[Sca-cooks] Galangal
lilinah at earthlink.net
lilinah at earthlink.net
Tue Nov 1 17:00:15 PST 2005
Phlip wrote:
>Can someone tell me the difference between Greater and Lesser Galangal? And,
>maybe, direct me someplace where I might obtain both varieties? It's
>becoming important in some recipes I'm looking over.
OK - i've passed along info on three related roots... Now, what are
the recipes?
As for which one to use, Andrew Dalby in "Dangerous Tastes" posits
that galangal (greater galangal/Alpinia galanga) was the one called
for in Medieval recipes, but that since supply was sporadic and not
entirely reliable, other similar rhizomes (such as Kaempferia galanga
(kencur/lesser galangal) or Boesenbergia pandurata (temu
kunci/fingerrot)) may have been substituted for galangal if it didn't
arrive in a shipment.
When i'm cooking Medieval recipes i always use galangal
(laos/lengkuas/kha) since that was apparently the most common and the
preferred root.
If i'm cooking Indonesian or Thai food, i use the actual form called
for in the original recipe, since they all taste different and only
the right one will yield the right flavor.
--
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita
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