Cooking For Engineers

[Megs]

Some eat curries with naan and end up staining the nails and fingers. A tip for removing the stain was to soak your fingertips in lemon juice.

Not sure if that would be a good way to remove stains or utensils and other items. I'll have to try that out next time.

Thanks for the article, I just bought a Murraya koenigii "Curry Leaf" plant from logees.com thanks to a post (currently out of stock, but they ship as soon as they become available - hopefully soon).

I can't wait! My boyfriend is Indian and was raised in Malaysia. His mom showed me how to make curry and it's amazing! So delicious and full of flavor. It definitely takes some practice if you don't use the right measurements (can be too powdery). The curry leaves smell and taste divine!

I usually buy a bag of them from the Indian store, but sometimes the store runs out. So it will be great to have a plant on hand!

Thanks again for posting this article! Love this website, just came across it today!

[Guest]

Very good article, I enjoyed reading it as well as the comments. I thought I would add my $0.02's worth.

Regarding turmeric stains, yes they look horrible and the main substance is called curcumin but....

Curcumin is an 'indicator' substance. Adding an acid - such as lemon juice- to turmeric will make it bright yellow. An alkali (sodium bicarb or baking powder) will turn it red. Try using oven cleaner (strong alkali) on turmeric and you'll see. Turmeric is also used as a dye or a food additive (for example in mustard), and stains on clothes could be 'fixed' permanently with the alkalines in a washing powder.


Curcumin was used as a boron test if I recall, and some sources say that borax is a good turmeric stain remover, but I never tried it.

What I do know from personal experience is that UV light breaks down rapidly curcumin stains, so if your white shirt has a yellow splodge on it, try leaving it in bright sunlight for a while.
However if you are dealing with a stain on the carpet in the middle of the room I guess the only option is to bring in a sunbed....

Regarding the origin of the word 'curry', I heard another story. Basically 'curry' comes from 'turkari' which is a cooking method similar to braising, ie frying then slow cooking in a liquid.

Comments anyone?