Turmeric tales

I remember my grandmother peeling, cutting and preserving a small ginger-like root, which she would either enjoy with her meals of curry and roti or add to a special masala made for kadhi (spicy gravy made with sourmilk/buttermilk). She would call this root “amba-aradh”.

The other day while shopping at the vegetable store, I was quite excited to find a small ginger-like root next to the normal ginger. This one however had a deep yellow colour, which I don’t exactly recall from many years ago while I was helping my granny peel this “amba-aradh”. I bought it anyway, keen to find out if I could make my own kadhi masala with this.

I started out peeling this root and noticed that the flesh was making my hands turn yellow. I immediately suspected that this might be turmeric. This was confirmed when I cut it up and put it in the food processor – everything turned super yellow! From the chopping board to the kitchen counter, including the spoons and the food processor – yellow everywhere! Gosh! Now I had to do some research.

Besides finding out that turmeric falls in the same family as ginger, I also found out what an easy, but lengthy process it was to produce the turmeric powder that we so easily obtain in neatly filled packets at the supermarket. The turmeric root is peeled, washed, dried/dehydrated and then ground into a fine powder.

Now I’m wondering what “amba-aradh” actually is? The literal translation is “mango-turmeric”. But how did this name even come about? Even Google seemed to struggle with this one. I typed in “amba aradh” and even “mango turmeric”, but the most I got was how to make mango and turmeric smoothies! After a little more searching, it seems that the correct type of ginger I was looking for was “mango ginger”, which is smaller, more crunchy and whitish in colour compared to normal ginger.

So right now I don’t have any “amba-aradh” and my hands and nails are a bright yellowish-orange colour, and will stay that way for a few days. This actually brought back memories of my pithi day (a traditional Hindu pre-wedding ceremony) when I was all covered up in a paste made of turmeric. Turmeric is known to have antiseptic, antioxidant and healing properties, which is why it has now been termed a “superfood”. So now, the search for mango ginger continues and instead of making kadhi, I think I’ll just go make myself a “turmeric latte”!