Fresh turmeric
A friend of mine bought some fresh turmeric root at a farmer's market, and asked me what to do with it. I found some information on the internet and also suggested grating it into rice or using it in a curry, but I have no personal experience with it. Has anyone cooked with it?
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Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but tumeric does not have much taste. I believe it is used more for coloring.
I never tried fresh though. Does it have much flavor?›3 Replies-
re: Ida Red
Turmeric, both dried and fresh, does have flavor. The fresh is lass musty than the dried and is a bit like very mild ginger. As another poster mentioned, beware the staining power of fresh turmeric. Chop or grate it on a surface that you don't mind having stained for a while (same goes for fingers if you touch the peeled sections). It is delicious in all sorts of dishes like stir frys or eggs. Really, it is pretty versitile because of its mildness. Dr. Andrew Weil has been touting the health benefits of fresh turmeric all over the place.
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re: LizR
It does taste, and fresh tastes pretty good (most dried doesn't to me.) Pretty much any recipe that calls for dry turmeric tastes better with fresh. But like saffron, there's a fine line between enough and medicinal-tasting overkill. Start with less; as usual, you can always add more but can't remove excess.
Definitely agree about the staining power! Off the top of my head, I can't think of any other food that stains worse than, maybe, fresh beet juice...
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It shows up fairly often in SE Asian food- currys, satays, etc... A warning though, this stuff stains like mad. Expect everything it touches to be yellow for at least a few washings and take necessary precautions.
Here is a good malaysian satay recipe that uses fresh (and gorund) turmeric.
