Musings on the golden glory of turmeric and my favourite recipe to spice up a backyard BBQ

After everything that has happened in 2020, 2017 seems like a lifetime ago. My memory of it might be a bit foggy, but I feel like that was the year turmeric cemented its place in Australia’s culinary mainstream. Of course, the rich, yellow-coloured spice has been used in traditional cuisines for thousands of years, but in 2017 turmeric found its way into products as diverse as protein bars, lattes and kombucha. Anyone interested in ‘wellness’ wanted to grate or grind it into everything and the rest of us went crazy for the health-supporting potential of this readily accessible and, frankly, deliciously earthy ingredient.

What is turmeric?

Turmeric is a spice that is used cooking to give a beautiful yellow colour to foods and depth of flavour to curries and spice mixes. It has an earthy, almost mushroomy flavour on its own and works well in mixes with other spices. The dried spice is prepared from tubers of Curcuma longa plant. The tubers grow underground (like ginger – in fact they look like orange ginger, even though they taste quite different). Once harvested they can be used fresh, or dried and pulverised into the yellow powder that is ubiquitous in the supermarket spice aisle.

Is turmeric a medical miracle?

Turmeric’s main chemical component is curcumin. This is what makes the spice both delicious and delightful-looking. Turmeric has been used for thousands of years in traditional medicine in India, Asia and Africa, but when a small 2016 study showed that the spice had some real impact as an anti-inflammatory ingredient, the whole world went berserk! Enthralled by the possibility that this cheap and ubiquitous spice might be a medical silver bullet right under our noses, scientists began clinical trials to study it. Curcumin capsules launched onto the market and people even died by trying with turmeric infusions and injections.

Although the spice continued to grow in popularity as a superfood, the scientific evidence hasn’t showed that turmeric is the medical miracle that it is often touted as. However, it still works to keep us healthy by making vegetables taste great and eating a wide variety of vegetables does lead to good health outcomes.

How do you use turmeric in cooking?

On its own, turmeric tastes quite subtle and earthy. However, when combined with other spices it adds depth, richness and a lot of yellow to foods, which is why it is a main ingredient in most curry powders. Dried turmeric is a main ingredient in many Indian rice dishes, marinades, spice mixes, curry powder and pastes. It is used in Middle Eastern and North African cuisines for its colour-giving properties.

Fresh turmeric is often used in south east asian food. If you’ve never tried cooking with turmeric before, start by experimenting with a vegetable curry or a turmeric rice dish (Google and you’ll find plenty). If you want to try something low fuss but completely delicious for your next BBQ, the recipe below looks and tastes stunning.

Recipe: Honey and Turmeric BBQ Chicken

This marinade is, to this day, one of my favourite ways to use turmeric. It (literally) spices up the usual backyard BBQ routine. The sugars in the honey make the chicken char in places, but this is offset by the attractive gold colour it imparts. I love using a whole, deboned chicken in order to sample all the different meaty textures, but really any cut (breast, thigh, drumstick, tenderloin etc) will do.

INGREDIENTS

3-4 cloves garlic grated

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons Soy Sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons turmeric (I’d happily grate in fresh if I had some)

Pinch of chilli powder, chilli flakes or crushed chilli, more if desired

1 whole free range chicken, butterflied and deboned or 6-8 chicken thighs

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Put garlic, honey, soy sauce, oil and turmeric into a shallow, glass dish that will also

t the whole

chicken. Mix to combine.

2. Put chicken into dish, and turn over to make sure both sides well coated in marinade mix.

3. Refrigerate for 30 mins or up to three hours, if required.

4. Heat barbecue hot plate well. Cook chicken for 10-15 minutes on each side until cooked through.

5. Serve with salad and rice.