Vanilla beans
These are the long, thin pods of the orchid, dried before use. The seeds are edible, and the pods themselves are used to make vanilla extract, vanilla sugar, vanilla powder. Vanilla beans are soft, oily, very dark in color, covered with barely noticeable, tiny white crystals.
Recipe vanilla extract at home.
Used for preparing desserts, cocktails, and drinks.
Sun-dried vanilla beans have a unique sweet flavor and aroma. The process of growing them, as well as extracting the aromatic powder from the seeds, is quite labor-intensive, making vanilla a rather expensive ingredient.
75% of the vanilla on the market is grown in Madagascar. The rest is grown in Tahiti and Mexico. The long, thin, and wrinkled black vanilla pods contain thousands of tiny black seeds, which are used to make a fragrant powder used primarily in sweet dishes. Vanilla pairs especially well with chocolate.
An indicator of real vanilla is the presence of small black particles in the powder.
How to choose the best one?
If you buy vanilla beans, they should be black-brown, wrinkled but fresh, with a slightly shiny surface. They should be between 15 and 20 cm long.
Preparation
The vanilla pods are opened and the seeds are scraped out using a small but sharp knife.
The seeds are added directly to dishes during cooking. You can also add the whole pod to milk and bring it to a boil. The milk will be infused with a vanilla aroma, which can then be used to make milk pudding.
You can dry a fresh vanilla bean pod for a couple of days, then place it in a jar with sugar and let it sit there for at least a week. This will create vanilla-flavored sugar, which can then be used in baking.
All recipes with vanilla bean
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