Cardamom

The lovely green cardamom pods have a distinctive sweet flavour that is perfect in both sweet and savoury dishes. It is used whole, ground or just for the seeds inside. When cooking with whole cardamoms, you need to release all the flavour of the little seeds in the pod. Simply press down on the pods, using the side of a knife onto a chopping board, so they split open, revealing the tasty seeds. If you only need the seeds, scrape them out at this point and discard the husk. Cardamom is a key ingredient in many spice blends, but it can be hard to grind into a powder, so remove any little pieces of husk that don’t break up. When kept in a cool, dry, dark place, cardamom pods will last about six months, but as soon as they begin to lose their green colour they also loose their flavour.