June 30, 2011
What the Heck Do I Do With Galangal?
What do you do with galangal, courtesy of Flickr user thomaswanhoff
One of my favorite pastimes is wandering through the aisles of a supermarket in another country or an ethnic market closer to home, perusing the interesting packaging and unfamiliar ingredients. What to do with those ingredients is another story, and the inspiration behind our occasional series, “What the Heck Do I Do With That?”
So far we’ve looked at annatto, a Latin American flavoring, and nigella seeds, popular on the Indian subcontinent. This time, it’s off to Southeast Asia and a pungent root called galanga, or galangal.
What is it?
Galangal is a rhizome in the same family as ginger, which it resembles in appearance and, to some degree, flavor. It’s common in the cuisines of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Singapore, and is occasionally used in parts of China and India. It was popular as a culinary and medicinal spice in medieval Europe, where it was known as galingale in English (it rated a mention in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales), but it fell out of fashion there. Today its only European appearances are likely to be in Asian restaurants.
There are two basic types of galangal: greater galangal and lesser galangal. Confusingly, lesser galangal has the more pungent peppery flavor of the two.
Where does it come from?
According to The Glutton’s Glossary, by John Ayto, the origin of the name galangal is the Chinese phrase gao liang jiang, meaning “good ginger from Gaozhou” (a city in Canton now called Maoming). China is also probably where lesser galangal originated; greater galangal is native to Java, in Indonesia.
What does it taste like?
I was able to get my hands only on ground dried greater galangal, which is weaker and generally considered inferior to fresh. The powder had a sweet, tangy and gingery aroma and flavor, with a mildly peppery bite. The fresh root is supposed to be much more pungent.
So, what the heck do I do with it?
Galangal is said to mask fishy flavor, so it is a popular spice to use in seafood dishes, like a Vietnamese braised carp with a sweet-salty galangal sauce. I added a couple of teaspoons of the powdered spice to a Thai-style coconut-curried shrimp dish, similar to tom kha goong (kha is Thai for galangal). Fresh galangal should be grated or very thinly sliced, as it can be a little tough (the younger the root, the more tender). It can be added to Indonesian satay (meat skewers with spicy peanut sauce), Malaysian laksa (seafood and noodles in spicy coconut milk) or samlor kor ko (a Cambodian vegetable soup).
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I’ve bought galangal a couple of times from the local H-Mart. The first time, they were small tubers, no bigger than my thumb in diameter. The second time, it was a much fatter tuber, thicker than typical ginger. The thicker root is much more fibrous — very hard to slice, almost impossible to chop fine or grate with a microplane (which is how I typically treat ginger in many dishes where I don’t want a strong bite of ginger pieces).
The smaller variety has a cedar-like aroma, the larger one less of that, but still more woody than ginger.
galangal is a decorative leafy green plant that grows well here in Florida. I got it started from a piece purchased in an Asian grocery store, and it spreads. How do you tell the difference between lesser and greater?
Deb Lindsay: I’ve grown Alpinia galanga, and it sounds like what you’ve got. For one thing, the lesser galangal is much harder to find- I’ve never seen it here in southern California.
One way to tell is that greater tends to have lighter-skinned rhizomes (it’s sometimes called “White Ginger”). Another is that the plant is much bigger: mine was upwards of 6 feet tall. If your plant is more than a couple of feet tall, then you’ve got greater galangal.
Galangal has many benefits. One is for skin diseases treatment such as tinea versicolor. You can use its root or its essential oil for this purpose. In my country, Indonesia, the root of galangal is widely used for fried chicken ingredient.
In Indian grocery stores galangal is sold by the North Indian name Ambahaldi (means mango-turmeric). They are smaller in size; freezes well and cheaper. In South India, Tamilnadu it is known as Siddaratai, and it is used in pickles and Ayurvedic medicine in India.
In India, Hindi name for lesser galangal is abhuyicampa. Kerala names kaccolam, chengazhinir-kizhangu(kizhangu means rhizome). This also freezes well. In London I have bought these fresh in larger Indian grocery stores.
In India, Hindi name for krachai(finger root, Chinese ginger) is abhuyicampa. Kerala names kaccolam, chengazinir-kizangu( pronounced as kilangu means rhizome). This is a correction to my previous entry posted on Oct 15,2012 at 3:24pm.
Galangal is one of those newly found treasures for me. It was about 5 years ago when a culinary brother of mine, Robert Danhi, exposed me to this marvelous Rhizome (not tuber). A favorite use for me is of course fresh sliced into a rich Pho broth. The other is a fine mince into one of my favorite category of dishes being chilled cooked meat salads of Thailand. The chicken version, known as Larb Gai is loaded with citrus and a hint of fish sauce so the pungent Galangal is a perfect match. Nam Tok, the beef version is amazing with a few fresh shreds of Galangal in it as well. These are easy recipes to make and ULTRA refreshing any time of year when a clean eat is desired. My little trick is to use a spice grinder when crushing your toasted rice powder in the recipe. I also like the rich flavor of slightly charring the flesh on a grill for a smoky bite. Sawatdee!