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Spotlight on Spice: Cardamom
8 February 2010 | Spotlight on Spice | No Responses
Indian cuisine is known for its variety of exotic spices, blended together in interesting combinations to make complex and fragrant dishes. Each of these spices has its own unique flavor profile, history, folklore and medicinal uses.
Cardamom is one of the most ancient of these spices, used as early as the 4th century BC in its native India as a medicinal herb. Ground cardamom comes from the seed of a tropical fruit in the ginger family known as Elettaria cardamomum, and carries a heftier price tag than most other spices, as each pod is laboriously picked by hand. Upon tasting cardamom’s intoxicating sweetness and smelling its pungent aroma, it is easy to understand why it is worth the cost.
Used in many Indian dishes from curries to desserts like Bombay Spice’s rice pudding and carrot halwa, cardamom not only tastes delicious, but also provides many health benefits. Cardamom is said to aid digestion, improve circulation, help cure colds and coughs, treat teeth and gum infections, and stimulate the sexual appetite.
Skeptical about that last fact? Just ask Cleopatra, who is said to have found its fragrance so enticing, she had her palace scented with cardamom smoke whenever Marc Anthony came to visit. You might want to try one of our cardamom desserts with your $40 Dinner for Two this Valentine’s Day at Bombay Spice to see what all the hype is about!