My turmeric leaves are starting to die down, and I've heard that is when I should lift the bulb for harvesting. But what do I do with it? I can't use it all fresh this week. Any tips on home preserving? I don't have a dehydrator.
hi you can leave it in the ground. Preserve it there.. particularly while it remains fairly dry... you can as a minimum wait until it dies right down to nothing. We have tumeric in the freezer which we just scrubbed then put it in.. keeps well there. The other option which I am yet to try, but am currently using for jerusalem artichokes is storing in soil. This method is (i think) also sometimes called "heeling in". THe coolness of the soil in a wooden box (or bucket in my case) supposedly stores root crops well. We have eated jerusalem artichokes a month after harvest which were simply stored in soil in the shed, we are also storing there for replanting material.. perhaps freeze some, use some and heel some in (keep some for next year!)
curry paste Very good crop of turmeric dug up end of July last year . You could make a large batch of Burmese curry paste , and try this recipe for Fish Curry. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > BURMESE FISH CURRY This base paste takes a lot of work so its best to double or triple qtys. And store some for later use , it keeps very well in the freezer or just covered in some oil. 1. 3 large onions , roughly chopped . 2. 1 complete bulb of garlic , peeled and crushed. 3. 1 handfull of Turmeric , peeled and grated . 4. 1 big bit of ginger , peeled and grated . 5. 1 cup of oil . 6. fresh chillis can be added [ I don’t ] 7. cook on low heat until all moisture is gone . Ingredients can be put in food processor , but turmeric will stain it forever . This last step takes forever , it must be stirred frequently. It will be a very dark red brown colour , Finished when the oil separates . Now for the Curry .. 1. Heat up 1 teaspoon of prawn paste. 2. Add 1 or 2 finely chopped stalks of lemon grass. 3. Add approx 1 cup of paste. 4. Add 1 tablespoon vinegar 5. Add 1 tablespoon of fish sauce 6. Add 1 cup diced tomato 7. simmer for ten minutes 8. add fish fillets skin up , and fry for 1 minute 9. turn and cover in paste 10. simmer another 10 minutes 11. add handful finely chopped parsely and coriander . 12. nice option is a dash of sesame oil . 13. mild fish is best , fillets are good , cutlets ok > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >
Thats a truck load a tumeric, mine is dying down So i dug out one to hothouse and see if it over winters. It had .........the original tuber I grew it from.....I guess I had little love and Perth might be a bit cold and hot rather than tropical.
Very good harvest when well grown in the tropics . Plant a little finger , and then dig up a few handfulls . i MIGHT EXPERIMENT using some fresh turmeric in pickles . Will have to process some cinnamon branches also I suppose . Grated and then boiled in vinegar with cloves and allspice . Mate down the road just grates several fingers into his daily salad. Imagine a pretty heavy duty machine would be needed to grind up dried turmeric into powder .
Love to hear how you do it. For turmeric we boil for three hours till we can put a skewer in it easily, then dry for ten days back in at night (the fingers reduce their size amazingly) put in jars that stay good for years and crush when we need. We even used in the past a blender but bad for the blades. ok to use mortar and pestle also but it does not grind fine enough. We add to curries we make from scratch with japanese mustard seeds, coriander seed we harvest ripe and fennel seeds. we keep the largest seeds for next season replanting. that is the basis for seedsavers for generations. We have replanted the best for yonks. For turmeric we replant the mothers only.
i love turmeric grate the fresh root mix with lime juice press through a sieve into glass with some palm sugar dissolve serve over ice for the byron crowd think ginger nekta - using turmeric its a traditional balinese/javanese herbal drink except they dont have ice
ooooo I'm so glad I asked this question. My fresh stuff is going to beat the heck out of yellow powder from the shops.
a simple side dish i love fry off in some oil turmeric fresh fine chopped garlic red shallots till garlic is browned add a ripe tomato or 2 quartered and greens ie kankong, gondo, cassava leaf tips (once pre-boiled), amaranth or basella mix and cook till greens are done its a nice side dish, teh turmeric makes it BTW that curry paste above is almost exactly the same i made up what a great autumn dish! all fresh the best fish i would make it with is leatherjacket pieces such a firm sweet fish - delicious up here i think i need to try out pomfrey thats a great sweet tasty fish too
mind you dont eat too much turmeric if you have bile duct problems it inhibits bile release if you do youll need to track down its relative Curcuma xanthorrhiza - Java Turmeric / temu lawak which lacks that effect and has all the same medicinal properties of Turmeric Turmeric is great
to be clear i meant curryrecipe last page.. back back best chilli that i used forthat is one i often see at bunnings as 'siam hot' its really not hot at all but it is an excellent chilli for that curry paste and for cooking with red kidney beans. the yellow looks really good against the red ! i remembre using a lot of turmeric as a pov Uni student (hey! im still a pov uni student lol!) i would buy 40c Tofu blocks from the asian grocer in Freo marinate with soy, garlic, turmeric, and fry off till golden brown at the edges and serve with some salads or stir fried backyard veggies, white amaranth was excellent NZ spinach is so tasty too - im suprised it doesnt get spoken about more! anyway go nuts with it maybe we should request an iron chef turmeric battle
speedy knows what it is ive forgotten the species its a balinese vegeatble, more popular than kankong ill see if i can get a name
dont forget you have to parboil cassava leaf you just use the tips the still folded tip and new leaves and you parboil because they contain Cyanide producing compounds significant amounts! this removes the poison then you cook it in a dish once detoxified its 8% protein D/W and one of the most popular greens for restaurants that i came across cooked similar to as said, or in yellow coconut curry
Gondo ... Claoxylon longifolium or C.indicum not sure exactly which one it is. Family Euphorbiaceae ...same as Cassava (manihot esculenta) -Sth Amer. Chaya (Cnidoscolus chayamansa) -Cent Amer. Like cassava, it also has cyanogenic glucosides in lvs. Sweetleaf (Sauropus androgynus) -SE Asia Amla - emblic (Emblica officinalis) -India & Sth Asia Star goosberry (Phyllanthus acidus) -India through to Pacific Is. all have edible leaves and important source of nutrition in trad. village diets where grown . these ones are from tropical/sub-trop climes and from a family with some very toxic relatives castor bean (Ricinus communis), Jatropha spp., Spurges (Euphorbia spp.) Instinctively, I wouldn't normally experiment (well not too boldly) with members of this family as far as eating leaves, but feel very safe with these ones due to long history of trad. use. Turmeric In Aust there are two forms , possibly two separate species. the darker (orange rhizome) one that is not as vigorous or as tall as the other. Thats the real deal afaic. The other has a lighter, more yellow coloured flesh inside the rhizome and the rhizome skin is more silvery. the leaves are larger and more heavily corrugated. It grows a lot quicker and therefore spreads from garden to garden (via people) a lot quicker. I use it interchangeably with Turmeric , that's if it is a diferent species. I prefer the darker one, especially for making Jamu, and with that, I use the mother corms as they're stronger in colour again. for Indonesian spice pastes I only use the lighter one if I cant get the darker one. The one in Aroideana's pic is the lighter one for sure. Jamu- trad. Indonesian tonic drink Turmeric about a handful , grated dont bother peeling it palm sugar - maybe 1/2-1cup tamarind pulp - 1/4-1/ cup placeall in saucepan , cover with 1 litre water. bring to boil and simmer 1/2- 3/4 hr. strain and bottle. take a 1/4-12 cup dose a few times a day hot or cold. should last a few days in the fridge... or ferment with water kefir, kombucha or just beer or wine yeast for a fizzy, slightly (or more) alcoholic drink over ice. I've also made it with the Temulawak (C.xanthorrhiza) that Tropical food forest mentioned and it's great too. In Java and Bali you can buy it carbonated in ginger beer bottles made with Temu Lawak . I like turmeric, powdered and fresh they're both good, but different products.
Turmeric is thought to reduce inflammation by lowering histamine levels and it may also stimulate the adrenal glands to increase production of a hormone that reduces inflammation. Two times you start using turmeric on a regular basis, it is fun to find new ways to make use of it in recipes. My favourite way to make use of it is to add a pinch of it to egg salad. It adds a pleasant flavor and gives the egg salad a rich yellow hue.
It is not a herb i use a lot either, so i would appreciate some hints on incorporating it in food; especially since all the recent research on its medicinal properties. see https://www.psa-rising.com/eatingwell/turmeric.htm I was surprised to see Woolies selling it by the kilo recently.
Tried this one - I didn't have palm sugar just raw cane sugar. Nice though.... Earthy taste. Curry making tomorrow I think!
