Thursday, March 29, 2012

Cardamom up on spot demand

Press Trust of India / New Delhi Mar 29, 2012, 13:02 IST



Cardamom prices were up by Rs 6.30 to Rs 1163.90 per kg in futures trade today as speculators created fresh positions amid a firming trend at spot markets.
Restricted arrivals in the physical markets from producing regions also supported the uptrend in cardamom prices.

At the Multi Commodity Exchange, the April cardamom rose by Rs 6.30, or 0.54% to Rs 1,163.90 per kg in business turnover of 630 lots.
The May spice moved up by Rs 3.60, or 0.28% to Rs 1,293 per kg in 272 lots.

Analysts said fresh buying by speculators on the back of a rise in demand in the spot market against limited arrivals from producing belts mainly led to rise in cardamom prices at futures trading here.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Baked Rice balls with Dates & Honey

1 c. finely chopped dates
3/4 c. honey
4 tbsp. butter
2 eggs
2 c. Rice Krispies cereal
1/2 c. chopped nuts
Flaked coconut

Beat eggs; stir in chopped dates and honey. Melt butter in a heavy pan. Stir in mixture of eggs, dates, and honey into melted butter. Over medium to low heat, cook for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and stir in cereal and chopped nuts. When cool enough to handle, but still warm, form into 1-inch balls and roll in coconut. Store in airtight container. Makes 6-7 dozen balls.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Soup for Sinus relief


Ingredients

1½ cups tomato juice
½ cups water
½ Ginger
Sugar Cubes
1 tsp. of Oil
1 tsp. of ginger paste
1 tsp. of garlic paste
3 Nos of Bay leaf
3 Nos of Black Pepper
1 tsp. of cardamom powder
1½ of tomato Paste
½ Pimply
Little amount of sugar cube (small cubes)

Wash all the vegetables.
Peel and mince the garlic.

Heat a bit of oil in a stock pot or large (~4qt) sauce pan. Be careful that you don't let the heat get too high and burn the oil. Add the Ginger, Garlic, Cardamom powder and stir. About a minute later, pour in the tomato juice and water, and turn the heat to maximum. Add all the veggies and spices. If the veggies aren't covered, you can add a little more tomato juice.

Bring it all to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover. Cook for about 30 minutes, then let cool, uncovered, for about 10 minutes.

to know more recipes ... http://www.health-total.com/en/recipes.aspx

Friday, March 23, 2012

Spice Blend - Ethiopian Berbere


Berbere is a famous seasoning use to flavor stews in Ethiopian. You can usually get it from Your African store but i am going to show it how to make anyway.

Ingredients:

1 tsp of fenugreek seeds
6 dried chilies
½ cup paprika
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp onion powder or fried onion

½ tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tbsp cardamom pods or 1 tsp ground cardamom
½ tsp garlic powder
1 and ½ tbsp salt
½ tsp ground cinnamon
10 cloves or ¼ tsp of ground cloves
1 tsp ground cumin

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Thursday, March 22, 2012

Sweet and Sour Onion Chutney

INGREDIENTS:

1 Large Onion, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, olive oil, 1/4 cup red wine vinegar, 1 or 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1 or 2 handfuls of parsley minced, and approximately 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of the following spices: fennel seeds, paprika, ground coriander, ground cumin, and ground cardamom.

NOTES: Onions in the heated oil for about 5-6 minutes until soft. Add your spices and stir until onions are well covered. Add the chopped parsley and stir until it all comes together and serve warm!

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Quick and easy Hot Chocolate recipe

Ainsley Harriott cooks his camera crew a special hot chocolate recipe. Try it out yourself! Delicious recipe idea from BBC cookery show Ainsley's Gourmet Express. Watch more high quality videos on the Food YouTube channel from BBC Worldwide here: http://www.youtube.com/bbcfood

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

SWISSAID Brings Hope To Colombian Cardamom Farmers.

It took several years of hard work but finally it had paid off and Colombian Farmers are elated.

The SWISSAID federation has given the green light to the cooperative of Colombian farmers from Caramanta to begin growing cardamom in what it will be at first 40 hectares of land in the south east region of Antioquia.

SWISSAID officials visited the land around september of 2011, investigated thoroughly about the project and the viability to make of it a program that would help the community most importantly.


For those who don't know about SWISSAID, One of Switzerland’s leading aid organizations; founded in 1948. They are involved in cooperative development projects in nine countries, try to influence policy-making on development in Switzerland, and inform people about the causes of poverty and underdevelopment. They have 122 staff worldwide, 31 of whom work in Switzerland.


Here an excerpt taken from their website explaining their vision:

Farmers Cooperative In Caramanta

"At  SWISSAID, we believe that everyone is equally entitled to prosperity and to contribute to and participate in the beauty of our world. Participation means codetermination, cooperative creation and shared responsibility in regards to other people, society and the environment. Sustainable development that respects human dignity is possible only if women and men are on equal terms. Cultural diversity and respect for other beliefs and ways of doing things are an important ingredient for quality of life. Inequality, poverty and suffering are not determined by fate. We believe that it is possible for us, as human beings, to use our abilities to bring the vision of a more peaceful and just world into being. The only things missing are insight and the willingness to make the necessary changes"

Cardamom Plantation
"The most remarkable aspect about this project is the social impact that is generating" says one of the project precursors. Mr. Alonso Munera, who's been in the Cardamom business for many years and foresees a remarkable future for Colombian Cardamom over the next decade.

Cardamom in Caramanta grows next to coffee plants and under the shadow of trees, with no use of chemicals whatsoever, although is not organic certified yet, it complies with all of the guidelines to be a 100% organic product. that is why Colombian Cardamom is rated amongst the highest quality on the market. it is up to us to make of it the best in the world.

The project means big business, cardamom being one of the priciest spices on the market only behind vanilla and saffron.

The market for Cardamom is expanding, not only in Asia, Africa and Europe but all over the world, Cardamom is becoming more of a household item and less of an ethnic spice these days. Here in New York you can find it in North American Pastries, in Cocktails, in Fusion style couisine, it's the trendiest spice of 2012 according to Mc Cormic, one of the leading spices purveyors in the country.

Its culinary uses are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to talking about the benefits of cardamom, we have written ominously here and here about all the different uses for cardamom, from a medicinal standpoint to a beauty product. the various uses of cardamom are remarkable, no wonder in India is known as the Queen of Spices.

What people most recognize about Colombian Cardamom is its freshness, its taste and aroma and that's where we have to focus our efforts.

it is important for us to understand the quality of our product and how can we strive to make it even better, not only the spice itself, but the whole operation around it. making it as enviromentally sustainable as possible.
If you wish to learn more about our Colombian Cardamom Project in Caramanta, the people behind it and how you ca get involved write us at  sales@merit-trade.com or you can  visit our website www.merit-trade.com.



Monday, March 19, 2012

Saffron poached pear recipe - The F Word

Gordon Ramsay's recipe for saffron poached pear with mint and cardamon custard. on The F Word.

Season 5 of The F Word. A bold, modern and mischievous take on the world of food combines location VTs, kitchen actuality, celebrity interviews, stunts and recipe based challenges to give the format its trademark energy, pace and visual richness and create waves in the food world and beyond.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

MCX cardamom hits upper circuit


MUMBAI (Commodity Online): Cardamom futures hits upper circuit in MCX on the back of firm domestic demand amid weak arrivals from the fresh crop.

In MCX cardamom April contract hits upper circuit at Rs.1132.90 per Kg against the previous close. Open interest of the contract stood at 7970 lots and open interest pf the contract is 14749 lots.

As per market source, dry spell conditions in major growing areas have unfavorably affected the crop. According to the media sources, around 20 per cent of the plants got damaged in Idukki district. Added, some of the midlands in Idukki district received rains late last week but the high ranges continue to remain dry.

Read the Full Story Here 
http://www.commodityonline.com

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Pork Vindaloo


Ingredients:

2 pounds pork butt/shoulder
8 dried new mexico chilies
1 cup cider vinegar
2 teaspoons fresh ginger
7 or 8 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons cumin
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons salt


1 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
3 Tablespoons oil or butter
1 jumbo onion
(optional) 1 tablespoon brown sugar near the end of cooking
I forgot to add the sugar!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Moroccan Couscous


Ingredients:

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 red onion, cut in half and thinly sliced
1 red, green, or yellow bell pepper, cut into 1" pieces
2 zucchinis, halved lengthwise and cut into 3/4 inch pieces
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Grated zest of one orange


1 (14.5 ounce) can low sodium garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup orange juice
1 1/2 cups couscous
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

Method:
Place a large, heavy bottomed pot over medium heat. Stir in the cumin, ginger, cloves, cayenne, cardamom, coriander, and allspice; gently toast until fragrant, about 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in oil and onion, cook until softened. Stir in the bell pepper, and zucchini; cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the raisins, salt, zest, and garbanzos.

Pour in the chicken broth and orange juice; turn heat to high and bring to a boil. When the mixture is boiling, stir in the couscous and remove from heat; cover, and let stand 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork, and fold in chopped mint.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Tisane (Cardamom & Rose Petals Tea)


Ingredients :

Love to eat to love. Indian cuisine is replete with dishes designed to inflame the passions. Chef Zubin presents traditional recipes packed with aphrodisiac qualities. This is the perfect reliever for headaches. Cardamom is considered the second most expensive spice in the world after saffron and the wide ranging curative properties that it possesses sure ensures that you will get your money's worth.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Nigella Lawson - Quick Chili

 suppose this is more Tex-Mex than just Mex, but none the worse for that. Besides, there is a reason that old-fashioned cookbooks devoted so much energy to ground meat: It makes for simple, speedy supper.
Luckily, there is a lot more going for this than efficiency. It just hits the spot when you want something comforting but not bland: It soothes but its sprightly.
If you've got a rice cooker - and I make no secret of my dependence here - then you put your rice on to steam before you make the chili and a substantial supper is mere minutes away, which is just the way a substantial supper should be.

INGREDIENTS: * 5 oz chorizo sausage (not the hard salami sort of sausage), halved lengthwise and cut into ¼ - inch half-moons * 1 lb ground beef * ½ teaspoon ground cumin * ½ teaspoon ground coriander * ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon * 3 cardamom pods, bruised * 2 cups good-quality tomato and chunky vegetable sauce for pasta * 1 14-oz can mixed spicy beans * ¼ cup sweet chile sauce * ¼ teaspoon chile flakes, optional, or if your canned beans are not spicy * Put the sliced chorizo into a hot pan and cook over medium heat until the sausage crisps a little and gives up its orange-red oil.


PREPARATION: * Add the ground beef and cook for about 5 minutes, breaking it up with a wooden fork to help it brown. * Stir in the spices and then ad the tomato-vegetable pasta sauce, beans, and chile sauce. Also add the chile flakes if you need more heat. * Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 20 minutes and eat with rice or just as it is. If you're not adding any rice, you might consider dolloping with a blob of sour cream and sprinkling some grated cheese and chopped cilantro. I cant think of any way of eating this that isn't good.

Serves 4

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Cardamom gains 1.4% on spot demand

Press Trust of India / New Delhi Mar 07, 2012, 15:07 IST



Cardamom prices rose by Rs 14.40 to Rs 1,028.90 per kg in futures trade today as speculators created fresh positions, tracking a firming spot market trend on pick-up in demand.
Less arrivals from producing region also supported the uptrend in cardamom futures.

At the Multi Commodity Exchange, cardamom for delivery in April rose by Rs 14.40, or 1.42%, to Rs 1,028.90 per kg, with a business turnover of 399 lots.
March cardamom gained Rs 5.10, or 0.53%, to Rs 968 per kg, with a business turnover of 687 lots.
Market analysts said fresh buying by speculators on the back of pick-up in spot market demand mainly led to rise in cardamom prices at futures trade.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

LIME & CARDAMOM SCONES



Ingredients:

DRY
3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup pastry flour
6 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
6 TB sugar
3 tsp lime zest
3 tsp cardamom
2/3 cup craisins





WET
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup oil
2 tsp vanilla
2 TB lime juice

Preheat oven to 400˚.

In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients together with a whisk. Then whisk wet ingredients together and add to the dry ingredients. With a rubber spatula gently mix everything together. If dough seems too dry to hold together, squeeze about 2-3 tablespoon of lime juice into the dough and continue folding and mixing until dough holds together, pressing the dough into the dry bits at the bottom of the bowl until it becomes one cohesive mass.

Gently press into an 8” circle and cut into 6 wedges. Line a baking try with parchment paper and set each wedge about 2-3 inches apart. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until pale brown on the edges. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. When nearly completely cool you can go ahead and drizzle on the glaze. Let the glaze dry for about ten minutes before serving.

GLAZE

1 cup icing sugar (or more if needed for thickness)

2 TB lime juice
1 tsp grated lime zest

With a small whisk or fork, mix together the icing sugar, zest and lime juice until thick but pourable.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Chicken Curry

Ingredients:
Whole cumin seeds,
mustard seeds,
onion,
root ginger,
garlic,
green chilli,
chicken breast,
tomato puree,
green pepper,
ground coriander,
tumeric,
cardamom pods,
fresh coriander,
lemon and  Basmati rice

Monday, March 5, 2012

Traditional Saudi Kabsa (Kabseh) Rice



Ingredients :

1 2/12 - 3 pound chicken, cut into eight pieces
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 medium onions, sliced
1 (12 ounce) can tomato puree
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 medium carrots, grated
Grated rind of one orange
4 cloves
4 cardamom pods
3 sticks cinnamon
Sale and pepper to taste
1 pound long grain rice
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup sliced almonds
Preparation:
Sautee onion in oil until it begins to brown. Add chicken pieces, tomato puree, chopped tomatoes and garlic and stir for about five minutes over low heat. Stir in three cups hot water, grated carrot, orange rind, spices, salt and pepper to taste. Cook over medium heat, covered, about 20-25 minutes, until chicken is done.

Remove chicken. Set aside to keep warm. Stir rice into the liquid in the pan, and cook, covered over low heat for about 35 - 40 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed.
Put rice on a serving platter with chicken pieces arranged around the circumfrence. Toss raisins and almonds over all.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Ras Malai, Bangali Sweet Dessert.

Ras Malai is dumplings made from cottage or riccotta cheese soaked in sweetened, thickened milk delicately flavored with cardamom. Serve it chilled and garnished with slivers of dried fruit.

Ingredients:

Paneer made from 1 liter of milk (recipe below)
1 liter full cream/ whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cardamom powder
4 cups water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup thinly sliced almonds or pistachios



Preparation:

Mix the water and 1 cup of sugar in a pan and boil till all the sugar is dissolved. Turn off the fire and keep syrup aside.
Knead the Paneer (How to make Paneer) in a platter till very smooth. Make into balls slightly smaller than the size of a walnut and flatten slightly in the center.
When the Paneer balls are made, reheat the syrup to boiling, then simmer and gently drop in the Paneer balls. Cook for 10 minutes. Turn off fire.
In another pan boil the 1 litre of full cream milk with the 1/2 cup of sugar, till reduced/thickened to 75 per cent of its original volume. Turn off the fire, add the cardamom powder and mix well.
Add the syrup soaked Paneer balls (after draining) to the milk mixture and chill for a few hours.
Before serving, garnish with slivers of dried fruit.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Top Chef Finalist Beverly Kim Inspired by Black Cardamom.


If you go into the spice section of any grocery store looking for cardamom, green cardamom is what you'll find. Black cardamom, less popular and stronger in flavor, is a different genus of the same family—the ginger family, to be precise. It's dried over an open flame, which gives it a smoky aroma. Beverly Kim also noted a menthol-like, medicinal flavor. "It's almost completely different from green cardamom; I was really surprised," she said. "It's very powerful. It needs to be balanced with other spices to round out the flavor."


Kim read that you're not supposed to eat black cardamom raw. She tried it anyway: "I ate it raw, and it's fine. But I don't think you're going to get the beauty of it eating it raw. You have to let it cook out."

Green cardamom has a light, citrusy quality to it that makes it useful in both sweet and savory dishes; black cardamom is used almost exclusively in savory preparations. Nevertheless, Kim decided to make a dessert with her ingredient. Inspired by the smokiness and blackness of black cardamom, she made a black cardamom molasses cake, paired with a chai ice cream infused with black tea, cardamom, and other spices. Other elements of the dish included raisins pickled in dark rum and lemon juice, baby carrots poached in simple syrup with ginger, a "soil" of walnuts and cake crumbles, and "ginger hay"—fresh ginger sliced into thin sticks and then deep-fried.


Black cardamom molasses cake, black cardamom chai ice cream, ginger hay, and buttermilk puree
Black cardamom molasses cake, black cardamom chai ice cream, ginger hay, and buttermilk puree
"It's all really dark, and I'm thinking it's going to look kind of like a wicked, stark black landscape," she said. "Like black hills of the cake, and the curly weeds of the carrots coming out, kind of like a dark forest. And then painted buttermilk puree on the bottom, because you need to balance those dark flavors with something light and acidic and kind of ghostly looking. . . . I was also thinking it's perfect before Halloween. I want something creepy."

Read the entire article Here