Food: Turmeric [edit]

Other Names: Tumeric, 姜黄 (Chinese), الكركم (Arabic), Curcuma (French), Cúrcuma (Spanish), Куркума (Russian) All Translations

Photo: Flickr user bengal*foam

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Edited by: Barnaby Dorfman

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Wikipedia

Turmeric (''Curcuma longa'') is a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial plant of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae. | accessyear = 2009}} It is native to tropical South Asia and needs temperatures between 20°C and 30°C, and a considerable amount of annual rainfall to thrive (Materia Indica, 1826, Whitelaw Ainslie, M.D. M.R.A.S., via Google Books). Plants are gathered annually for their rhizomes, and re-seeded from some of those rhizomes in the following season. The rhizomes are boiled for several hours and then dried in hot ovens, after which they are ground into a deep orange-yellow powder commonly used as a spice in curries and other South Asian and Middle Eastern cuisine, for dyeing, and to impart color to mustard condiments. Its active ingredient is curcumin and it has a distinctly earthy, slightly bitter, slightly hot peppery flavor and a mustardy smell. In medieval Europe, turmeric became known as Indian Saffron, since it was widely used as an alternative to the far more expensive saffron spice. Erode, a city in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, is the world's largest producer and most important trading center of turmeric in Asia. For these reasons, Erode in history is also known as "Yellow City" or "Turmeric City". Sangli, a town in the southern part of the Indian state of Maharashtra, is the second largest and most important trading center for turmeric in Asia.

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[edit] About Turmeric

Bright yellow spice, usually in the form of a dried powder made from the dried ground root of the plant of the same name. Turmeric is often associated with Indian cuisines and is a key ingredient in many curries, but is commonly used in much of Asia. It has an deep, earthy flavor and is not spicy at all by itself, but is often paired with chilies in more spicy dishes.

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