Spice of the Week

Welcome to Spice of the Week!

Turmeric is becoming a very popular spice among the culinary and health nut world. People praise its health properties it possesses, including inflammation treatment, diabetes regulation, mood regulation, the ability to focus, and treat alcoholism! Though there has not been expert study that this miracle root actually has these properties, many people swear by it from personal experience from family traditions or just being a sheep and doing what the internet tells us. (It’s okay, we are all guilty of this.)

While widely used now in the cooking world, turmeric was used as a dye back in the day. No one knows exactly where turmeric originated from but it is native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. This spice was not only used for dyes or a little jazz for their food, but used for religious ceremonies. Did you know that turmeric comes from a root that is also a cousin to ginger? That’s right, ginger. Turmeric has an orangish yellow vibrant color to it and can be used raw or dried.

Turmeric has a earthy-like smell, almost mustard-like. It is very pungent in flavor and a lot of time used for savory dishes but wouldn’t you know it, some genius figured out how to make sweets with this. Crazy, right? A very popular recipe that involves turmeric is called Golden Milk. Golden milk is usually used with a non-dairy milk like coconut milk and mixed with, you guessed it, turmeric. This drink of the Gods is claimed to have medicinal properties for arthritis and inflammation issues, antioxidants, stress relief, and the list goes on.

Curry is the widely known cooking use for turmeric and of course golden milk. I remember the first and last time I made curry. I believe I was about 10-years-old and I was just starting to feel my Mexican ancestors guide me through my culinary journey. My parents had me cook for them one night and I came up with trying to make curry with some kind of pork meat. Which is not usually a good combination for obvious reasons. Anyway, I remember making this god awful yellow sludge and I put it on rice. You guys, it was so salty and overpowered by the turmeric I nearly choked. My parents made sure to also tell me how “creatively” horrible it was. So I never made curry again!

So in spirit of my failure, I will not be giving you a recipe for Curry because I have not mastered that and I would like my viewers to live. I will give you the milk of the Gods.

Golden Milk

• 2 cups coconut milk
• 1 tsp turmeric
• ½ tsp cinnamon powder
• pinch of ground black pepper
• tiny piece of fresh, peeled ginger root or ¼ tsp ginger powder
• 1 tsp raw honey

Take all these ingredients and blend them together in a blender. Then transfer in a saucepan on low. Serve in your favorite mug. 🍵