Mild Pieces of Squash and Potato Offer a Perfect Canvas for Caoguo’s Bright, Piney Flavor

The foods of Central Yunnan are known for a variety of different flavors and ingredients. Visit a market at any time of year, and you’ll find a wide range of deeply fermented pickled vegetables, lots of dried chilies and, if you know where to look, all manner of foraged ingredients from the nearby mountains. In the summer and fall, the range and variety of wild mushrooms is particularly stunning. But of all the flavors in this part of China, none is more tied to the area, in my mind, than the citrusy, piney, smokey flavor of caoguo (草果), or Chinese black cardamom. 

Caoguo, a relative of ginger native to the Eastern Himalayas, is used throughout China to flavor broths and sauces and to infuse oils. But the plant is primarily cultivated in an area ranging from Nepal into Yunnan and, not surprisingly, it’s used far more extensively in these regions. When I was traveling through remote towns in Central Yunnan, particularly around Jingdong County, I often tasted caoguo’s distinctive flavors in nearly every dish on the table. Whole pods were often used in broths and stews, as you often find in other parts of the country, but the spice was also used in its ground form in famous regional dishes like yellow-stewed chicken, in shao kao spice mixes and in simple preparations like summer squash stewed with black cardamom (cǎoguǒ mèn xiǎoguā, 草果焖小瓜).

Dishes like this one (which also includes some pieces of waxy potato along with the squash) take advantage of the aromatic qualities of the spice’s interior seeds: While the outer pods are fairly smokey—thanks to the way they are normally dried, over a wood fire or in a wood-fired oven-like setup—the seeds inside the pods retain the plant’s distinctive citrusy, piney notes. When ground fresh, the spice is extremely aromatic and infuses everything it is cooked with. Here, it is added to a little bit of water so that it will suffuse pieces of mild squash and potato with its bright and smokey flavor.

Choosing Summer Squash for Stewing

This dish uses round, flat summer squash like pattypan—the kind that looks a bit like a flying saucer or a lumpy round star. These “scallop squash” varieties come in different colors, from green to yellow to white, but all work well for this dish because they share an important characteristic: They have large firm sections surrounding a small seed-filled core. These firm areas cook up nicely, retaining their shape and a toothsome texture instead of becoming mushy or falling apart like other types of summer squash.

If you can’t find a pattypan squash, or you’re making this dish during the colder months and want a more fall- or winter-friendly flavor, you can also use a winter squash, like butternut. Just peel off the skins with a vegetable peel or a sharp cleaver, scoop out the seeds and stringy insides and cut the flesh into 1½-to-2-inch-long, 1-inch-thick pieces, as described in the recipe. You may have to stew this type of squash longer (adding extra water) to fully soften it.

Grinding Black Cardamom

Black cardamom seeds lose their flavor very quickly when ground up, so they should always be prepared the day you plan to use them. The process isn’t tricky: All you have to do is crack open the outer pod (crushing it with the side of a cleaver will do the trick) and use your fingers to remove the square, pointy-edged seeds—this is where the real flavor is. Remove and discard the white, papery membrane that holds the seeds together; you can also discard the pod’s shell (or, if you like, save it to add to a broth or stew). The seeds are pretty hard, but you can grind them in the same kind of spice grinder you’d use for Sichuan peppercorns. (I keep an old espresso grinder, like this one, around just for this purpose. Clean it well after use as the caoguo’s aroma and flavor will linger.)

For more easy, starchy sides, try Kathy’s Sichuan Hot and Sour Shredded Potato (Suanla Tudousi, 酸辣土豆丝), Taylor’s Roasted Potatoes in Chinese Black Bean Sauce and my Yunnan Grandma’s Potatoes (Laonai Yangyu, 老奶洋芋).