Browsing through a local spice shop recently, I spotted a jar of knobbly, bright yellow twigs. They looked very mysterious, until I realized they were a familiar spice in a very unfamiliar form. Can you guess what it is?
Turmeric! The mustard-yellow color should have given it away, but until I saw it in its dried, whole form, I never knew powdered turmeric was once the rhizome of a plant in the ginger family. In South Asia, where the turmeric plant grows, the rhizomes are used fresh, or are boiled, oven-dried and ground into the more familiar powdered form.
The turmeric I bought has been boiled and dried, and can be grated fresh for recipes on a microplane. Each rhizome is quite hard, and leaves behind a faint trace of powder on my fingers when I touch it. After grating, the smell of the turmeric powder is a bit more fragrant than the pre-ground stuff in my spice cupboard, but since turmeric has a fairly subtle scent, the difference isn't huge. I have a feeling whole turmeric isn't going to be a staple for me, but I'll have fun playing around with this new version of an old standby.
What would you make with a piece of whole turmeric?
Related: Recipe: Turmeric-Ginger Tea
(Image: Anjali Prasertong)
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Beef stew and rice will be delicious with turmeric.
I'd try to dye some cloth, to be honest ;-)
I've found turmeric fresh before, both at Whole Foods (only once and it hasn't made a return) and at our local Asian grocery. I've made both Thai and Indonesian dishes with the fresh stuff, but my understanding is that the whole, dry stuff is just like the powder but retains its flavor better. Probably I would grate it and use it in a more turmeric-heavy Indian dish.
Pad Thai!
My favourite spice shop (www.epicesdecru.com) sells these. Be careful! Grate it using a microplane or pound it in a cast iron mortar and pestle. Don't use any other type of mortar and pestle or a spice mill. It's very hard and it will break most other instruments.
i grate it and use it in my Pakistani and Afghan curries. but too much of turmeric can spoil a dish, too, it is a rather heavy, heady scent/flavour.
It makes a nice refrigerator pickle/relish : slice turmeric into medallions, put in a jar with lemon juice and salt. Serve after 2-3 days. I like it with dahl & rice.
My first guess would have been ginger, and I am pleased to know that both ginger and turmeric are in the same family.
I've heard that fresh turmeric is an unbelievably delicious thing, but I have never, ever seen it!
I buy fresh turmeric whenever I see it. It appears sporadically at my local co-ops, farmers markets, Indian markets, and Whole Foods. I steep it with equal amounts of ginger and it makes a great tea.
Yai, i guessed right ^_^
turmeric is always one of those spices i see on an ingredient list and i always say "oh i can just leave that out" it never seems to make a big difference to me. Maybe I need to try fresh
sounds like a messy job tho i swear if i use even a half a teaspoon of turmeric in something everything in my kitchen takes on a yellowish tinge...
I'd make tea, too...it's an anti-inflammatory that helps with my arthritis.
Oh, wow! I wish this stuff was available here. I use turmeric in a bunch of dishes, but my favourite place to sprinkle it is on scrambled tofu. I just sauté an onion until golden ground, add crumbled extra firm tofu, a generous amount of turmeric and black pepper, and some sea salt. Serve with hot buttered toast and fresh tomato slices.
Adamwa, you obviously haven't had the fresh stuff; it's a lot more flavourful than people who have only encountered the stale stuff would expect.