Arrowroot By Saiman Lab

Arrowroot in cooking

Arrowroot is used as an article of diet in the form of biscuits, puddings, jellies, cakes, hot sauces, etc., and also with beef tea, milk or veal broth, noodles in Korean cuisine. In the Victorian era it was used, boiled with a little flavoring added, as an easily digestible food for children and people with dietary restrictions. With today's greater understanding of its limited nutritional properties, it is no longer used in this way.^[1]

Arrowroot is also used for medicinal purposes. As it is an easily digestible starch, it can be taken at times of diarrhoea to firm the stool. Take two teaspoons of arrowroot in a teacup or similar and mix with two tablespoons of cold water. Then add boiling water to the top of the cup or mug, stirring to help the starch thicken. You can add two teaspoons of Ribena or similar strong tasting flavouring to make it more palatable. Take a spoonful of this at a time until you have eaten or drunk the whole cup of starch.

Arrowroot makes clear, shimmering fruit gels and prevents ice crystals from forming in homemade ice cream. It can also be used as a thickener for acidic foods, such as oriental sweet and sour sauce. It is invaluable in cooking when you wish to have a clear, thickened sauce, for example, a fruit sauce. It will not make the sauce go cloudy, as for example will cornflour, flour or other starchy thickening agents.

The lack of gluten in arrowroot flour makes it useful as a replacement for wheat flour in baking. Like other pure starches, however, arrowroot is almost pure carbohydrate and devoid of protein, thus it does not equal wheat flour nutritionally.