Add the empty vanilla pods and bring to the boil.Pour the boiling milk on to the egg-and-sugar mixture, whisking fast. Add the egg yolks and beat the mixture until it lightens in colour.Pour the milk into a saucepan. Crush them a little with the flat of a knife.Mix the prepared sugar with the rest of the sugar in a bowl. Cook for 30 seconds on the other side.To serve, put the fish fillets on four warmed plates and spoon the vinaigrette to the side.From 'Fruits of the Sea', BBC pounds 17.99GLACE A LA VANILLETo make 1.5 litres/212 pints2 vanilla pods250g/9oz sugar6 egg yolks500ml/1 pint milk600ml/just over 1 pint double creamOpen the vanilla pods and scrape out all the little seeds with the flat of a knife.Mix the vanilla seeds on a board with one tablespoon of the sugar, making sure the seeds are well distributed so that later on they are not all found sticking together in little groups in the ice-cream. Cook the fish fillets, skin-side down, for one minute, pressing down on top of each fillet in turn with the back of a fish slice to help mark them with the lines from the griddle. Keep just warm over a very low heat.Heat a lightly oiled cast-iron ribbed pan until very hot. Remove the shallot halves, then add the remaining clarified butter, plus the tomato, chervil, quarter-teaspoon of salt and six turns of the black-pepper mill.

Add the fish stock and boil once more until reduced to about three tablespoons. Put the seeds and pod into a small pan with the Noilly Prat, vinegar and shallot, bring to the boil and boil for a few minutes until reduced to about one tablespoon. It has the breath-taking, dismaying pungency of camphor.SEA BASS WITH VANILLA BUTTER VINAIGRETTEServes 4100g/4oz unsalted butter4 sea bass fillets, weighing about 100g/4oz each, skinned12 vanilla pod50ml/2fl oz Noilly Prat2 teaspoons white wine vinegar1 shallot, peeled and halved150ml/5fl oz fish stock25g/1oz peeled, seeded and diced tomato1 tablespoon chopped fresh chervilsaltfreshly ground black pepperClarify the butter by melting it gently in a small pan, then skimming off any froth and pouring off the clear liquid into another pan, leaving behind the butter solids which will have collected at the bottom.Brush both sides of the sea-bass fillets with a little clarified butter and season with salt and pepper.For the vinaigrette, split the vanilla pod lengthways, scrape out the seeds with a small teaspoon and then chop the pod very finely. One of its few inroads into the UK (outside curry) is its appearance in Indian restaurants as the ice cream, kulfi, offsetting the richness of the condensed milk.If you happen to see black cardomom, the grains of which are slightly larger, don't buy it for cooking.

They also use it to spice mulled wine and add extra punch to a punch.In the Middle East it is popular in strong black coffee, a single crushed grain adding mysterious interest. The Swedish use it as a flavouring for buns, cakes and milk puddings (just as we sometimes use caraway seed, another spice with a prickly bite). In Germany it is added to some of their more pungent wurst (slicing sausage) and to rollmop herring marinades. And although it is one of the oldest spices known to man, its use in the West is only moderate.

The crunchy seeds, ground up, are essential in garam masala, the bouquet of warm spices used in north Indian cooking (blended with ground, cloves, cinnamon, mace, cumin, coriander and black peppercorns).It grows in the rain forests of Kerala in south India several thousand feet up. It has a stimulating, warming effect, and is used in the Middle East and India as a breath freshener.The green pods (white ones are green cardomoms bleached in sulphur dioxide) are a key element in Indian cooking. It has a certain bite on the tongue (like peppermint, though the flavour is more like lemon peel). This may come as a surprise to Britons, many of whom are not even aware of its existence (although they experience its medicinal flavours in cough sweets).It is a difficult flavour to pin down. You can leave the pods to macerate indefinitely.! For stockists of Bespoke Foods call 0171 737 3777CARDOMONThe world's most expensive spice is cardomom.