I am currently attempting to make the “Fragrant Spiced Rice Pudding” on page 136 of “Gordon Ramsay’s Home Cooking.”
I am a novice with cooking so forgive me if my question is common sense for those more experienced.
The recipe calls for “2 cardamom pods lightly crushed” along with some other spices which I heat in a pan prior to mixing in any other ingredients. In the image accompanying the recipe I can see he leaves in the vanilla pods, and thiis leads me to believe that I am leaving in the husks of the cardamom pods.
My question is regarding the phrase “lightly crushed.” Does this involve breaking open the husks and crushing the seeds inside or just crushing the husks so that they crack open?
Best Answer
I'm pretty sure it's just crushing the husks a bit so they crack open - that's how I do it when I see "lightly crushed" for cardamom pods. It gives access to the seeds inside so flavor can infuse out of the pod and into the dish. The whole pod should be visible in the recipe, and removed before eating (would be a woody bite, else).
If you crush the husk in smaller bits, which would be needed to get to & crush the seeds, it would be harder to find and fish out, and more likely some huskish bit would find its way into and leave its texture in a bite. Its similar to how cinnamon would be used in big chunks of a stick that can be fished out, or else ground really finely into dust, but not left in a dish in in-between-sized little fragments - the texture is just not desirable
If the recipe wanted crushed or ground seeds to release the flavor, it would have asked for seeds instead of (or as well as) a whole pod.