Cardamom, Green and Black

My favourite aromatic spice, which has two varieties that are very different in appearance and taste. The more ubiquitous is the green cardamom pods, which are used in both sweet and savoury dishes. You can open the pod to release the seeds, or you can add the whole pod to a curry. Less well known are the black cardamom pods, which are a lot bigger than the green and only used in savoury dishes. They look more like a dark brown nut, similar to a nutmeg. You would tend to use only a couple, at most, in a curry, whereas you may use three times that amount for the green cardamom. Black cardamom is smoky and reminds me of lapsang souchong tea. They work really well with meat curries, giving the whole dish a smoky edge.