A Whisper of Cardamom: 80 Sweetly Spiced Recipes to Fall In Love With

by Eleanor Ford

Overview

Winner! Next Generation Indie Book Award for Best Cookbook

Winner! Next Generation Indie Book Award for Best Overall Design

Celebrating the love story between sugar and spice, this stunning new volume from award-winning cookbook author Eleanor Ford presents eighty spice-infused recipes for desserts and baked goods and a guide to spice switches so you can master classic flavor combinations and open the door to new possibilities.

Spice is often the party girl: the loud, bold, exuberant element in the mix. When married with sugar, spice can provide a delicate fragrance that gives backbone to a dish and deepens its allure. Just as a generous swirl of woody-sweet cinnamon elevates a simple bun, a fiery gingerbread is a wonder in the mouth, nutmeg cuts through the sweet creaminess of custard to make a more rounded tart, and a whisper of cardamom makes poached plums jaunty and interesting.

As international spice expert Eleanor Ford shows in A Whisper of Cardamom, flavors can be enhanced by a thoughtful addition from the spice drawer—added not in shouts, but in whispers. With her signature blend of curiosity and exploration, Eleanor returns with another brilliant study of spice that will help you infuse elegance and complexity into sweet treats. Divided into flavor profiles like bright and zippy, floral and fragrant, and dark and spicy, A Whisper of Cardamom is a cookbook designed to inspire creativity and experimentation. In addition to eighty recipes for sweets such as saffron macaroons, roast strawberry soufflés, and violet cream chocolate pots, spice swaps will help you customize dishes and discover worlds of flavors, and exquisite, inspiring photos are throughout.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781954641327
Publisher:	Apollo Publishers
Publication date:	03/05/2024
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	7.50(w) x 9.50(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Eleanor Ford is a food writer and cook who uses food as a means to explore culture and understand the world. Described by Yotam Ottolenghi as a "culinary detective," she is the winner of numerous awards, including an Edward Stanford Travel Writing award and three Guild of Food Writers awards, the most recent of which she won for her third book, The Nutmeg Trail: Recipes and Stories Along the Ancient Spice Routes (Apollo Publishers), which was featured in the New York Times, listed for the Art of Eating prize, and a finalist for a Foreword Review Award. In addition to The Nutmeg Trail, she is the author of the multi-award-winning volume Fire Islands: Recipes from Indonesia (Apollo Publishers) and Samarkand: Recipes & Stories from Central Asia and the Caucasus. Alongside writing about food, Eleanor gives talks about it across the globe including regular lectures on spice for The Smithsonian. She lives in London, England.

Read an Excerpt

When choosing, cooking, or creating a sweet dish, both texture and flavor need to be considered.

Are you after something smooth and singular as a blank canvas for flavor? A gently wobbly panna cotta, perhaps, or a clean sorbet? Or do you want a contrast of crunch or chew, like nubs of dark chocolate in an ice cream or a shell of caramelized sugar to break through before reaching the soft custard below? In cakes and bakes, you might want ethereal lightness; a more buttery sponge; or something damp, squidgy, and rich with flavor.

Flavor is our main concern in this book, how ingredients, and spices in particular, can be blended and layered to create something nuanced and special.

You can pair flavor profiles that have a natural affinity: citrusy lemongrass with lemon; woody sweet cinnamon with nutmeg; vanilla with chocolate. Or choose flavors to play off each other: the sweet muskiness of rose with puckery rhubarb; heady cardamom with the buttery smoothness of pistachio.

Each spice will bring something different, whether sweetness, fragrance, sourness, piquancy, or nuttiness. Combining them creates complexity, and you can layer the same or different spices to greater effect by using multiple techniques in a single dish. This way you can create base notes, middle notes, and top notes. Start with more robust spices that can stand up to cooking, and finish with more ephemeral flavors to preserve their delicate magic. You can also do this with a single spice. For instance, adding nutmeg early will allow its sweet warmth to permeate, but an additional grating at the end will bring its subtleties to the fore.

Clever spice use lets us cut back on sugar as spice can sweeten in other ways, whether through its chemicals (aniseed) or its learned associations (vanilla). To my mind, the best foods aren’t an unrelenting onslaught of sweet anyway. Chinese culture tends to agree with this sentiment and a common compliment of a dessert is “It’s not too sweet.” The palate quickly tires of saccharine intensity (even if the brain forgets to pass the message on soon enough!).

A more pleasing dish comes when there is a persistent push-pull: of sweet and sour, sweet and salty, sweet and bitter, sweet and spicy.

For this we have the flavor enhancers. Just as spices can add sweetness, depth, and warmth to baking, so can sugar, salt, acid, and heat bring out character. Use them to balance a dish, tasting as you go. Sugar doesn’t just sweeten, it intensifies the flavors of fruit and spice. The warming heat of ginger, pepper, or chili excites the tongue. Even a few drops of acid, such as citrus juice or vinegar, will brighten a dish. And don’t forget salt in sweet cookery. Sometimes you want it there distinctly—delicate flakes on bitter chocolate or a lip-smackingly saline caramel—but more generally, a pinch of salt will discreetly enhance and balance flavors just as it does in savory cooking. Combine sweet, hot, sour, salty, and aromatic in harmony and you will create a dish that arouses every sense.

Table of Contents

An Ode to Cardamom

• Perfumed Roast Figs
• Maple Cardamom Ice Cream with Crackable Chocolate
• The Lightest Pistachio Biscuits
• Cardamom, Marzipan, and Cherry Bundt
• Rhubarb, Cardamom, and Ricotta Parcels
• Summer Red Fruits with Rose and Cardamom

Sugar ♥ Spice Featurette

• Shimmering Silvered Burfi
• Cardamom and Nutmeg Nankhatai

Sweet & Warming

• Bramley Apple and Clove Cake
• Nutmeg Cake
• Spiced Blueberry Crumble
• Apple and Allspice Puddle Pudding
• Tipsy Cherries with Barbados Cream
• Norwegian Rizcrem
• Milk Chocolate Tart with Nutmeg Pastry
• Basque Cheesecake with Sweet Spices
• Glühwein Plum and Cherry Jam
• Masala Chai Snickerdoodles
• Cinnamon Sugar Palmiers
• Apple Custard and Sweet Spice Tarts
• New Zealand Ginger Crunch

A Is for Aniseed

• Licorice Meringue Kisses with Rose Cream
• Sweet Roast Plums with Five Spice
• Wrinkled Chocolate and Anise Cookies
• Jeweled Quince with Star Anise
• Exceptionally Good Seed Cake
• Caraway Sherbet Dip

Alcohol ♥ Spice Featurette

• Quick Strawberry Jam with Vanilla and Aniseed
• Fennel Marzipan-Stuffed Dates
• Frozen Pistachio, Mastic, and Honey Creams

Vanilla Is Not a Neutral

• Homemade Vanilla Extract
• Vanilla-Roasted Rhubarb with Zabaglione
• White and Black Sticky Cake
• Chocolate, Roasted Walnut, and Vanilla Bean Cake

Chocolate ♥ Spice Featurette

• A Pink Cake for Sylvia
• Vanilla and Nutmeg Marshmallows
• Chestnut and Vanilla Affogato
• Oeufs à la Neige
• Tonka Honey Mousse

Flirting with Florals

• Saffron Macaroons
• Lavender and Raspberry Crème Brûlée
• Saffron and Orange Blossom Ice Cream
• Violet Cream Chocolate Pots
• Santiago Almond Torte
• Palm Sugar and Coconut Pandan Pancakes
• Rose and Rhubarb Fool Pavlova
• Sri Lankan Love Cake

Cream ♥ Spice Featurette

• Brown Butter and Cherry Oat Squares
• Roast Strawberry Soufflés

Nutty, Earthy, Smoky

• Turmeric and Tahini Diamonds

Nuts ♥ Spice Featurette

• Coriander, Cumin, and Brown Sugar Fudge
• Garam Masala and Chocolate Chunk Cookies
• Hazelnut, Cardamom, and Chocolate Amaretti
• Red Wine and Wattleseed Chocolate Torte
• Baked Apricots with Maple and Fenugreek
• Black Rice, Black Cardamom

Sour & Citrusy

• Lime Leaf Possets
• Chocolate Ganache with Black Lime
• Rujak Fruit Salad
• Pistachio, Lemon, and Coriander Seed Cake
• White Chocolate Pots with Sumac-Soured Berries
• 1730 Prune and Tamarind Tart
• Lemon Meringue Roulade with Ginger and Passion Berries

Drinks ♥ Spice Featurette

• Tangy Lemon and Juniper Bars
• Golden Lemon Drizzle Cake with Poppy Seeds

Some Like It Hot

• Smoky Chili Brownies
• Chocolate Mousse for Lovers
• Spicy Butter Caramel Popcorn
• Brown Sugar Meringues with Chili and Tamarind
• Spicy Pickled Cherries
• Strawberry Sansho Sorbet
• Raspberry, Balsamic, and Peppercorn Parfait
• Stone Fruit Galette with Marzipan and Long Pepper

Fruit ♥ Spice Featurette

• Gingerbread Love Tokens
• Jamaican Ginger Cakes with Buttered Rum
• Carrot, Spice, and Candied Ginger Cake
• Salt and Pepper Shortbread

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Eleanor Ford

"Eleanor Ford's passion shines through her beautiful and picturesque writing." —Guild of Food Writers Awards

Praise for The Nutmeg Trail

*Winner of two Gourmand World Cookbook Awards*

*Best International or Regional Cookbook, Guild of Food Writers*

“What a deep dive this is into the world of spice. . . . And then the recipes! Recipes which allow the reader to travel from Asia to the Middle East along the spice route, taking in so much flavor and so much context on the way.” —Yotam Ottolenghi

“The Nutmeg Trail: Recipes and Stories Along the Ancient Spice Routes . . . peels back layers of history—spice by spice, starting with nutmeg—from the many seasonings that have elevated food since antiquity. . . . Spices shine in recipes like Keralan black pepper chicken, and superb green peppercorn asparagus.” —The New York Times

“A transportive blend of stories and meals that are as enlightening as they are piquant.” —Publishers Weekly  ✰STARRED REVIEW ✰

“Eleanor Ford is a cook and a historian, a culinary detective, and, as she says, a gastronomic archaeologist. What a deep dive this is into the world of spice. It’s a deep dive, a culinary history, a spice library, anatomy, and miscellany. And then the recipes! Recipes which allow the reader to travel from Asia to the Middle East along the spice route, taking in so much flavor and so much context on the way. It’s the green coconut hot sauce from Somalia first up for me, followed by the green peppercorn asparagus from Thailand.” —Yotam Ottolenghi, chef, restaurateur, and author of Plenty, Jerusalem: A Cookbook, and Ottolenghi Simple

“Capable of transporting readers to tables around the world from their own kitchens.” —USA Today, selected as a top summer 2022 cookbook

“Packed with fascinating history, stylish photography, useful guidelines and recipe descriptions as mouthwatering as the dishes themselves, The Nutmeg Trail is an international cookbook you’ll want to savor.” —BookTrib

“A fascinating, transporting read, packed full of intriguing recipes I can’t wait to try.” —Felicity Cloake, food writer for The Guardian and New Statesman, and author

“A fragrant, intoxicating, and mesmerizing voyage into the history and global spread of spice. With recipes every bit as delectable as the prose.” —Tom Parker Bowles, food writer and author of The Year of Eating Dangerously

“The Nutmeg Trail offers a historical account of the spice trade with invaluable advice on the use of culinary spices—how to prepare and combine them, when to introduce them, and what delights to expect. Mouthwatering.” —John Keay, historian and author of India: A History and China: A History

“In The Nutmeg Trail, Eleanor Ford takes us on a mouthwatering culinary voyage to the fabled ‘spiceries,’ those semi-mystical islands of the East Indies. A heady blend of history, adventure, and deliciously authentic recipes, this book will make you hungry!” —Giles Milton, author of Churchill’s Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare and Nathaniel’s Nutmeg

“A fascinating and evocative journey along the spice routes, the ‘central nervous system of the world.’ The author’s blend of history, geography, taxonomy, and enticing recipes offers a fresh look at these small, potent ingredients that bring magic to our kitchens.” —Fuchsia Dunlop, author of The Food of Sichuan

“I am completely enraptured with The Nutmeg Trail. It is the perfect balance of being fascinating and mouthwatering at the same time.” —Georgina Hayden, author of Taverna

“A tantalizing treatise on the intoxicating world of spice. Eleanor has coupled essays on the history and cultural significance of spices with very enticing recipes. I cannot wait to read, meander, and cook my way along the ancient spice routes that Eleanor has so cleverly traced in this beautiful book.” —Helen Goh, recipe columnist 

“The eclectic collection of recipes from across the world will make the reader want to head straight into the kitchen to conjure up heady meals to share with their family and friends.” —Anissa Helou, author of Feast: Food of the Islamic World

“Eleanor Ford’s enticing cookbook The Nutmeg Trail explores the global history and use of spices—not just in cuisine, but in medicinal remedies, incense, and aphrodisiacs. With instructive photographs and charming graphics, as of tigers prowling alongside cinnamon sticks, The Nutmeg Trail is a heady, informative trip through the realms of spices and time.” —Foreword Reviews

“A charming read from beginning to end. . . . a remarkable book perfect for anyone who loves the culinary arts and cooking, anthropology, history, and travel. The Nutmeg Trail invites readers into an ancient and exotic era that changed the course of history and the food of today.” —Culinary Historians of Canada

Praise for Fire Islands

*Winner of the Kerb Food and Drink Travel Book of the Year and the Guild of Food Writers's Maple International or Regional Cookbook Award*

“A spirited and flavorful roundup of 100 recipes culled from Java, Sumatra, and elsewhere within the world's largest archipelago.” —Publishers Weekly

“This book has real spirit, bold flavors, and beautiful words to boot. In short: it has it all.” —Meera Sodha, author of East, Made in India, and Fresh India

“This book is a great pick...a dazzling primer to Indonesian cuisine.” —Tara’s Multicultural Table

“Fire Islands: Recipes from Indonesia isn’t just a cookbook, it’s a cultural immersion with lessons on how to capture and balance the bold, complex flavours of Indonesian cuisine.” —The Vancouver Sun

From the Publisher