‘Mistress of Spices’ – A showcase of condiments and spices.
Posted in Spices on 05/20/2006 12:36 pm by mythiliNo. I am not talking about the Aishwarya starer, which by the way, is faintly lifted from “Chocolat”. But I did borrow the phrase to start a new series for our blogging purposes.
The series is pretty simple. There are plethora of spices and condiments – some we do know of and others that we dont. Even in the ones that we do know – our knowledge about certain properties of the spice might be limited. So this series is to satiate our thirst to know more about the most important part of our cuisine – “spices”.
In this series each one of us can pick one or more favorite spice and do a detailed report on (each one of ) it. Say 15 -20 lines. It should have the following details (and more if the author so wishes). And no not a Colbert Report 
- Name
- Mostly grown in
- Part of the plant
- Physical Appearance along with pictures.
- Uses in kitchen
- One (or more) non kitchen uses
- Like medicinal properties
- Household tips involving cleaning etc
Like so. My favorite spice is “Turmeric”. I will do a round up of turmeric as a starter.
Turmeric
Turmeric – in English, Pasupu in Telugu, Haldi in Hindi, Curcuma Longa/Domestica being the botanical name is perhaps one of the most ancient Indian spices. Nearly 40 species of the genus (Curcuma)that turmerics belongs to are indigenous to India indicating turmeric’s (propable) Indian origin. The antiquity of this spice dates back to the Assyrians of 600 BC .(goes back to nearly 2600 years)
Turmeric is currently grown (primarily) in India, China, Indonesia and Srilanka. No prizes for guessing which country is the largest producer of Turmeric.
Turmeric is the rhizome or the root of the plant. The plant is a perennial grown annually. I did see some turmeric farms back in India. The plant looks similar to a ginger plant. Turmeric plant is sterile, in that there is no flower or seed that is produced. It propagates through the root. The turmeric that we use originate as fingers off the root. The crop (fingers) upon maturing is removed from the root, boiled and dried. Turmeric has an earthy gingerish, bitter taste. It has exceptional brgiht orange color while raw and bright yellow color when ground into powder. It was, during the old times, considered as a parallel to saffron except for the flavor and taste. Turmeric has great antibiotic properties and healing abilities.
Dried turmeric is ground into powder and is widely used in Indian cuisine, Medicine, dyes and cosmetic industry. In fact Telugu for “yellow color” is pasupu rangu.
Below is a picture of raw turmeric.
Dried turmeic
Ground turmeric
Kitchen : Add a pinch or turmeric to your popu/tadka/tempering mix.
Medicine : Apply a little turmeric to small to medium cuts. Add turmeric powder in warm milk and gulp to minimize irritation in throat
Beauty : Raw turmeric can be ground to paste and applied to face for increased radiance and cleansing.
Traditional importance : Turmeric is paramount next only to kumkum in Indian women’s daily life with great traditional significance. A holy thread (pasupu thaadu)embalmed with ground turmeric is always worn by married Indian women (South India) as symbol of marriage hood. Ground turmeric is also applied to face regularly by many Indian women. It has great importance during any wedding cermony for that matter any holy operation. It is used to embalm the bride and groom before the holy bath prior to the wedding. It is mixed with a dissolved lime stone to produce a red colored solution called “paarani” which is used to decorate the feet of the bride and groom(somtimes). This is a very common practice at least in Southern parts of India. Indian women also decorate their doors (gadapalu) with turmeric.
Turmeric is such an important part of Indian household’s day to day life that there is no other spice that lays a precedent. I might have missed quite a few points – Iam sure there are many more uses of turmeric in Indian household.
I found this excellent source of information on turmeric. I encourage you all to read this when get some time.
Finally I would like to invite Sailu, Indira, Shilpa, Vaishali, RP, Vineela, Priya, Priya Bala. , Saffron Hut, Aparna, Vee, Sury, L.G , Lera, Lakshmi, Ashwini, Santhi, Pushpa(Pusiva’s studio), Krishnaarjuna and all the readers to share about spices you guys like the most with the title – Mistress of Spices. Yes I see a Mistress of Spices in all of you – an enchatress who stirs magic in the land of cuisine 
Note: The spice(s) one picks need not be exclusive i.e., one of you can even write more about turmeric. That being said, lets cover as many spices as possible
05/20/2006 at 8:41 pm
Nice post & very informative! Mmmm..a vibrant spice chosen by the spice Mistress…:)
05/21/2006 at 12:03 am
very nice idea mythili….
Will definetly do a post on my favourite spice…
Its going to be sooooo very hard to pick one…
05/21/2006 at 5:38 am
Great post, Mythili. Thanks for inviting us to take part, too; that’s a wonderful idea!
I will try to get to it soon. Thanks
05/21/2006 at 6:09 am
Lera – I know that’s cheating. Being the first one, I got to choose the best out there
!! And thank you 
Santhi – You can pick more than one (like I already said). We would love to hear more from each one of us.
Sury – Thanks ! I know you are busy ( no updates after the JFI post). This does not require any cooking so should be easy to write
05/21/2006 at 12:21 pm
Oh-ho! How will I pick A spice??? Its a neat idea! I liked the name a lot!
you are funny.
Mythili replies, L.G – Thanks
05/21/2006 at 2:57 pm
Hi Mythili,
Great idea and a vibrant name. Thanks for inviting me. I’d love to do a post on a spice. But which one shall I choose? Hmmm…I am gonna have some thinking to do.
Mythili replies, Thanks Vaish. You can write about more than one spice.
05/21/2006 at 6:43 pm
Hi Mythili,
This is very nice idea.
Thank you for inviting me to participate in this series.
I will try to come with spicy spice information.
Vineela
Mythili replies, Vineela – Me waits !
05/22/2006 at 6:25 pm
That’s a great idea. I am in and thanks for the invitation Mythili.
I will feature ‘ginger and sonti’.
Is there a timeline or when our posts must be ready? Including a date makes it easy for us to post in a timely manner and for you to do the roundup. What do you think of this suggestion?
Thanks!
05/22/2006 at 6:33 pm
That is a nice post about turmeric and the photos are beautiful.
I did check the link you posted, very informative. Another good link about turmeric. Thought you’d be interested to know.
05/22/2006 at 7:07 pm
Indira,
As per your suggestion I posted an update with deadline information. Ginger and sonti – awesome choice, belongs to same genus as turmeric. That link is cool. Thanks for sharing the infor and participating in MoS (and no I am not talking anout metal oxide semiconductor).
05/23/2006 at 6:02 am
Mythili,
I am going to pick vaamu(ajwain) for my post.
This is a great idea.. all of us get to learn about the spices we use every day. Thankyou for the invite
05/23/2006 at 9:14 am
Thanks for the invite to a cool series..MoS !!
Wonderful theme and look forward to participating..:)
05/23/2006 at 9:21 am
Arjuna – Thanks for participating. Ajwain : that sounds awesome.
Sailu, Looking forward to your favorite spice.
05/23/2006 at 11:16 pm
Hi mythili,
as im newbie to blog.Hope that is ok if i can take up Clove..
I came to this part of the event from Indira’s site..Looks very interesting. I would like to come up with the details of clove..And not to forget to mention this will be the first event that i will taking part
05/24/2006 at 7:03 am
Sudha,
. Clove is a nice choice, I must say. Good one 
Thank you for participating.
Of course you are welcome to participate
05/24/2006 at 11:29 am
Hi Mythili,
That is a great idea of show casing our favorite spices. I would like to participate with my favorite spice “garlic”.
Mythili replies, You have a very nice name
Mythili means Sita which is also the meaning of “Pavani”. I am sure you know that Sita went by the name – Lokapavani during her stay in the ashram of great sage Valmikiji. Thank you so much for your participation. I am looking forward to your notes on garlic 
If you don’t currently host a blog I can host your post (rhyming anyone ?) on my blog.
05/25/2006 at 10:55 am
Thank you very much Mythili. I have to show this to my husband. He thought I was a guy when he saw my name for the first time.
BTW I read “Digital Fortress”, to know what ‘without wax’ means, after I saw your post. I thought I read all of Dan Brown’s novels, but I guess I missed it. Thanks for a really intriguing signature.
Mythili replies, That’s nice. Thankooo
05/28/2006 at 10:49 am
Indian Women also apply turmeric daily to hands, feet while taking bath- mainly becos it is a natural way of preventing hair growth.
Very informative post!
Mythili replies, Curry – Thanks and I did visit your blog. I must say we resemble each other a lot
.
05/31/2006 at 6:19 am
Gosh!!! I didn’t realise tat I’ve been invited. Thank u very much. I feel honoured. I’ll do my best.
Mythili replies, Iam waiting for your entry
06/01/2006 at 3:49 am
I dont know how i missed the invitation. I read your post on ‘mistress of spices’, may be in a hurry. Hope i am not late to add up this entry. Thanks for inviting and great event.. I will summarize on Fenugreek.. wait for meeeeee.. i will be there soon..!!!!!
Mythili replies, You are fine wrt date.
I am waiting for your entry.
06/02/2006 at 9:14 am
hi mythili, here is my link for the event. hope this is ok..
http://mysamayal.blogspot.com/2006/05/mistress-of-spices-clovelavang.html
06/03/2006 at 8:09 pm
Mythili, I too found out about this very late. Let me see if I can come up with something. I am going through a very busy time, so please don’t hate me if I couldn’t participate. This is a wonderful subject and I will be looking forward to your roundup. Thank you so much for the invitation.
06/05/2006 at 9:51 am
Hi Mythili,
Sorry for the 11 hour late post.
But here it is.
http://injimanga.blogspot.com/2006/06/onion-stories.html
I am waiting for the round-up!
Mythili replies, L.G – Thanks for participating in MoS. I will do a round up shortly.
06/05/2006 at 1:31 pm
Mythili:
Is this supposed to be a chain rotating sorta event/tag/meme (meaning people who you invited to participate will inturn invite other people?) or is it just once?
Just wondering..
06/05/2006 at 5:58 pm
Well actually that’s a good question and anyone who knows about this can participate in this event
The whole idea is to know more about spices. Please feel free to disseminate as much info about Spices/MoS.
06/05/2006 at 8:17 pm
Mythili, I couldn’t spend much time, but I tried my best. http://myworksh0p.blogspot.com/2006/06/mistress-of-spices.html
06/06/2006 at 3:16 pm
I know I am late…
Can I still do a post on spice of my choice??
06/06/2006 at 4:54 pm
Santhi,
Yes, of course you can
06/08/2006 at 7:07 pm
nice posting….
Mythili replies, Thanks!
06/15/2006 at 10:35 am
That is a lovely idea. Was guided here from vaishali’s happy burp.. I shall give my favourite spice a thought for sure…
Anu
06/15/2006 at 3:30 pm
Please go ahead and send in your spice and I will add yours in my roundup. Thanks for dropping by.
06/16/2006 at 9:49 pm
Hi Mythili,
Here is my entry … http://www.anu-sachin.com/East2West/?cat=1
My topic was Elaichi…
Anu
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