to mention this, because it's so good. Drain some yogurt until it gets nice and thick. Then stir in sugar, ground cardamom, and a touch of vanilla. It's heaven. You can garnish with mango slices. Or chopped (shelled) pistachios. If you don't have a grinder, use a mortar and pestle and sieve the pieces.

[ziggylu]

We actually did this yesterday morning for breakfast. I was making an apricot baklava and had leftover apricot/pistachio filling so we tossed some in some greek yogurt with some ground cardamom and it was delicious! I ended up making a second batch of apricots and pistachios just for this purpose for work breakfasts this week.

[Quine]

Share with lucky family, friends and co-workers?

[brieonwheat]

One of my favorite dishes is Madhur Jaffrey's lamb with whole spices, which calls for about 10 cardamom pods. It's in her Introduction to Indian cooking.

[kodothedrum]

They are wonderful "breath mints" ... pop one in your mouth and suck it for a few minutes before biting into it. Incredible & lovely breath freshener! Black, green or even "gold" seeds are good. Try it.

[Louise]

It also depends what type of cardamom it is. There are black, white, and green.

[ziggylu]

These are green pods

[Cynsa]

Turkish coffee made with a whole cardamom pod is just wonderful!

[Miss Needle]

That reminds me about chai tea. I absolutely love homemade chai.

[wearybashful]

It doesn't have to be Turkish coffee. I open a couple of pods and throw them in with the coffee in my drip coffee maker, almost every morning. I think this is pretty standard in the Middle East.

[MMRuth]

I some times grind a pod or two with my coffee beans and then make the coffee in my french press.

I also think I saw a recipe featured on chow - sticky buns or something like that with cardamom.

[don giovanni]

Oh yeah! Good idea. I've had some excellent pastries that were sort of like cinnamon rolls, except they were cardamom rolls. It's so good!

[Miss Needle]

It would be great to throw in a few pods when you cook some rice. Very aromatic. If you cook Indian food, they're terrific in curries, dals, etc. Even though you stated that you wanted savory applications, I also had cardamom fruit salad once that was quite interesting.

[ziggylu]

I have a bunch of mangoes, papayas and berries...do you remember much about the fruit salad? That sounds like a good use...just wasn't looking necessarily for baked items...

[Miss Needle]

One of my friends made the fruit salad. I think she made a syrup where she infused the cardamom pods. She then dressed the fruit lightly with this syrup. It added a complexity to the salad. I really liked it.

[ziggylu]

Well since we ended up with so many due to a cardamom simple syrup that didn't get made...this sounds like a great idea. Definitely going to try it! Thanks

[don giovanni]

I second that. There are endless uses in Indian cooking. I was served an excellent rice dish in India that had a very strong flavor of cardamom, with peas, ghee, hot peppers and some other vegetables and curry type spices. You could probably get away with doing that with whatever veggies you happened to have around.

I've heard of black tea brewed with cardamom and ginger, then served with lots of milk and some sugar. Maybe that counts as a form of chai. Not sure.

It's also good as a mulling spice, if you like cider. Not very attractive this time of the year in AZ, though!

[ziggylu]

Indeed not so much! We were out in the pool today laughing and contemplating our cardamom excess(I also have a jar of seeds from Penzey's that we had on hand from before today)and I'm thinking there must be some refreshing application though...something with some rosewater as well maybe....

[don giovanni]

*thinks really hard*

The problem is the weather. Most cardamom things I know are winter warmers! You could just put 'em away until December.

How about some kind of exotic smoothy? You could crush them up real good and blend them with yogurt, orange juice and some frozen tropical fruits. And maybe add just a touch of ginger?

Let's see...You could make a really light brothy soup.

Mash up cilantro, cardamom, ginger, garlic and sesame seeds into a paste, in your mortar and pestle (if it's too dry, put a little lemon juice, sesame oil or soy sauce in to help it get pastey). Whisk this into a tiny bit of chicken broth (and maybe soy?), at the bottom of a soup pot, then add the rest of the broth over heat. Put a bunch of fresh ground pepper into the broth to make it spicy (careful, you can make a broth incredibly hot this way).

Put some summery vegetables (carrots in long thin slices, bean sprouts, cabbage, green beans, etc.) in the soup and cook just a bit. Some whole cilantro leaves are a good idea, too.

I used to make a similar soup and garnish it with omelette curls (you just make an omlelet, roll it up like a newspaper and slice into little curly egg circles).

If you want something more substantial, put some chicken in...maybe lemongrass would be good.

I'm just pulling these out of my head, based on what sounds good to me during May in PHX. No idea whether they will work. Good luck!

[ziggylu]

Your soup sounds yummy, don giovanni! I'm going to have to try that!

[don giovanni]

I hope it works. :)