Black cardamom

Cardamome noire

What it is

It is not an oversized green cardamom but a different genus altogether — Amomum, not Elettaria — and the smoke is not the plant’s own: the pods dry for days over open wood fires in kilns called bhattis, and that is what puts the campfire in them. Sikkim grows most of the world’s crop in the shade of alder trees, on hillsides too steep for anything else.

In the kitchen

One pod bruised under the flat of a knife is enough for four people, and it goes in whole so that it can come out whole — bitten into, it tastes medicinal. Never stand it in for green cardamom in anything sweet; against sugar the smoke and camphor read as burnt rather than warm.

Goes with

Lamb Rice Onion Ginger Clove Cinnamon Yogurt Garlic

Also used with

Erjingtiao chilli Kala jeera

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