Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Spice guide to Red Tsaoko along with all the Red Tsaoko containing recipes presented on this site, with 3 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the spice-based recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Red Tsaoko as a major flavouring.

Red Tsaoko, also knowns simply as Tasoko or Caokou are the fruit pods of Lanxangia tsao-ko (formerly Amomum tsao-ko) a ginger-like plant known in English by the transliterated Chinese name (Chinese: 草果; pinyin: cǎoguǒ; Jyutping: cou2 gwo2; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: chháu-kó).

Lanxangia tsao-ko grows at high altitudes in Eastern Nepal, the Yunnan province of China, as well as the northern highlands of Vietnam. Both wild and cultivated plants are used medicinally and also in cooking. The dried fruit of the plant has a pungent, gingery taste that has been likened to smoked cardamom.

Before harvesting, the pods look a little like large Red Globe grapes clustered at the base of the plant. They are dried over open flames, giving the outer husk a wrinkled leathery texture and the dark brown seeds inside a unique flavour that is smoky, peppery, and warm.

The spice is also known as red cardamom or Chinese black cardamom or grass cardamom. It is used in some versions of Chinese five-spice as well as being an ingredient in Chinese thirteen-spice powder.

Red Tsaoko is an intensely aromatic spice with a smoky, menthol-like flavour. Chinese black cardamom or tsaoko (not to be confused with black cardamom), has larger seed pods and less of a kick.