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MEALS THAT HEAL

Cure for cough

It's a rhizome with several medicinal and culinary uses

PHOTO: V. GANESAN

REFRESHING FLAVOUR Galangal.

A close relative of ginger, galangal is an important ingredient in the foods of Indonesia and Southeast Asia, especially in Thailand. Ground galangal is easier to work with than whole galangal. The flavour is similar to ginger, but more flowery and intense.

It is a rhizome with culinary and medicinal uses. Though it resembles ginger, it does not quite taste like it. In its raw form, it has an earthy aroma and a pine-like flavour with a hint of citrus. It is available whole, cut or powdered from vendors of herbs.

Medicinal uses

Galangal has many medicinal properties similar to ginger. It is a digestive stimulant and helps settle stomach upsets, nausea and flatulence. Herbal doctors recommend a tonic made of minced and pounded old galangal root, mixed with tamarind water and salt, for women who have just given birth, as a blood purifier and as an aid in the removal of gas build-up in the intestines. At the same time, its mild, natural laxative effect keeps the bowels regular. Galangal's heat makes it a good agent in reducing cramping and numbness, in healing bruises and swelling, in treating respiratory ailments and skin diseases and in removing toxins from the body.

Galangal is a specific herb for sluggish metabolism; also used as a body deodoriser and breath cleanser, as well as a tonic and aphrodisiac.

The rhizome is also used to cure cough and bronchitis. It is beaten and boiled with honey and pepper corns to make an aromatic liquid which is soothing to the throat and prevents cough and throat infections.

Culinary uses

Like other members of the ginger family, galangal's pungent spiciness freshens the taste of seafood. For salads, slice the root as thinly as possible, and then stack several slices at a time and cut into slivers; for soups, thin slices are simmered to flavour the broth. Galangal is also an essential ingredient in most Thai curries and is chopped and pounded to a paste with other ingredients.

There are two different varieties, one known as `greater galangal' and the other `lesser galangal'. The first, which is larger in size, lighter in colour and subtler in aroma, is the kind most used in Thai cooking. The fresh root is fleshy, knobby and firm, to the point of being woody when it fully matures. When very fresh, its ivory colour, with hardly any separation between skin and flesh, and its young pink shoots are reminiscent of the appearance of young ginger.

Galangal may be used fresh or dried. Fresh galangal has a refreshing smell.

Now for a recipe.

Tom Kha Phak

(Ginger flavoured vegetable soup)

Ingredients

Galangal: 100gm
Carrot cubes: 15gm
Baby corn cubes: 15gm
Mushrooms: 10gm
Coconut cream: 30ml
Lemon grass: 5gm
Salt to taste
Chilli paste: 10gm
Fresh red chilli: 5gm
Dry Kashmiri chilli: 50gm
Reshampatti chilli: 50gm
Oil: 100ml

Method: Cut galangal into juliennes and beat them. Boil water and add the crushed galangal and lemon grass. Add the vegetables to this and season it as per the taste. Bring the water to the boil, and add the chilli paste and mix well.

Then add the coconut cream and mix well, making sure the cream does not curdle. Check the seasoning and serve.

Chilli paste

Clean the chillies — Kashmiri and Reshampatti — and soak it in hot water, with some salt added to it. After an hour, make a fine paste of it.

Heat oil and pour it on top of the paste, which helps in preserving it.

N. GOPI

Sous Chef, Taj Connemara

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