Hmmm. Perhaps a subject for a different forum.
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Wow, now that is really expensive.
My local supermarket stocks small jars, 28g, and it only costs about ÂŁ1 (1.32 USD) - and itâd be cheaper still if I bought it at one of the Asian shops.
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Yup⊠and while I am very happy to have a full service Safeway in our small town, it is pretty much the âonlyâ venue short of mail order. And when you need it now, youâre kinda stuck.
Are we talking about brown/black or green? Pods or ground?
Iâm surprised that
- you have never come across cardamom as a flavor before
- you would use a brand new spice in a recipe without tasting it first
Itâs pretty true to its flavor from ingredient to outcome - somewhat dulled by cooking/baking (and also by form - meaning whether bought whole or already powdered)
Iâm not a fan of star anise in any more than trace form, nor cinnamon, so I do get the dislike factor.
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Do you ever eat in Indian restaurants - than you will have eaten a lot of cardamom.
True, but cardamom in a savory dish as part of a medley of flavors and cardamom as a single distinctive flavor in dessert hit very different.
My nephew doesnât like cardamom either - but thatâs only when he can pick it out as the main note in something sweet.
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Absolutely. I like the former but am not keen on the latter.
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I have seen it in Indian food, but have no expertise in that area.
Yeah, well⊠it was quite a number of years ago and IIRC it was only a half tsp, and never had that amount of anything ruin a whole dish before. Suffice it say I learned my lesson.
Exactly my feelings about both cinnamon and star anise!!!
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Caraway can ruin dishes for me.
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My older son apparently doesnât like cinnamon and only bothered to tell us a couple years ago. I canât even really conceive of how to make an apple dessert w/o cinnamon, and I donât understand him. I love cinnamon. [not gum but that is a weird too spicy flavor].
I used to abhor star anise and every other licorice flavor until quite late into my adulthood. For some reason, I flipped a switch. I think fennel and aniseseed are both lovely. I put star anise in my Asian style beef broths and canât imagine the flavor without it. We canned nectarines a few years ago in simple syrup with a star anise in each jar, and the syrup was absolutely delicious when mixed with seltzer. Iâm pretty sure anise is a flavor in hoisin and five spice. Do you use those?
Cardamom too, I donât use it often, but it has such a nice fragrant perfume. I made a cardamom cheesecake once that was wonderful.
But I could happily live the rest of my life without ever eating cilantro again. It is SO not my thing.
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My Italian godmother uses nutmeg in her apple pie. No cinnamon.
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That would make me sad. I love cinnamon. I only use nutmeg in bolognese. I wonder where else it would be good.
I canât stand cinnamon in apple pie. It kills a good apple pie stone dead. Which means I never, ever, order apple pie when I visit America.
Pie doesnt really need anything more than a flavoursome sharp cooking apple, balanced with some sugar.
As for cilantro (or coriander as we call it), I just love it, whether in the form of the spice or the leaf. Although not in apple pie, of course.
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I luv cilantro too, mostly in Mexican food (but also use it in falafel)⊠but get why some folks hate it.
Goulash.
My mother also always used nutmeg in rice and bread puddings.
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Germans use nutmeg in their mashed potatoes and other potato dishes.
Nutmeg can be good in potatoes au gratin, and itâs part of the sauce in Marthaâs perfect Mac & Cheese. I also use nutmeg in my melomakarona and fruitcake.
I noticed a few apple pies and crumbles online that call for coriander (seed) . Tempted to try one or 2.
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I have no issue with the flavors themselves, and use both (whole and powdered and in five spice and hoisin and all those).
The issue I have is that they can completely take over the flavor of a dish if even slightly over-used.
So a piece of star anise in a pot can add a lovely flavor note, but a whole one can overwhelm all other flavors - this has happened to me with chicken curry and Taiwanese beef soup.
The same can be said of cinnamon - I use it in savory indian cooking as a whole spice all the time. Last year, a piece used in dal resulted in my sibling not being able to even eat it - the cinnamon flavor overwhelmed everything else.
The powdered form of both these spices are much easier to mess up IMO.
(And speaking of cinnamon - a pet peeve - the american love affair with it has resulted in chai in the US being overwhelmingly a cinnamon latte, vs the actual drink which has barely a trace, or more often none at all.)
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Bechamel.
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