Curry Recipes Online
Supplementary Recipes (Curry Powders, Curry Paste, Restaurant Spice Mixes) => Supplementary Recipes (Spice Mixes, Masalas, Pastes, Oils, Stocks, etc) => Topic started by: CardiffCurrylad on May 02, 2012, 10:52 PM
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Can anyone shine light on wheather there is any harmful substances in powdered food colourings or liquid food colourings? I recently read somewhere that there has been food tested in certain establishments with more than the legal amount of artificial food colouring added!
Thanks in advance,
Rob.
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Can anyone shine light on wheather there is any harmful substances in powdered food colourings or liquid food colourings? I recently read somewhere that there has been food tested in certain establishments with more than the legal amount of artificial food colouring added!
Thanks in advance,
Rob.
you correct there there is a legal amount just dont over do it
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Read this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6634071.stm?lsm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6634071.stm?lsm)
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I've only taken up BIR-style cooking in the last year or so, but I definitely didn't fancy the stuff they put into powdered food colouring.
I made CA's pilau rice yesterday and I thought that I had to add food colouring to make it more visually attractive. Instead of powder, I bought Asda's liquid red, yellow and green natural food colourings from the baking section and, I must say, they worked a treat.
I also made tandoori chicken and, although the outer flesh certainly turned out red, I can't say for certain that the red food colouring worked well for the chicken as the marinade was red anyway.
But the rice turned out brilliantly, and I would certainly recommend the Asda food colourings for pilau.
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I've only taken up BIR-style cooking in the last year or so, but I definitely didn't fancy the stuff they put into powdered food colouring.
I made CA's pilau rice yesterday and I thought that I had to add food colouring to make it more visually attractive. Instead of powder, I bought Asda's liquid red, yellow and green natural food colourings from the baking section and, I must say, they worked a treat.
I also made tandoori chicken and, although the outer flesh certainly turned out red, I can't say for certain that the red food colouring worked well for the chicken as the marinade was red anyway.
But the rice turned out brilliantly, and I would certainly recommend the Asda food colourings for pilau.
It would be nice to see some pictures Naga, I'm sure it looked lovely :)
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I think this is the reason why natural food colouring's aren't used widely, take a look at the prices!! :(
http://www.fastcolours.co.uk/natural-food-dyes-711-c.asp (http://www.fastcolours.co.uk/natural-food-dyes-711-c.asp)
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I made CA's pilau rice yesterday and I thought that I had to add food colouring to make it more visually attractive. Instead of powder, I bought Asda's liquid red, yellow and green natural food colourings from the baking section and, I must say, they worked a treat.
I'd go along with that : a couple of drops of green in one place, a couple of yellow in another, and just one of red, seems to me to produce the perfect-looking pulao. Incidentally, I "upgraded" to Tilda for my last batch, and the results were good : Tilda seems to require less washing that generic Lidl-style brands.
** Phil.
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I made CA's pilau rice yesterday and I thought that I had to add food colouring to make it more visually attractive. Instead of powder, I bought Asda's liquid red, yellow and green natural food colourings from the baking section and, I must say, they worked a treat.
Yes, liquid food colourings (not natural ones, though? ???) are what I use to colour rice; they work a treat! :)
What are these "natural food colourings" made of, please, Naga?
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From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_coloring#Natural_food_dyes: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_coloring#Natural_food_dyes:)
Caramel coloring (E150), made from caramelized sugar
Annatto (E160b), a reddish-orange dye made from the seed of the achiote.
Chlorophyllin (E140), a green dye made from chlorella algae
Cochineal (E120), a red dye derived from the cochineal insect, Dactylopius coccus
Betanin (E162) extracted from beets
Turmeric (curcuminoids, E100)
Saffron (carotenoids, E160a)
Paprika (E160c)
Lycopene (E160d)
Elderberry juice
Pandan (Pandanus amaryllifolius), a green food coloring
Butterfly pea (Clitoria ternatea), a blue food dye
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I made CA's pilau rice yesterday and I thought that I had to add food colouring to make it more visually attractive. Instead of powder, I bought Asda's liquid red, yellow and green natural food colourings from the baking section and, I must say, they worked a treat.
I'd go along with that : a couple of drops of green in one place, a couple of yellow in another, and just one of red, seems to me to produce the perfect-looking pulao. Incidentally, I "upgraded" to Tilda for my last batch, and the results were good : Tilda seems to require less washing that generic Lidl-style brands.
** Phil.
A tip I learnt from C2Go's book was pour some liquid food colouring into a mug, spoon some of the cooked rice into it, mix it around till it turns colour then add it back into the batch of rice. If you do this with 2 or 3 colours then just add it in separate areas of the pot. Then mix it all together. I did this with my large batch of Pilao rice I made for my grandsons birthday party yesterday.
(http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/pics/52ff1bd8fed3a27ec91d2ecee7939a0c.jpg) (http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/#52ff1bd8fed3a27ec91d2ecee7939a0c.jpg)
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It would be nice to see some pictures Naga, I'm sure it looked lovely :)
I regret that I was so busy preparing and serving up the meal that I had no time to take a photo. We demolished half of the rice at dinner and my daughter has scooped up the remainder and taken it home with her along with what was left of the curry dishes! But I'll be making more soon and will post some photos.
...Incidentally, I "upgraded" to Tilda for my last batch, and the results were good...
I've been using Kohinoor Gold Basmati Rice (http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=266030009) for a year or so now and I find it very good. It's currently
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...It would be nice to see some pictures Naga, I'm sure it looked lovely :)
Well, I'm not sure if pictures of my attempts at CA's Pilau Rice (http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1383.msg12185#msg12185) are going to get the juices going, but here goes... :D
I didn't have any curry leaves, but the rest of the spices are set out on the plate. The rice (flanked by 2 pots of Abdul Mohed's enhanced base gravy) only took about 6 minutes before it was ready to come off the boil. I set the drained rice into my largest ovenproof dish and added the food colouring before refrigerating and then mixing.
I've had another look at CA's own photos and now realise that there is more to the alchemy of colouration than I first suspected! Still, Rome wasn't built in a day and it tastes OK so at least it's a result, if not perfection.
(http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/pics/8c3c6b6c661554a77ddabd489918d4d4.jpg)
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That looks great Naga, well done!! :)
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I set the drained rice into my largest ovenproof dish and added the food colouring before refrigerating and then mixing.
I've had another look at CA's own photos and now realise that there is more to the alchemy of colouration than I first suspected!
I'm not familiar with Cory Ander's method, but the method(s) that I follow all suggest that after adding a few (very few) drops of your preferred colours at widely separated points, you then put the rice in a low oven (80C) for about 20 minutes to "set" the colours. If you omitted this step, it might explain why the colours have mixed and spread out to the extent that they have.
** Phil.
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Hi Phil,
...I'm not familiar with Cory Ander's method...
He recommends refrigerating the rice for at least 1 hour.
..., but the method(s) that I follow all suggest that after adding a few (very few) drops of your preferred colours at widely separated points, you then put the rice in a low oven (80C) for about 20 minutes to "set" the colours. If you omitted this step, it might explain why the colours have mixed and spread out to the extent that they have.
I think CA's method works in setting the colours. Methinks I'm just a bit cack-handed and put in too much colour!
It's said that practice makes perfect, so I immediately made a second batch and I STILL put in too much colour! Things can only get better...at least it tasted OK and went well with my Chicken Tikka Jaipuri. :D
Keith
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if it's any consolation Naga when colouring my rice with the Asda liquid colourings it always comes out with no clear difference in colour even if I put loads of it in, I've tried the C2G method of cooling the rice quickly and adding dots of colouring then mixing through but even with that it's nowhere near as vibrant as some of the pictures on here. Tried with the oven method of fixing colour; end up with lovely seperate dry grains but a bit too many burnt ones... Encouraging to see that it's not the liquid colouring that needs changing but method that needs tweaking, will get there in the end without resorting to ye olde turmeric - one colour out of three just doesn't cut it anymore! :D
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... will get there in the end without resorting to ye olde turmeric...
You're bang on there. Taste comes before presentation for me - but I must admit that some of the photos on here make my mouth water! :)
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Makes the mouth water doesn't it?
Are there no natural colours that would work with rice, or is the bottled stuff with added PSM the best option?
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Makes the mouth water doesn't it?
Polyoxyethylene sorbitan mono-oleate sounds pretty good to me compared to (say) the part-cooked embryos of certain flightless birds, minced organs in intestine skins, slices of charred preserved hog flesh and burnt ground grass seeds coated in rendered animal fat, which is what I normally eat for breakfast ! Anyhow, PSM has an E-number (E433, to be precise), so it must be good for you : the Eurocrats have decreed it :)
** Phil.