Ingredients · Spice

Galangal

Alpinia galanga · Zingiberaceae (ginger family)

Galangal
A ginger-family rhizome that is not a ginger substitute, however often it gets called one. Galangal is sharper, pinier and more complex — citrus, black pepper and pine needles is the usual description — where ginger is warm and sweet, and swapping one for the other will change a dish rather than approximate it. It is the kha in tom kha, and the base of Thai, Lao, Khmer and Indonesian curry pastes. Five products carry it, and it is the single most-searched thing in this catalogue.

What it’s like, and how to use it

The partRhizome
KindSpice
CaffeineCaffeine-free
Where it is fromSoutheast Asia (native range)
TastePungent and piney — citrus, black pepper and pine needles; sharper and more complex than ginger

How to use it

Sliced into a broth for tom kha and tom yum and left in, or pounded into a curry paste. Dried galangal needs rehydrating and longer cooking than fresh. It is woody and fibrous, so slices are usually left in the pot rather than eaten. Do not substitute ginger and expect the same dish.

With food

Coconut milk. Chicken and prawns. Lemongrass and lime. Fish sauce and chile. Beef, in rendang. Mushroom. Cilantro.

With spices

Lemongrass and kaffir lime leaf — the tom yum three. Chile and coriander root. Turmeric. Shallot and garlic. Ginger, which is a companion rather than a substitute.

With tea

Not a tea ingredient.

Its story

Where it comes from

Native to South and Southeast Asia; the culinary and medicinal uses of the galangals are described as originating in Indonesia. Thailand and Laos call it kha, Cambodia romdeng, Indonesia and Malaysia lengkuas. Lesser galangal, a different species, is native to the southeast coast of China and Hainan. Our lot origin is unconfirmed.

What happened

Galangal has a surprising second home: medieval Europe. Lesser galangal was a popular and costly apothecary spice there, and the Benedictine abbess Hildegard of Bingen wrote it into her remedies in the twelfth century — a person with a burning fever should drink pulverised galingale in spring water; one with pain in the back or side should boil galingale in wine and drink it warm. Then Europe forgot it, and ginger took its place. The name walked the Silk Road to get there: Chinese gao liang jiang became Persian qulanjan, then Arabic khalanjan, then galangal. In Southeast Asia it never went anywhere. Rendang, whose earliest known written reference is an early sixteenth-century Malay manuscript, is cooked slowly with galangal, ginger, turmeric leaf and lemongrass, and keeps up to four weeks when made properly — which is why Malay and Minangkabau traders carried it as provisions on the road, and how it spread between Sumatra, the peninsula and Singapore.

On the shelf with it

Sold on its own, and in these blends.

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