Filling a masala dabba: seven spices and how much of each
Which spices earn a place in the round steel tin, how much to keep in each bowl, and when to refill.
A walk through a cardamom estate
From the shade of Idukki’s forests to the curing house: how cardamom is grown.
Green cardamom grows in the shade, under tall forest trees, in the hills of Idukki at around 1,000 metres. The plants look like tall grass, and the pods grow on runners close to the ground, hidden under the leaves.
Picking is slow work. The pods ripen a few at a time, so each plant is picked every 30 to 40 days from August to February. Pickers crouch and lift the leaves to find the ripe pods, which must be picked green, just before they turn yellow.
The pods go to a curing house the same day, where they are dried for about 18 hours over gentle heat. Too hot, and they split and turn pale; too cool, and they mould. A good curer can tell by the sound the pods make when he turns them.
After drying, the pods are rubbed to remove the stalks, then sorted by size. The boldest, 8 mm and above, are the ones we buy. They are greener, hold more seeds, and keep their scent the longest.
