What to do with turmeric?

[Veggie Boy]

Harvested my tumeric plants today. I think there were four of them. I haven't weighed the harvest - but got quite a lot - certainly much more than I can imagine ever eating, particularly as I've never cooked my fresh stuff before. Any other recipes or uses would be appreciated :-).

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[eco4560]

Nice haul! One of the local permie ladies has dried hers and turned it into powder and she says it keeps really well. The other thing she had sone with it was to make a paste with turmeric and galangal, bottled and kept in the fridge. I don't know what ratio of one to the other but you could play with it and see. That way you can just add a spoon full to your curry or rice, or a drink or whatever.

[Veggie Boy]

Like the paste idea eco. I failed with my ginger this year, but have some galangal plants as a border on one edge of my garden, which I assume will have some reasonable tubers. Do you know what the right time is to harvest galangal? I also have a fair bit of garlic left over from last year's harvest so could spare some of that for a paste also. Maybe tumeric, garlic and galangal in a paste which I can separate into portions and freeze for later use.

[Speedy]

unlike turmeric and ginger , galagal is evergreen and doesn't die off in the dry season (winter).
so harvest anytime you need it by digging from the edge of the clump...nice tender pieces there.
trim stems down to about 20-50cm high for transplanting or down to 5-10cm for easy handling/storage as food.
the tougher , woodier pieces can be grated/ground into spice pastes or sliced and bruised (with the back of a heavy knife) and added as is to soups etc.
any intact harvested rhizomes extra to your immediate needs can be stored in a container of damp sand in a cool shady place until needed.

[eco4560]

Like Speedy said - you can harvest the galangal anytime. Turmeric, galangal and garlic sounds great! Now I wish I hadn't replanted all my turmeric corms... Still - next year I can make LOTS of paste.

[CJConline]

I have heaps of the orange turmeric, if you want some I will post it to you .Just need an address.

I have just completely my PDC in Perth a little over a week ago and am totally inspired and would really appreciate getting some of the real orange stuff to grow. I use a lot of turmeric in our cooking and wonder whether the supermarket stuff has been the yellow variety cause I have found the I have a bit of problems digesting oily foods which is often related to low bile production. So would dearly like to try growing and using the orange one to see if it make a difference.

Will PM you, it that OK with my details.

Thanks so much for your offer,

CHris

[Michaelangelica]

There seems to be many types of Turmeric, as well as Galangal.

One galangal I grew had short,ground-hugging leaves but produced a huge, almost translucent, stunning, orchid like flower. Unfortunately my winters, or black thumb, killed it and I have never seen one since.
Sometimes I wish i was just firmly in one climatic zone or the other (Tasmania or Cairns) or
had a garden in both places so I could grow whatever I wanted- tropic or temperate plant. Sydney promises both and you are tempted to grow tropicals but then along comes a week of frost; other plants I want to grow can't stand the heat and/or humidity of Summer.

[Speedy]

The ground-hugging one is a Kaempferia sp. , possible K.galanga 'Kencur' or 'Cikur' are a couple of the Indonesian names for it.
I prefer not to refer to it by the misleading name 'Lesser Galangal' .... best reserved for Alpinia officinarium, a species rarely, if ever seen in Aust.

Kencur can be a bit tricky to grow - it's dry season (winter) deciduous and can go backwards if not kept growing strong before going dormant.
it can rot in the ground if it gets too wet when dormant.

its easy to lose it in winter.

[Ive Fargottin]

Kaempferia sp. , possible K.galanga 'Kencur' or 'Cikur'

Have you got any recipes for this little beauty!

[Speedy]

BASE SATAY - (Balinese Satay Sauce)


250 g (½lb) raw peanuts, deep fried for 2 minutes or toasted in a dry pan until they're done (keep moving them or they tend to burn or cook unevenly) ...maybe 5min or so.
3 cloves garlic
5 cm (2") kencur rhizome, peeled and chopped
3-5 birds eye chillies
¼ cup palm sugar (sub.with brown sugar if thats all you've got)
1 litre fresh coconut milk (fresh is best , but from a can is better than none)
2 tbsps kecap manis (sweet soya sauce)
1 tbsp fresh squeezed lime (sub. lemon)
1 tbsp fried shallots

Combine peanuts, garlic, chillies and kencur in a food processor and puree or grind to a paste in mortar and pestle.

Put in heavy pan along with coconut milk and sweet soy sauce.
Bring to boil and then reduce heat to simmer uncovered. Cook for 1 hour, stirring frequently to prevent sauce from sticking. Add lime juice and shallots just before serving. Use as a dipping sauce for satay.

Traditional way is on a cobek (a volcanic stone plate) and ulek ulek (a sort of horn shaped pestle) it's easier to use grinding/tearing action with a cobek rather than the pounding action like in a regular mortar and pestle.
not essential but nice info if you like traditional food processing equipment.

http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/Article...ar-pestle.aspx


http://toko-indonesia.org/index.php?...roducts_id=835

to season a cobek first grind dry rice and soaked rice in batches til the rice flour grinds white rather than grey.
then grind turmeric rhizome with garlic and salt to sort of impregnate the stone with the flavours.
That's how I was shown how to do it in Indonesia