Flavor Profile

With a floral nose, that hints of lemon and eucalyptus, this pungent spice exudes a heady scent that is remarkably fresh and appealing; it a makes a lovely accompaniment to vanilla.

Usage/Storage Notes

Cardamom can be used a number of ways: pods are used whole or crushed to allow flavor to seep into a stew or liquid. For other recipes, the seeds are extracted and used whole or ground.  Cardamom is found in savory and sweet dishes alike and is a defining element of a number of Indian masalas, Arabian coffee drinks and Scandinavian baked goods.

Cardamom pods should be kept out of the light and air. Typically whole pods will remain vibrant for about 9-12 months. Whole/ground seeds should be uses as soon as possible as possible as their volatile oils tend to evaporate rather quickly.

Cultivation/Harvesting Notes

Originating in the rainforest of the Western Ghats in Southern India, where it is call the Queen of Spices, cardamom has been cultivated for thousands of years.

Cardamom is the fruit of a perennial bush that resembles a lily and is botanically related to ginger. Several times a year, the green cardamom sends out long flower stalks from its base. As the flower fades they produce green fruit. Each fruit/pod contains about 15-20 or so small black seeds. The fruits resemble beans with a flat oval shape.

Cardamom is harvested in the fall when it is just about ripe. It is then dried in heated sheds for about 3 days. Drying brings out the flavor of the almost ripe pod. After the pods are dried they are rubbed over a screen to remove any remaining stalks. A good cardamom pod is hard and a light green in color. Ones that are pale/beige in color typically have been harvested too late or dried out. In Victorian times, cardamom was bleached with hydrogen peroxide or exposed to flames of sulfur. Owing to the superior flavor and availability of good green cardamom, bleached white cardamom is rarely seen today.  Cardamom is also grown in Vietnam, Tanzania. Guatemala is the world’s largest exporter of the spice, while vast amounts of the spice is still grown and consumed in India. 

Rarity

While his spice is actively cultivated in tropical climates through out the world, cardamom is considered one of the world’s most expensive spices. (The most expensive spices are saffron which is hand picked and vanilla which is hand pollinated.)  As with saffron, cardamom is hand harvested. As it must be picked just before ripening, careful attention must be paid to the condition of fruit.

History

Cardamom was brought by Greek traders to the West in about the 4^th century BC. They called it kardamomum.  By the first century BC, the monsoon season was discovered and trade routes were worked out, resulting in the growth of imported goods from India and the east. Cardamom already a Roman favorite grew in popularity as a key ingredient in Oriental style spice blends as well as a staple of perfumers.

After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and its dominance over trade, an eastern empire centered in Constantinople became a center for trading and culture. In the 1100’s as the Vikings began to emerge as traders, they reached down to Constantinople, where they discovered cardamom. It soon became a valued commodity that is still a mainstay of Scandinavian baked goods today.

Medicinal Applications

Chewing cardamom is a traditional way to sweeten the breath. Chinese courtesans felt compelled to have some in hand in case they found themselves in the presence of the Emperor. In central Europe, it is still used to disguise the smell of alcohol after a night on the town.

Apicius, the famous first century epicurean of Rome, suggested chewing cardamom as a digestive. In fact, it does have carminative properties which break up intestinal gas.

Arguably, more familiar spices of caraway, anise and fennel do a somewhat better job at this task… perhaps not as sweetly.

In Arab countries, cardamom has been considered an aphrodisiac. There is an old saying that a man would rather give up his rice than his cardamom.  However, it is also known that cardamom is known to have a cooling effect on the body- which may explain its appeal to those residing in a hot dry climate.

Brown, the Other Cardamom

Brown cardamom is a separate spice that is a native of Nepal and Bhutan regions. Typically, it grows along mountain streams and is a deep red when harvested. It too is dried near a fire and turns a dark brown. It is arguably more pungent than its green cousin with more pronounced astringent, smoky flavor with strong notes of eucalyptus; its seeds have a tacky tar like quality. Using this spice in a Tandoori masalas will add a smoky pungent note. Chinese style brown cardamom is usually air dried and is not as intense in flavor. It is sometimes crushed and used in marinades. Or for an exotic note, the seeds will be removed and crushed with star anise. Chinese chefs use this simple blend to great effect in pork, duck or hearty stir fry dishes.

Easy Recipe Idea

From the bakeries of Stockholm to the coffee pots of Cairo, this international favorite has been engaging the palate for thousands of years. Next time you thinking about desserts, try teaming a classic vanilla ice cream with some cardamom. Chances are you and your guests will be delighted with the result. 

About the Seasoner

Kathy FitzHenry is the founder of Juliet Mae Fine Spices an artisan maker of fine spice blends and seasonings located in San Francisco. Known for her array of sophisticated, handmade products, Kathy has just begun to sell her blends nationally under the name, the Occasional Gourmet.  You can find her blends at select specialty stores and at all the Northern California Whole Foods Stores. For more information, please contact Kathy at 415-474-1633 or go to www.theoccasionalgourmet.com.  

Getting Started

Classic French Beef Stew or Boeuf Bourguignon

Serves 4-6.

• 4 pounds Chuck Roast, trimmed of excess fat (can be cubed)
• 1 bottle of burgundy wine
• 16 ounces of beef stock/bullion
• 1 heaping tablespoon of all purpose flour
• 2 oz of tomato paste
• 1 bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley
• 1 sprig of rosemary
• 1 sprig of thyme
• 15-18 pearl onions, washed and cleaned
• 4 cloves of pealed, sliced garlic
• 6 oz of Pancetta or center cut very lean bacon
• 4 peeled and chopped carrots
• 2 stalks of cleaned, chopped celery
• 1 medium size onion, pealed and chopped
• 2/3 pound of mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
• 2 oz of olive 0il
• 2-3 pats of butter
• Kosher Salt and cracked black pepper

Brown the meat on all sides

1. Assemble all the ingredients: chop vegetables, pre-heat oven to 350.
2. Chuck Roast: Look over carefully and trim any big pieces of excess fat, from sides and inside of roast.
3. Pancetta/Bacon: Cut into strips and place in stock pot over medium heat.  Cook until fat is rendered and remove bacon from pot. Set aside in a bowl.
4. Place the meat into the pot with the bacon drippings and brown on all sides
5. Remove the meat from the pot. Set aside.
6. Add the chopped celery, chopped onion (not pearl onion) and carrot, cook until soft about 5 minutes.
7. Add about 2 cloves of sliced garlic, stir about 1 minute.
8. Add the tomato paste. Stir.
9. Add dash or two of salt and black pepper.
10. Add tablespoon of flour, stir.
11. Return the browned meat and bacon to the pot.
12. Pour in the wine and bouillon to cover all the ingredients.
13. Add herbs and pearl onions, bring up to a boil.
14. Pull from the stove top. Secure the pot lid and place in oven for 3 hours at 350 degrees.  Note: the stew is done with a fork or knife easily penetrates the meat.
15. At about 15 minutes before you pull the stew, start the mushrooms.
    To make the mushrooms: Add 1-2 pats of butter and olive oil to a sauté pan. Add the mushrooms and cook until tender.
16. When the mushrooms are cooked, remove the pot from the oven.
17. Remove the herb springs from the stew pot and add the mushrooms.
18. Simmer for 5 minutes and garnish with a few fresh parsley sprigs.
19. Serve the stew in a large bowl with a side dish of potatoes and crispy bread.

Recipe Notes

Add the veggies and sauté

The Pan

Use a heavy, good size stock pot with a tight fitting lid. This pot should be able to fit into your oven, easily. Tip: to make a good seal between the pot and the lid, wrap foil around the lid. It should help to prevent any steam from escaping.

The Wine

Wines that carry a deep rounded fruit with tannin notes seem to work best with this dish, as they carry about the right amount of mouth feel and flavor. The traditional favorite for this dish is a classic French burgundy, like a Cote de Nuits or try a St. Emilion. Other great wine varietals to consider are an Italian Barolo or a California Syrah.

Return meat. Add stock, wine & seasoning

The Meat

Given the amount of time the meat will spend stewing, you’ll want to choose a piece that will improve under the intense moist heat. Chuck roast pieces tend to do best in this recipe.

Herbs

Voila-so easy and so very good…

Boiled fingerling potatoes or mashed Yukon potatoes really top of this dish.

Starter Dish: Salad Options

Plated with small boiled potatoes, sauté’s mushrooms

Dessert

Classic Apple Pie ala mode is our favorite way to finish this meal.

About the Seasoner

Kathy FitzHenry is the founder of Juliet Mae Fine Spices an artisan maker of fine spice blends and seasonings located in San Francisco. Known for her array of sophisticated, handmade products, Kathy has just begun to sell her blends nationally under the name, the Occasional Gourmet.  You can find her blends at select specialty stores and at all the Northern California Whole Foods Stores. For more information, please contact Kathy at 415-474-1633 or go to www.theoccasionalgourmet.com.  

Today, we’ll look at how to use herbs to flavor winter dishes like soups and stews.

Luckily, these dishes are usually easy to make and so satisfying they have been known to endear a clever cook to tired skiers and hikers alike.

Why so many ingredients?

Many stew and soup recipes were originally developed to stretch meager ingredients, recycle leftovers or dress up questionable pieces of meat and fish.

That is why so many of these dishes call for an array of ingredients that can be substituted for whatever is on hand: Fish pieces or meat bones to make a broth, root vegetables and/or beans to add substance, intense or savory seasonings like chilies, saffron, garlic, or herbs and of course the odd splash of wine to balance acidity.

Seasoning slow cooked dishes

Slow cooked dishes are amazingly versatile. It’s surprising to find that seemly disparate ingredients can be brought together though some cleaver seasoning and a minimum of technique.

You throw one together and let it literally “stew”, think crock pot.

Or you can create a layered flavor by adding separately seasoned or strong elements by slow cooking. These ingredients will melt together, making a wonderful base to flavor beans or rice, think cassoulet.

Whatever tack you take, you’ll want to unify the seasoning of the dish. Do this by using complementary flavors, like mild herbs and root vegetables. Or take a bold approach by using a strong accent flavor like basil with squash and tomatoes or a combination of vibrant flavors like garlic and saffron to offset a fishy base.

Classic Herb Flavoring

Herbs are an amazing and familiar seasoning. Many herbs have healthful properties and have been used for centuries for their medicinal qualities; plus they add tremendous flavor to your cooking.

An easy way to think of herbs is that they are the leafy part of a plant while spices are typically the seeds, root, tree bark, bud or pod. Coriander is an example of a plant that is both an herb and a spice. Its leaves are called cilantro and its seeds are called coriander. Forms of common spices include: 

Flavoring Broths or Soups

Drying herbs concentrates their oils, making them the perfect candidate for slow cooked dishes.

Use good quality dried herbs to flavor these dishes. The herbs should be placed in the water or broth first. The herbs will re-hydrate infusing the liquid with their essential oils. Used in this fashion, they create a nice base flavor for other ingredients.

Sadly, the delicate top notes of herbs are lost when dried. But, you can recapture the flavor and crispness of fresh herbs by adding a sprig or two of fresh parsley or cilantro the last few minutes of cooking. Or by using the fresh herbs to plate your dish.

Dried Herb Options

Some dishes attain a singular flavor profile by the lavish use of one or two herbs, like Basil or Oregano.  For other dishes, you’ll want to create a composite of flavors, by using a mix of herbs. Some classic pairings follow.

Bouquet Garni:  These are small balls of dried herbs that are wrapped in cheese cloth and tied with string. There are any number of variations of this item.

The following gives some typical combinations:

• Beef:  1 Bay leaf, thyme, parsley.
• Lamb: Rosemary, oregano, thyme, clove of fresh garlic
• Poultry: Sage, Parsley, Oregano, Thyme
• Fish:  Parsley, tarragon, thyme, strip of lemon peel.

Or use dried herbs to flavor moisture rich foods like cooked rice. An example of this type of seasoning is Sabzi Polo a Persian mixture of parsley, cilantro, chives and dill, which can be added to the rice water.

Classic Regional Herb Combinations

France’s Herbs de Provence, Italy’s Herbs of Lake Como and many other herb blends fall into this category.

One caveat here…regional blends are truly unique due in large part to the “terrior” as well as the combination of herbs.(Terrier= unique flavor characteristics that are imparted from the soil of a specific  region.)

Imported products maybe stale by the time you buy them in the US.

Therefore, I recommend buying dried herbs from a local source. If you just have to have a special imported herb blend, make sure you purchase them from a reliable source.

Individual Dried Herbs

Your selection should be based on the dishes you enjoy making at home.

The following is a list of my personal favorites.

Mediterranean Oregano: It is arguably the perfect herb for seasoning tomato and cheese dishes.

Marjoram: It is a cousin of oregano. It adds a nice oregano quality to a dish without the intensity of its brawny relative.

Thyme: This is the classic English herb that is closely associated with beef dishes.

Basil: Perhaps the perfect herb. It is indispensable to those of us who crave Mediterranean cooking.

Tarragon: The name is a corruption of the French word for dragon. Its intense notes are just the thing to add to a green salad flavored with a tangy vinaigrette. 

Celery Seed: This is the secret of the best gravies and meat stews. It is a must add for Potato salads.

Dill Weed: Lovely atop eggs or poached fish, just a touch adds an unbridled freshness to everything it adorns.

Dried Sage: This is the herb that lends so much flavor to our annual Thanksgiving feast. But, it is also a wonderful seasoning for squash and pasta dishes as well as traditional bread stuffing.

With a well stocked pantry, and a little creativity, you can make everything taste delicious!

Have a great time cooking this winter. And, remember to play with your food.

Happy Holidays from Juliet Mae Fine Spices. 

About the Seasoner

Kathy FitzHenry is the founder of Juliet Mae Fine Spices an artisan maker of fine spice blends and seasonings located in San Francisco. Known for her array of sophisticated, handmade products, Kathy has just begun to sell her blends nationally under the name, the Occasional Gourmet.  You can find her blends at select specialty stores and at all the Northern California Whole Foods Stores. For more information, please contact Kathy at 415-474-1633 or go to www.theoccasionalgourmet.com.  

© 2006 Juliet Mae Fine Spices San Francisco.
 

This time of year, many of us look at that long list of presents to buy and think…

I’ll never get this all done in time.

But, you can easily knock off a nice chunk of that list and have fun doing it by making a present of Vanilla Sugar.

In just a few hours, you can create a charming, thoughtful present that friends and family can enjoy all winter long. It’s easy to make and allows for you to bring a special personal touch to your holiday gift giving.

Natural sugars come in granular and larger sized crystals, like this Turbinado.

1. Turbinado or other natural sugar 3-4 ounces per present
2. 1 whole Vanilla Bean Pod per 3-4 ounces of sugar
3. A small re-closeable container:  think small glass jar with clasp/or go deluxe with a pretty sugar bowl.
4. Ribbon or raffia and gift tag

Directions:

1. Prepare the sugar: Remove sugar lumps by sieving through
   a mesh colander.
2. Slit the vanilla bean pod in half.
3. Place the slit vanilla bean pod in the container.
4. Add the sugar and mix so that the pod is covered.
5. Seasoning: Allow to season for 10 days before opening.

Spice Notes:  A brief background on Natural Brown Sugars and Vanilla

Brown sugar crystals

In contrast, white sugars are refined natural sugars that are made by bleaching out the color through dissolving raw sugar and purifying it with a carbonated phosphoric acid wash then filtering it through a bed of activated carbon or animal bone char. White refined sugar is typically sold as granulated sugar, which has been dried to prevent clumping.

While I recommend that you use the Turbindo sugar in your vanilla sugar, you may wish to opt for one of these other natural sugars. They are all delicious in coffee or used in baking.

Demerara is used as the generic name of a type of specialty cane sugar that is a natural brown in color. It carries a rich flavor with caramel undertones. It takes its name from the Demerara colony in Guyana-  the original source of this type of sugar.

Muscovado is also known as the moist sugar.  It is an unrefined sugar that takes its name and color from the sugar cane juice it is made from. It carries a very strong molasses flavor. It is a very dark brown color, coarser and stickier than most brown sugars. It offers good resistance to high temperatures with a reasonably good shelf life.  This unrefined sugar goes well with coffee and other beverages. 

Turbinado sugar is a type of sugar cane extract.  It is made by steaming unrefined raw sugar. It is sold in bulk and under the branded name, Sugar in the Raw. While Turbinado sugar is a little paler than brown sugar, it is a perfect stand-in for brown sugar in almost any recipe.

These sugars are usually found in natural grocery stores or specialty stores. All are sold in branded forms. Turbinado sugar is sold in both bulk and branded form. 

About Vanilla Bean Pods

Flowering Vanilla Orchid

Vanilla is the fruit of a green orchid plant that grows in the tropics. It is native to Central America and is grown in many tropical areas including: Madagascar, Reunion, Hawaii, Papua New Guinea, Costa Rica, Tahiti, Tonga, Vanuatu and other areas throughout the world.

The Vanilla flavor comes from the level of vanillin that is created during the processing of the ripen pods. Pods are picked green and then are dried/heated during the day and covered and sweated at night. This process creates the vanillian and gives the vanilla beans its flavor.

The bean pods should be pliant, slightly tacky and sable brown to brown black in color. Do not buy a bean pod that appears shriveled or cracked. Most bean pods range between 8 and 12 inches in length and ¼ to ½” in width depending on the type of bean pod

Vanilla Beans come in a number of varieties typically they include:

Bourbon Bean Pods:

Bourbon Vanilla Bean Pods

These bean pods tend to exhibit the classic sweet intense vanilla flavor that we all love.

Tahitian Beans:

The beans are a very dark brown color, wide in girth and shorter than Bourbon beans. They are very aromatic with a floral, perfume like quality. They do not have as much flavor as the bourbon style bean, but they do complement ginger and are used in the frangance industry. These bean pods do go nicely with ginger and many Asian dishes, but they can be hard to find and quite expensive in the US.

PNG Beans or Papua New Guinea

These bean pods tend to be hybrids of Bourbon and Tahitian bean types. They are often uneven in their flavor profile – some can be almost licorice like in flavor, while others will present a classic Bourbon flavor. This is attributed to the story that these bean types were cultivated next to each other and became mixed over time. This is the bean is widely available in the US and tends to be priced slightly below a good Bourbon bean pod.

Mexican Vanilla

This vanilla bean pod is thicker, darker and exhibits a much more intensely sweet flavor. It is wonderful in rich baked goods. But be careful to buy these beans from a well known source, as some processors will use coumarin a FDA banned substance that may cause liver damage.

About the Seasoner

Kathy FitzHenry is the founder of Juliet Mae Fine Spices an artisan maker of fine spice blends and seasonings located in San Francisco. Known for her array of sophisticated, handmade products, Kathy has just begun to sell her blends nationally under the name, the Occasional Gourmet.  You can find her blends at select specialty stores and at all the Northern California Whole Foods Stores. For more information, please contact Kathy at 415-474-1633 or go to www.theoccasionalgourmet.com.