Chef David Thompson showed me how easy it is to make your own ground dried turmeric (powdered turmeric) at home. Of course you can buy it but, as David says, “the perfume and taste of homemade dried turmeric powder is alluring and infinitely better than a store bought one.” In Thailand David dries turmeric in the open air, as he does prawns. I suggest drying it in the oven while you’re making dried prawns and other dried rhizomes, such as ginger and galangal. It generally only takes a couple of hours depending on the oven temperature and the moisture level of the fresh turmeric. It’s best to store the whole dried pieces of turmeric in the fridge and grind just enough for each recipe as you need it because, as David says, “the allure of the ground spice lingers only for a few days”. Turmeric yields about 80% peeled weight and 22% dried weight, so 20g whole turmeric yields about 4.5g ground turmeric.
Here’s how easy it is to make dried turmeric powder at home. Scroll down for a step-by-step video with David Thompson.
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