Galangal is a tall plant with blade-like leaves and white lily-like flowers. Its rhizome has distinctive orange-brown skin marked by rings and a crisp whitish flesh.
Galangal has a beautiful ginger scent and helps to tenderize meat .It is a popular ingredient in Thai soup and curries for its fragrant, tangy aroma. It is the key ingredient in the Thai Tom Yum soup.
Galangal is a ’de-fisher’ and so is frequently used in fish and shellfish recipes, often with garlic, ginger, chili pepper, lemon, and/or tamarind. It is used in the more complex spice mixture of Indonesia, as well as the tongue-searing tom yum soups of Thailand.
In Malay Peninsula, galangal fruits are sometimes substituted for cardamom and the flowers are occasionally consumed in salads. The fresh stems lends a wonderful aroma to dishes such as curries and chutneys and like ginger, galangal goes well with garlic.
Currently galangal finds its way into modern spa treatments as an ingredient in herbal body wraps.
Galangal (Alpinia galanga)
