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Not just curry: Green cardamom chicken cacciatore
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By
Sarina Kamini
Abstract
Mum used to make cacciatore from the Women’s Weekly cookbooks and always served it with basmati rice. Celebrating the strong floral and eucalypt flavour of whole green cardamom, this low and slow stew is comfort food 101.
Green cardamom is the dessert queen of Indian spice.
It has a floral sweetness that makes it a perfect match with condensed dairy and rosewater and is used in everything from kulfi and kheer to barfi and halwa. However, green cardamom’s husky eucalyptus quality makes it an ideal inclusion in savoury dishes, too.
In traditional Kashmiri cuisine, green cardamom is a staple in paneer and rogan josh – festive, time-consuming dishes that employ this particular spice to cut through the heavy aromatic weight of rich tomato-based masalas.
Outside of curry, I use green cardamom in the same way.
With chicken cacciatore, the strength of green cardamom is in its ability to match up to strong salty umami flavours of chicken fat, olives, slow-cooked tomatoes and salted capers and provide a point of floral contrast. A prettier spice might get lost. But not green cardamom.
Using the spice in this kind of tomato-based slow cooks means always using the spice in its whole state, as a pod and not as a ground spice. Changing the form of spice changes its flavour profile: by grinding down cardamom much of its last and intensity is lost, and the spice itself becomes prettier but far less impactful.
Leave the pods in for the whole cook. Upon reheating the meal after refrigeration, remove the pods – whole spice will go through the dish a second time upon heating, overpowering existing flavours.
Green cardamom top tips
• Use a mortar and pestle to crack the pods before putting them in the dish to help the spice release its aroma with more speed and intensity.
• Green cardamom pairs beautifully with whole black cardamom pods in savoury dishes. When combining, use less of both: two black cardamom pods and four or five green cardamom pods is plenty in a dish with a heavy aromatic profile.
• Green cardamom pods are delicious warmed through porridge with ground cinnamon and clove.Read More
