Cardamom - a taste surprise
"it’s the [spice] that’s hardest to get to know, and near impossible to forget." Dale Berning Sawa - The Guardian
Last night for my 'new' recipe per week I chose a kebab recipe from Greg Malouf's book Saraban - an exploration of Persian food. It was called Kabab-e barg which he translated as Skewered beef leaves marinated in yoghurt, cardamom and black pepper. It was pretty simple, though I had to tamper with it a bit because, too late I realised the recipe was for fillet steak and I only had rump. Well actually I did have some fillet in the freezer but had taken out the rump before deciding on a recipe. So what I produced was not really as it was supposed to be.
The point about fillet rather than rump is that his method of slicing the meat resulted in very thin leaves which were then folded on to the skewers. I did make my rump fairly thin by bashing it with a meat tenderiser, but it wasn't really thin. So it probably took longer to cook. I also see that I probably didn't put enough pepper in. Basically the recipe is all about the marinade. You marinade the meat, for a couple of hours, thread it on to skewers and grill it. I found the recipe online here, but there is no picture either there or in my book. So I looked on the net for kabab-e barg, and now see that I had completely the wrong idea.
Nevertheless it was amazingly tasty. The marinade ingredients were basically yoghurt, lemon, dried oregano, ground cardamom and pepper. And it was truly yummy and truly different. A surprising taste and quite unique. Because cardamom, in my house anyway, is rarely the star - it's usually just one ingredient of many in an Indian curry. Here it was the dominant taste, but tempered by the oregano and the lemon. No garlic and who would have thought oregano - and dried at that. Try it some time. I believe it is usually for lamb in Iran, but it can obviously be used for other meats - maybe fish too.
"cardamom is incredibly versatile and you only really get to know its complex character when you take it away from its curry comrades. It is fruity, floral, citrussy and pungent, and its essential oil contains cineole, which gives it a dash of warming eucalyptus, too." Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
I served my kebabs with rice - as suggested, but actually we both agreed it would have been better with bread - well with some kind of wrap. Because the sauce (if you can call it that) was dry. In fact, of course, there was very little 'sauce' and if I had stuck to the recommended proportion of sauce to meat there would have been even less. So bread would have been better - and maybe a mixed kind of Persian salad. Good enough to try again anyway.
So back to cardamom itself - the world's third most expensive spice after saffron and vanilla - now mainly produced in Guatemala of all places, because back in 1909 a German took it back there. Why a German in Guatemala I have no idea and did not pursue. And what about cloves - aren't they expensive too? It's a native of India and there are three basic types - well mostly two with a third that is not much used. The two are shown in the picture at the top of the page. It's related to ginger and often used with it. India is the second largest producer and the Chinese, Vietnamese and Laotians have recently ventured into production too.
Buy the pods apparently. Don't buy it ground as the taste goes off. Well that's what they say anyway. I have both seeds and pods in my pantry. I used seeds yesterday and I can't say that they were really fresh but they still had plenty of taste.
It's very versatile, being used in savoury and sweet dishes and in drinks too. Coffee and tea are often served with a touch of cardamom in the far and middle east.
"Used in Indian cooking for around 2000 years, cardamom seeds were also chewed by the Egyptians to clean their teeth. The Greeks and Romans enjoyed cardamom as a perfume and the Vikings took it from Constantinople to Scandinavia where it’s still used today to flavour cakes and pastries." Taste.com
Isn't it interesting how things travel around the world? Scandinavia is just as unlikely as Guatemala really, and yet it is apparently a much used ingredient in their cakes. It wasn't just Taste who said so.
And, of course, the health freaks think it's a cure for just about anything:
"The health benefits of cardamom include gastrointestinal protection, cholesterol control, control of cancer, relief from cardiovascular issues, and improvement of blood circulation in the body. It is useful for curing dental diseases and urinary tract infections such as cystitis, nephritis, and gonorrhea. Cardamom possesses aphrodisiac properties and is also used as a cure for impotence, erectile dysfunction, and premature ejaculation." Organic Facts
I have no idea whether any of the above is true. It was certainly used medicinally back in ancient times but in spite of the amazing claims above it doesn't seem to be a major thing in the health market as yet. Maybe it's because of the cost. Maybe none of it is true.
"those pretty, papery, grey-green pods filled with neat rows of glossy black seeds" Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
A really tasty surprise.
POSTSCRIPT
After I had finished this I found myself thinking - why and when were the Vikings in Constantinople? They were seafarers after all and there is not an obvious sea route to Constantinople from Norway, and I am also not conscious of the Vikings conquering southern Europe at all. Mind you the Normans were everywhere and I think they were originally Vikings. So is this what those articles meant. So I have looked it up and learnt a whole lot of stuff I just didn't know about.
It seems that between the 9th and 11th centuries the Vikings - or a sort of subset of the Vikings ruled the Volga Dnieper regions of what now encompasses Russia, Belorusse, and the Ukraine. There were two subsets - one called the Rus - hence the name of Russia and the Varangians. And I think it was the Varangians who came to be associated with the Byzantine empire. Well really it's all a bit unclear about who is who but you can read the detail in Wikipedia of course. They began attacking Constantinople in 860 and continued for a couple of centuries. And the other significant thing was that they controlled the trade routes from northern Europe to the middle east. I had no idea I have to say.
