Week 7: Carda Carda Carda Carda, Cardamom Chameleon

I must admit I went into this weeks creation without a lot of enthusiasm. The green tea turnout was such a bummer for me, I was nervous to try another "spiced" flavor. But I stuck to really following (and making sure I accurately read) the recipe this time. I used just egg yolks and decided to not double the recipe for fear it may screw it up. Plus cardamom is not typically thought of as an ice cream flavor so I didn't know how popular it would be. Actually most of the time when I mentioned it last week people said, "What's that?" Cardamom is an Indian spice which has a flavor that's hard to describe. I taste notes of orange, cinnamon, and an overall spicy flavor. It reminds me a bit of spiced chai tea. My boss picked the flavor this week and she graciously provided me with the cardamom pods to make it with. I broke open the pods to take out the seeds and then ground the seeds into a powder.

The texture of this was much better. Thicker, creamier, richer - how ice cream should be. I'm sure the sweetened condensed milk is really what gave it the right consistency. The flavor is unique and definitely unexpected. In the future I think I would purchase ground cardamom because my grinder didn't get the seeds pulverized enough to not add a texture to the mixture. I do think that the freshly ground seeds probably provided a much stronger flavor than packaged ground cardamom would have had. It was interesting to make this because I had never had cardamom or seen it in pod form. It didn't take that many pods to make a tbsp worth of powder, but it was a bit time consuming to break open the pods. I had to use pliers, because my hands would have been sore trying to break them open with my fingers. The skins although they are papery, are quite tough. But I will take free ingredients whenever they are offered to me. So thank you for the donation. I hope it was worth it!

photo from Taj Agro Products