2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Today, tea leaves containing such words as bergamot and cardamom are no longer a rarity. The aromatic additives habitual for the Russians in the form of currant leaves, mint, linden blossom, give way under the onslaught of exotic aliens. What is Cardamom?
Classic spice
Since ancient times, man began to use plants to diversify the taste of products that appear on his table every day, and therefore “become boring”. Culinary experts divide such additives to the main product into seasonings and spices.
Seasonings, for example, include various herbs: dill, parsley, garlic, onions, which become part of the dish, giving it a new aroma and taste. But seasonings can also become an independent dish.
Spices include such products, from which, as a rule, you cannot prepare an independent dish. Added to the main dish, they do not try to overpower its taste, but make it healthier and more appetizing, create a specific national flavor, highlight the most attractive moments of this dish. For example, cinnamon and cardamom determine the flavor of the gingerbread.
History has recorded an amusing and edifying case when Napoleon's new chef cooked chicken for the emperor. Everyone knew that Napoleon vehemently hated chicken dishes, because as a child it was a traditional dish that was prepared every day according to the same recipe, without trying to diversify it in any way. Kind people warned the Cook that he might lose his head by serving a dish of chicken to Napoleon. This did not frighten the virtuoso chef, who knew how to use spices aptly. After the meal, his head remained intact, since the cooked chicken came to the emperor's taste.
Tropical plant
Cardamom came to people from the tropics in the form of the fruit of the herbaceous perennial plant of the same name. The cardamom plant belongs to the Ginger family, which is familiar to us from the fleshy tuberous roots of ginger; yellow powder from dried turmeric roots. Cardamom broke the tradition of "healing roots" by giving people one of the most expensive spices in the form of its fruits. Interestingly, the fruits for drying are harvested unripe. Therefore, it will not work to grow cardamom from the grains of the purchased spice, as they manage to grow a Sudanese rose or hibiscus from hibiscus.
Cardamom kernels
Unripe grains, or rather the pods, in which they hid from the outside world, are dried under the rays of the tropical sun. Dried pods are moistened with water, and then sent again under the sun's rays. The result of such procedures is a triangular, white or light green capsule, inside which there are fragrant grains, for the sake of which all these efforts are undertaken.
The concentration of essential oils in the seeds is so high that miniature grains acquire a pronounced specific spicy taste, which can only be consumed in small quantities. When cardamom is consumed along with other spices, the "queen of spices" usually dominates, overpowering their aromas.
Universal Healer
As a rule, a universal medicine is not so much attractive as it is alarming. The question arises, how one and the same remedy can relieve headaches, joint aches, improve vision, make breathing easier …
For those who are familiar with the principle of the human body, this question does not arise. The fact is that the tone and rhythm of the body's life is set by the digestive organs. If the food received is correctly decomposed into components that can be absorbed by the body; will support the necessary and full-fledged metabolism, then all organs will receive the substances necessary for their vital activity, immunity will be strengthened, and a person will receive a charge of vivacity and energy.
Fragrant cardamom, once in the human body, begins its beneficial mission with the digestive system. It stimulates the production of gastric juice, improves appetite, increases the tone of the body, saturating the blood with healing chemicals. The revitalized body quickly moves the convolutions of the brain, drives away the headache, makes the look sharper, and the nervous system stronger.
In the East, since ancient times, asthma and bronchitis have been treated with cardamom, and they have relieved dry coughs.
Cardamom is a powerful antiseptic, anesthetic and tonic, an aphrodisiac.
It will add flavor to any dish. Just do not forget about the dosage, adding a purely symbolic amount:
a liter of compote or soup is enough for a third of one grain; per kilogram of dough or meat - one grain. Add cardamom to the dish:
whole grain 5 minutes until cooked, ground grain a couple of seconds until cooked
Contraindications
Do not use for people with stomach ulcers.
Don't forget the dosage!
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Cardamom Real
Cardamom real is one of the plants of the family called ginger, in Latin the name of this plant will sound like this: Elettaria cardamonum White et Maton. As for the name of the real cardamom family itself, then in Latin it will be like this:
