When I was a little girl, my sister and I would follow my parents to the Indian grocery stores in Berkeley on Universty Avenue. These stores continue to be the cheapest places to get a wide variety of spices used in Indian cooking, in bulk! So you can buy as much or as little as you like, and you won’t be left with a little bottle that says “Whole Foods” on it. Yes, I do fall into this trap. In San Francisco, the lone Indian grocery store is on Valencia between 16th and 17th. I very rarely find what I need there, and when I ask when the frozen coconut or curry leaves are coming next, the guy behind the counter always says “Oh, tomorrow.” I don’t fall for that. Maybe I should? So off to Berkeley (Vik’s) I go.
crush the cardamom
Back to when I was a little girl… my sister called me over with a big ass grin on her face. (I always fell for that.) She told me to smell the contents of a bulk bin. I stuck my head in, sniffed, and had a headache for the next hour after inhaling a large quantity of cardamom seeds. It took me several, and I mean SEVERAL, years to get over that experience.
Thank goodness I did, because cardamom is really nice in small quantities. I like to get whole pods, pound the green covers off, and then pulverize the crap out of the seeds inside. If I have a little time, I’ll toast the cardamom a bit before grinding it.
Why is cardamom so sexy?
Good question. Now, if you’ve ever had good Indian food, you know half the experience is the smell. And sometimes it’s the smell of some uncle tooting in the corner. But ideally it’s a delicious aroma. Cardamom is what makes chai smell and taste to distinctive, and is found in plenty of Indian and Middle Eastern desserts. And the taste is a bit sweet and gingery. It’s used to treat gum disease. Convinced of it’s hotness? No?
Put it in white chocolate and you’ll change your mind.
White Chocolates with a Sexy Factor
So I toasted some pistachios, chopped em up real fine and threw them in a vat of melted organic cocoa butter and white sugar (I know– I’m experimenting with honey powder). Then I ground up a couple of cardamom pods and threw that in too. Temper the chocolate a bit, pour the liquid into a mold, and voila! You have a sexy bitesize treat (after cooling in the fridge for a couple of hours).
The result is delicous! You can also melt Guittard white chocolate wafers and add cardamom and pistachio bits to the mix.
Dr. Squid recommends rest and enjoyment this Memorial Day weekend!
