Cardamom (or Cardamon) refers to several plants of the genera
Elettaria and Amomum in the ginger family Zingiberaceae. Both genera
are native to India and Bhutan, they are recognised by their small
seed pod, triangular in cross-section and spindle-shaped, with a
thin papery outer shell and small black seeds. Elettaria pods are
light green while Amomum pods are larger and dark brown. The word
cardamom is derived from the Latin cardamomum, the latinisation of
the Greek καρδάμωμον (kardamomon), in turn from κάρδαμον (kardamon),
"cress" + ἄμωμον (amomon), a kind of an Indian spice plant. The
earliest attested form of the word kardamon is the Mycenaean Greek
ka-da-mi-ja, written in Linear B syllabic script.
Types and distribution
The two main genera of the ginger family that are named as forms
of cardamom are distributed as follows:
Elettaria (commonly called cardamom, green cardamom, or true
cardamom) is distributed from India to Malaysia.
Amomum (commonly known as black cardamom), brown cardamom, Kravan,
Java cardamom, Bengal cardamom, Siamese cardamom, white cardamom, or
red cardamom) is distributed mainly in Asia and Australia.
Varieties
There were initially three natural varieties of green cardamom
plants.
Malabar (Nadan/Native) – As the name suggests, this is the native
variety of Kerala. These plants have panicles which grow
horizontally along the ground.
Mysore – As the name suggests, this is a native variety of
Karnataka. These plants have panicles which grow vertically upwards.
Vazhuka – This is a naturally occurring hybrid between Malabar and
Mysore varieties, and the panicles grow neither vertically nor
horizontally, but in between.
Recently, a few planters isolated high yielding plants and
started multiplying them on a large scale. The most popular high
yielding variety is "Njallani." Njallani, also known as "rup-ree-t",
is a unique high-yielding cardamom variety developed by an Indian
farmer, Sebastian Joseph, at Kattappana in the South Indian state of
Kerala. K J Baby of Idukki district, Kerala has developed a purely
white flowered variety of Vazhuka type green cardamom having higher
yield than Njallani. The variety has high adaptability to different
shade conditions and can also be grown in waterlogged areas.
Uses
Green and black cardamom
Both forms of cardamom are used as flavorings in both food and
drink, as cooking spices and as a medicine. Elettaria cardamomum
(the usual type of cardamom) is used as a spice, a masticatory, and
in medicine; it is also smoked sometimes; it is used as a food plant
by the larva of the moth Endoclita hosei.
Food and drink
Cardamom has a strong, unique taste, with an intensely aromatic,
resinous fragrance. Black cardamom has a distinctly more smoky,
though not bitter, aroma with a coolness some consider similar to
mint.
It is a common ingredient in Indian cooking, and is often used in
baking in Nordic countries, such as in the Finnish sweet bread pulla
or in the Scandinavian bread Julekake. Green cardamom is one of the
most expensive spices by weight, but little is needed to impart the
flavor. Cardamom is best stored in pod form because once the seeds
are exposed or ground they quickly lose their flavor. However,
high-quality ground cardamom is often more readily (and cheaply)
available and is an acceptable substitute. For recipes requiring
whole cardamom pods, a generally accepted equivalent is 10 pods
equals 1½ teaspoons of ground cardamom. In the Middle East, green
cardamom powder is used as a spice for sweet dishes as well as
traditional flavouring in coffee and tea. Cardamom pods are ground
together with coffee beans to produce a powdered mixture of the two,
which is boiled with water to make coffee. Cardamom is also used in
some extent in savoury dishes. In some Middle Eastern countries,
coffee and cardamom are often ground in a wooden mortar, a mihbaj,
and cooked together in a skillet, a "mehmas," over wood or gas, to
produce mixtures that are as much as forty percent cardamom. In
South Asia, green cardamom is often used in traditional Indian
sweets and in Masala chai (spiced tea). Black cardamom is sometimes
used in garam masala for curries. It is occasionally used as a
garnish in basmati rice and other dishes. It is often referred to as
fat cardamom due to its size. Individual seeds are sometimes chewed,
in much the same way as chewing-gum; it is even used by Wrigley's
('Eclipse Breeze Exotic Mint') in which it states "with cardamom to
neutralize the toughest breath odors"; and it has also been known to
be used for gin making.
Traditional medicine
Green cardamom is broadly used in South Asia to treat infections
in teeth and gums, to prevent and treat throat troubles, congestion
of the lungs and pulmonary tuberculosis, inflammation of eyelids and
also digestive disorders. It also is used to break up kidney stones
and gall stones, and was reportedly used as an antidote for both
snake and scorpion venom. Amomum is used as a spice and as an
ingredient in traditional medicine in systems of the traditional
Chinese medicine in China, in Ayurveda in India, Pakistan, Japan,
Korea and Vietnam. Species in the genus Amomum are also used in
traditional Indian medicine. Among other species, varieties and
cultivars, Amomum villosum cultivated in China, Laos and Vietnam is
used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat stomach-aches,
constipation, dysentery, and other digestion problems. "Tsaoko"
cardamom Amomum tsao-ko is cultivated in Yunnan, China and northwest
Vietnam, both for medicinal purposes and as a spice. Increased
demand since the 1980s, principally from China, for both Amomum
villosum and Amomum tsao-ko has provided a key source of income for
poor farmers living at higher altitudes in localized areas of China,
Laos and Vietnam, people typically isolated from many other markets.
Until recently, Nepal had been the world's largest producer of large
cardamom. Guatemala has become the world's largest producer and
exporter of cardamom, with an export total of US$137.2 million for
2007. |
