Composition and calorie content of cardamom. Useful properties, alleged harm and contraindications to the use of the product. In what recipes is the spice used? Tea with cardamom and the spice itself in various dishes should be consumed in moderation, not perceived as a panacea for all diseases.
Harm and contraindications to the use of cardamom
Despite the large amount of nutrients, not everyone can eat cardamom due to the possible harm to the body.
Who should refrain from using this spice:
- Pregnant and lactating women … Spices and herbs are not recommended for these categories of people.
- For children … Babies need to be fed foods that do not irritate the lining of the stomach and intestines, and cardamom is a spice that can have a bad effect on the child's body.
- For patients with ulcers and gastritis … Spices act as an irritant to the intestinal and gastric mucosa, so patients with these health problems do not need to introduce cardamom into the menu.
- People with individual intolerance … Any product can be an allergen, this spice is no exception.
Cardamom recipes
Due to its extraordinary aroma, wonderful taste and useful properties, cardamom is in great demand in many cuisines of the world. It is added to baked goods, drinks, main courses, and salads.
Cardamom recipes:
- Gingerbread christmas … Ingredients: butter (100 g), honey (250 g), cinnamon (2 teaspoons), cardamom (1.5 teaspoons), egg yolks (3 pieces), lemon juice (1.5 teaspoons), brown sugar (125 g), flour (500 g), cloves (20 pieces), ginger (1.5 teaspoons), powdered sugar (50 g) and chocolate (100 g). We make a homogeneous mass from sugar and butter by heating these components over low heat. Stir in honey. Pour the sifted flour into a separate bowl, put the spices and pour in the yolks. Grind the cloves with a coffee grinder. Now we combine the dough with the honey mass and mix thoroughly again. Cut out shaped cookies from the rolled dough (0.5 cm thick). We send it to a baking sheet, make a hole in each gingerbread with a straw for drinks. We bake in the oven for 15 minutes at a temperature of 185 degrees. We use sugar and lemon juice icing and melted chocolate to decorate our baked goods. We wait until everything hardens, and we tie ribbons into the holes, and you can decorate the Christmas tree with these wonderful gingerbread cookies.
- Sour cream buns … We need 400 g flour, 60 g sugar, 20 g yeast, 2 eggs, 50 g butter, 1 tablespoon sour cream, 150 ml milk, cardamom and ginger to taste. First, heat the milk and dissolve the sugar and yeast in it. Let this yeast mass ferment for 15 minutes. Then pour melted butter, sour cream and an egg into it. We mix all these components and add cardamom and ginger, ground into powder. Now you need to send the dough to a warm place for 40 minutes. After it comes up, already on the table we form buns from it, we can sprinkle them with cinnamon. We are waiting 15 minutes until our product increases in volume. Spread a beaten egg on top of the buns, you can sprinkle with sugar. We heat the oven to 185 degrees and bake our pastries for 15 minutes.
- Eggplant Jam … Take eggplant (3 kg), sugar (4.5 kg), water (1.8 l), and 1 teaspoon each of cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and citric acid. First of all, we wash the eggplants, peel them and put them for 4 hours in a bowl of water, in which a little soda has been dissolved. Then we pull them out of the water, rinse and pierce each eggplant. After that we blanch our vegetables for 5 minutes and cool them down. Prepare syrup from water and sugar, add spices to it and put eggplant. Cook the jam for 30 minutes. We cool it, add citric acid and cook until tender. We put them in sterile jars, seal them. Enjoy your tea in winter!
- Oven baked cauliflower … First, lightly boil 1 head of cauliflower in salted water. Then take 1 lavrushka, cardamom, fennel and tahini to taste, grind and heat them in a dry skillet. Add salt and pepper to them to taste, mix everything, cover the cabbage with this spicy mass in a baking dish and bake in the oven until a beautiful color. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 lemon juice. The dish is ready!
- Pears in sugar syrup … We need 4 pears, 750 ml of white wine, 2 glasses of sugar. Prepare a cream from 1 cup of cream, 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 teaspoon of cardamom. We wash the pears, peel the peel, but do not break the core. First, pour our fruits with wine, placing them in a saucepan, so that they are completely covered. Not enough wine - add a little water. We put a plate on top so that the pears do not float. Then boil them over low-low heat for about 25 minutes until semi-soft. Then cool completely and refrigerate in a saucepan for 4 days. After that, cook the pears until the liquid becomes syrup. We cool the fruit. We make a cream from the indicated components, beat all the products with a mixer. Put the pears in a dish and pour over the cream.
- Layered baklava … We heat 0.5 cups of milk, dilute 20 g of yeast with salt in it. Add the egg, 1 tablespoon of ghee and 2 cups of flour, and knead the dough. We leave it for 45 minutes, while wrapping it in a warm blanket. Prepare the filling in this way: pass 200 g of walnuts through a meat grinder, add 1 cup of powdered sugar, 80 g of honey and 0.2 teaspoon of cardamom to them. Roll out the dough. You should get 14-16 cakes, greasing each with melted butter, spread the filling. Smear the top of the baklava with yolk, cut into diamonds - and in the oven for 30 minutes. The result is a delicious oriental meal.
- Warm red rice salad … Ingredients: 200 g of red rice, 400 ml of water, 80 g of dried apricots, 100 g of raisins, 80 g of onions, 40 ml of olive oil, 5 g of cardamom, salt to taste. First, rinse the rice and cook it for 30 minutes. Then cut the washed raisins and dried apricots into cubes. Then we peel the onion and chop it, it can be into pieces, or it can be into rings. In a preheated skillet in olive oil, fry the cardamom and onion for 5 minutes. After adding dried apricots, we continue frying for another 3 minutes. Salt the rice, add raisins and products from the pan to it, mix and eat warm. This unusual dish can be consumed as a salad or as an independent main course. In addition, it is not only tasty, but also healthy.
Interesting facts about cardamom
Where did this wonderful spice come from? Many scholars believe that long ago, cardamom grew in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. In the East, people have been using spice since ancient times, but Europeans learned about it and began to use it for culinary and medicinal purposes not so long ago.
Cardamom is a very expensive and rare spice. It is cheaper only from saffron and vanilla. This can be explained by the fact that the process of growing and producing a plant is laborious, time-consuming and effortless. The plantations on which real cardamom grows are located at an altitude of 500-2000 meters above sea level, where the tropical climate is humid and the temperature is not lower than + 23 ° C. The shade of the trees is a suitable place for planting a crop, because this plant does not tolerate direct sunlight. You can start harvesting 3 years after planting. And this is done manually. From a plantation with an area of 1 hectare, 100 kg of fruits can be harvested, i.e. small boxes. And the plant bears fruit for 10 years. First, the harvested fruits are dried in direct sunlight, then they are moistened and dried again.
The purposeful cultivation of cardamom and the production of the spice began in the 19th century. Initially, it was used as a medicine, in many parts of the world it was considered even a panacea for all ailments. The secret of such a medicine was kept secret. Much later, it was considered an excellent spice.
There is black and green cardamom. The first grows in Australia and tropical Asia, it is called Javanese, Indian or Bengali. But green can be found in India and Malaysia. Which one is more valuable and useful? Experts cannot answer this question unambiguously.
Nowadays, the largest amount of spices is produced in India and Guatemala, approximately 80% of the total world production. And 20% falls on China, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, countries of East Africa, South America. But the best cardamom is from India.
Watch a video about the spice cardamom:
Cardamom is what every housewife needs to have in the house. The spice will provide medicinal assistance and will give dishes not only an irresistible taste, but also an unsurpassed aroma. To keep it from fading, store the spice in boxes. In supermarkets, cardamom is sold in pods and in ground form. It goes without saying that unmilled is better, it retains more essential oils.
