Cardamom

Cardamom is the seed pod of plants in the ginger family, grown in the Western Ghats of India, in Sri Lanka and in Guatemala. Green cardamom, elaichi or elakkai, is the fragrant one used in chai, kheer, payasam, biryani and Sri Lankan sweets. Black cardamom, badi elaichi, is a larger, wrinkled pod dried over fire, which gives it a smoky, camphor-like flavour.

Choose black cardamom for robust dishes: North Indian biryani, pulao, rajma, chole, nihari and homemade garam masala, where one or two pods are plenty. Choose loose cardamom seeds when you want cardamom flavour without shelling pods, for grinding into chai masala, kheer, halwa or shrikhand. The two are not interchangeable, so use black only where a smoky note is welcome.

Lightly crush a black cardamom pod with the flat of a knife before frying it, so its seeds release their flavour into the oil. Loose seeds lose their scent faster than whole pods, so buy small and keep them in a tightly sealed jar. For ready ground elachi, see cardamom powder, and browse cloves, peppercorns and the other whole spices.