Topic: Colouring rice

[Peripatetic Phil]

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.

[spiceyokooko]

All this talk of turmeric and artificial food colouring to colour rice yellow!

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.

[chonk]

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/

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

[spiceyokooko]

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

[chonk]

Yes ;D

He seems to be a very likeable guy (: His other entries are very interesting and worth reading, too!

[gazman1976]

I just boil basmati rice and add tumeric to turn it yellow, not noticed any diff flavours

[Naga]

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 is circumin, 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.

[RubyDoo]

All this talk of turmeric and artificial food colouring to colour rice yellow!

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.

[hedgerwallace]

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

[ELW]

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