The Spice called Turmeric

In the Philippines, turmeric or luyang dilaw grows in abundance. It's a favorite flavoring for stews and dishes using coconut milk. Telling a dish cooked with turmeric is easy because of its aroma and spicy yellow hue. This luyang dilaw is also boiled and made into a tea to relieve sore throats. When I was younger, I often hear from the "oldies" that if you want to improve the quality of your voice, you chew on fresh turmeric slices.

In the whole of Asia, it is considered a cheaper alternative to saffron. The powder form is an acceptable substitute when fresh turmeric is not available.

I'm sharing with you my Adobo in Coconut Milk Recipe...

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lb. chicken, cut into pieces
• 500g pork, cubed
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 3-4 stalks lemon grass
• 2 tbsps. julienned turmeric
  
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• 2 tsps. fish sauce or patis
  
• 800 ml coconut milk, or milk extracted from 2 coconuts
• 3 pieces chili
• salt to taste
• 2 bay leaves
• freshly ground pepper

Directions:

1. In a wok, saute garlic, onion, ginger and lemon grass in oil, add the fish sauce.
   
2. Add the pork pieces first, when the pork slices are tender, add the chicken, vinegar and freshly ground black pepper. Cover and cook for 15 minutes or until the vinegar is completely absorbed by the chicken pieces. Season with salt.
   
3. Add coconut milk. Stir constantly in the first 10 minutes to avoid curdling of the coconut milk. Then you can cover it and let it simmer for 20 minutes or until the coconut milk is half absorbed.
4. Enjoy it with steamed rice.