SC - galingal

[Philip & Susan Troy]

LrdRas at aol.com wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 5/26/99 6:09:49 AM Eastern Daylight Time, cjvt at hotmail.com
> writes:
> 
> << What struck me most was the fact that
>  it smelt so much like a mild turmeric.  Do the two taste similar?  Could one
>  use a _little_ turmeric to replace galingale in recipes? >>
> 
> Galingal does have an aroma that includes hints of tumeric. The two do not
> taste at all similar though. Galingal resembles in flavor ginger more than
> anything else with an added flavor that I can't quite describe with any rel
> accuracy.

The closest I've been able to come to the flavor of galingale, short of
galingale itself, has been ginger with eucalyptus, in roughly equal
parts (depending on what form the eucalyptus takes).

> It is a sort of peppery ginger flavor. I don't think tumeric would
> be a good substitute for galingal. I've even tried black pepper and ginger
> combos and they  did work either to capture the flavor.

If one _did_ want to pursue the eucalyptus angle, given the dubious
quality of the eucalyptus leaves I've seen for commercial sale, the
strength of an essential oil and the question of toxicity, one could do
worse than to pulverize a eucalyptus cough drop in a mortar, and use
with ginger to taste. The illusion works best in things that also call
for some sugar, for obvious reasons.

Eventually you reach the point where it seems to be easier to just
locate some galingale by mail order or some such.

I wonder if perhaps there are Indonesian groceries available in Belgium,
being next door, as it were, to the Netherlands. They'd almost certainly
have kencur or laos in dried form, if not frozen.

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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