Curry Recipes Online
British Indian Restaurant Recipes - Starters & Side Dishes => Starters & Side Dishes => Rice (Plain, Pilau, Special, etc) => Topic started by: RubyDoo on November 20, 2012, 06:39 PM
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I am not talking about the red / green etc flecks.
I mean an all over colour. I like my pilau to be a nice yellow colour all over whether or not i put the specks in too. Kasmiri masala oil will help with this but ..........
Is it best to add food colouring to the water or, as i have been doing, colour with a little turmeric. Just slightly concerned that the turmeric alters the flavour albeit it is still yummy. :-*
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If you want your pilau rice yellow then why not simply add the tiniest bit of yellow powder food colouring (no flavour at all) to the water before you cook using your normal method. And i wouldn't have thought the small amount of turmeric needed to colour rice would affect the overall flavour anyway, given the use of the whole spices that are normally used.
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Hi, I had a vegetable rice in a restaurant at the weekend and it was uniformly yellow. I couldn't taste any turmeric at all and am pretty sure they will have added some food colouring to the water the rice was cooked in.
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Thanks both. May try the food colour by trial and error. Just thought it may take quite a bit to get the same effect as the Turmeric.
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Thanks both. May try the food colour by trial and error. Just thought it may take quite a bit to get the same effect as the Turmeric.
Powdered food colouring is very strong indeed compared to the bottled liquid stuff. Use with caution and fine tune to your liking ;D
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I concur with Curryhell. If using powder try covering just the tip of a knife and add to the water, if you're after a deeper yellow you can then always add more.
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If I were going to use turmeric (which I would not), I would bhoon it first; raw turmeric has a very unpleasant earthy flavour which disappears on bhooning.
** Phil.
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I am not talking about the red / green etc flecks.
I mean an all over colour. I like my pilau to be a nice yellow colour all over whether or not i put the specks in too. Kasmiri masala oil will help with this but ..........
Is it best to add food colouring to the water or, as i have been doing, colour with a little turmeric. Just slightly concerned that the turmeric alters the flavour albeit it is still yummy. :-*
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I've used turmeric in the past with no after effects and always a nice shade of yellow. Try one teaspoon in a large saucepan full of water and rice.
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I am not talking about the red / green etc flecks.
I mean an all over colour. I like my pilau to be a nice yellow colour all over whether or not i put the specks in too. Kasmiri masala oil will help with this but ..........
Is it best to add food colouring to the water or, as i have been doing, colour with a little turmeric. Just slightly concerned that the turmeric alters the flavour albeit it is still yummy. :-*
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Never known turmeric turn anything red. ;)
There is something in Dettox Mould & Mildew that turns turmeric bright red before it bleaches it white, so I suspect that turmeric is in fact an indicator (analogous to litmus); it is not impossible, therefore, that there might be a naturally occuring ingredient that would also cause it to turn red.
Added : The turmeric indicator changes colour between roughly a pH of 7.4 and 8.6. If turmeric is exposed to neutral or acidic substances (those with a pH of less than 7.4) it will retain its yellow colouration. However, if turmeric is exposed to more alkaline substances (those with a pH greater than 8.6) it becomes a dark pink/red.
** Phil.
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All this talk of turmeric and artificial food colouring to colour rice yellow! :o
Only one way to do it in my opinion - small pinch of ground saffron before the water goes in. Lovely colour, even nicer fragrance and taste.
And before anyone points out imperiously that BIR's don't use this, the only reason they don't is soley through cost factors. Saffron is simply too expensive for your average BIR to use.
And if you want a nice mottled varied white/yellow colour, simply soak some saffron strands in some warm milk for 10 mins or so and when the rice is resting simply sprinkle some in and let it soak in.
I actually cheat and use a small pinch of Paella seasoning in mine which is basically just ground saffron, ground cloves and ground paprika and salt.
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Reminds me of Ajoy Joshi's blog entry: http://thoughtsfromajoy.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/%E2%80%9Cadd-turmeric-for-colour-%E2%80%9D-what-utter-ru-ish/ (http://thoughtsfromajoy.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/%E2%80%9Cadd-turmeric-for-colour-%E2%80%9D-what-utter-ru-ish/)
An interesting read, but I have to disagree when it comes to turmeric rice not being indian. Seems that Ajoy hasn't heard of "Tahar" (kashmiri turmeric rice) before ;D
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An interesting read, but I have to disagree when it comes to turmeric rice not being indian. Seems that Ajoy hasn't heard of "Tahar" (kashmiri turmeric rice) before ;D
It is an interesting read and I have to agree with him.
You can't turn rice into Saffron rice by adding Turmeric :D
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Yes ;D
He seems to be a very likeable guy (: His other entries are very interesting and worth reading, too!
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I just boil basmati rice and add tumeric to turn it yellow, not noticed any diff flavours
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I may have posted this before, but I use ASDA's own-brand food colours when I want to add colour to food. The active ingredient of their 84p Yellow Colouring (http://groceries.asda.com/asda-estore/search/searchcontainer.jsp?trailSize=1&searchString=asda+yellow&domainName=Products&headerVersion=v1&_requestid=7213) is circumin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curcumin), which comes from turmeric.
Oh, and according to Wikipedia, it reacts with boric acid to form a red-coloured compound. I, too, have noticed that using spray bleaches turns turmeric stains red, so maybe there's some boric acid in the cleaning compound.
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All this talk of turmeric and artificial food colouring to colour rice yellow! :o
Only one way to do it in my opinion - small pinch of ground saffron before the water goes in. Lovely colour, even nicer fragrance and taste.
And before anyone points out imperiously that BIR's don't use this, the only reason they don't is soley through cost factors. Saffron is simply too expensive for your average BIR to use.
And if you want a nice mottled varied white/yellow colour, simply soak some saffron strands in some warm milk for 10 mins or so and when the rice is resting simply sprinkle some in and let it soak in.
I actually cheat and use a small pinch of Paella seasoning in mine which is basically just ground saffron, ground cloves and ground paprika and salt.
Saffron fine but only if used on its own with rice. In fact it is lovely and delicate. Total waste of saffron though once you start adding spices to the rice; pilau etc.
I use a pinch of yellow food colour powder but have also never found that turmeric taints the rice in the small quantity needed to provide colour.
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I would just like to add my 2 cents on colouring rice, I buy fresh turmeric from Morrisons and grate it using my fine microplane grater, add it to the oil with the onion and spices, it leaves a nice but somewhat subtle yellow colour to the rice. ;D
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I would just like to add my 2 cents on colouring rice, I buy fresh turmeric from Morrisons and grate it using my fine microplane grater, add it to the oil with the onion and spices, it leaves a nice but somewhat subtle yellow colour to the rice. ;D
I normally make a batch that would do about 10 people hedgerwallace, but even half of that ive found is too much to colour it with turmeric without flavouring it.
Hardly takes any food colouring to do the whole pot. Wild stuff it though when it lands elsewhere
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Yeah, looks like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, eh! ;)
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Yeah, looks like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, eh! ;)
Only while your wearing your Leatherface mask !
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Forgot to take a photo whiile it was in the pan, this has been in the fridge a while. Possibly a bit red- just call me Kreuger!!! :)
Great taste though, and so easy- definitely the method of choice from now on. Gonna most of it for SFR I reckon. Cheers chef! Great stuff.
(http://i707.photobucket.com/albums/ww80/zero-minute/DSCF30711_zpsdc5c8611.jpg)
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At the Uni, we use TRS food colourings to colour our rice, in small quantities. You don't need much of this stuff to create an appealing looking rice.
(http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/pics/4c6fcff5a52e03bd1dacdcd3570fb5f5.jpg) (http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/#4c6fcff5a52e03bd1dacdcd3570fb5f5.jpg)
(http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/pics/f7d203615a715ca84b1f35235cd52b72.jpg) (http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/#f7d203615a715ca84b1f35235cd52b72.jpg)
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It's a regional thing though isn't it?
I've had the Bloody Sunday massacre version of pilau (see above). I've had the British flag version (red, white and blue). And I've had everything inbetween. My preference is for a subtle red and green. Seriously I don't give a damn as long as it has flavour.
But, I suppose, if they proferred plain coloured rice as pilau...hmmm...dunno...even with flavour? Perhaps I do give a damn! ::)
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Instead of Saffron, which we all know is expensive, I also keep Safflower. Much more affordable and it does a very similar job if you are after colouration. Instead of $10 for a pinch of Saffron it's $2 for a bag and it can be used as a pretty acceptable substitute.
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Some top Birs use Saffron
Why not grow your own that way its cheaper than using turmeric and so easy ;D