Home grown Greater Galangal Alpinia galanga
Like many a tourist, I bring home souvenirs. I have a preference for the botanical, non endangered kinds. Two years ago I brought greater galangal and lemon grass home from Thailand. They have both grown well since, but this post is only about the galangal.
In the early 1980’s I saw forests in Himalayas crowded with cardamom plants in the forest floor. These conditions I’ve visualised, when growing my greater galangal. Warm, shadow, nutritious, humid, but not wet. I’ve transformed it into a large pot, 23cm across, could have been even larger. Soil recycled from used growing bags from the greenhouse. The galangal never get direct sun. In winter I keep it withdrawn from the windows in the living room. In summer in the shade of the tomato plants in the greenhouse.
Peeled galangal
What to do with the root of greater galangal? It is always the problem when growing something exotic (to you that is) – how can I make use of it in a pleasing way?
Galangal soup tasted delicious in Thailand. But I’ve never learned to cook Thai food. Really I was just re-potting the plant, never expected a harvest!
A quick search on the internet: Galangal is sold frozen in Asian shops.
Sliced greater galangal ready for the freezer
The galangal was thinly sliced in a hurry, spread in a thin layer in a zip lock food grade bag. This way, we can pick a few pieces at a time to use in our cooking. Hope we learn to use greater galangal in our food.
Galangal going into the bottle
The annoying end pieces shouldn’t be wasted…what to do…..Oh-yes..I cut them in tiny cubes, in a little bottle, cover with vodka and a dog tag around the neck:
Greater Galangal Vodka
Now patience, let the galangal and vodka rest some months.
Will be a joy to sip in the midsummer nights.
In the toad's garden 
March 14, 2010 at 20:46
I like the idea of growing galangal root! I’m not sure it’s something I want to try right now, but I never thought of growing it at home.
I cook Indonesian food sometimes, which has a lot of galangal in it. In this case, what’s important, is galangal is always used together with ‘salam’ which is a type of bay leaf:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_leaf
What I understand is you almost never cook without using both of them at the same time.
For Thai food it might be similar, you may need to use another spice together with it.
March 15, 2010 at 22:29
Guess you are right. The galangal was bundled with lemon grass in the market where I bought it. I shall remember to use both when cooking.
March 20, 2010 at 02:26
For thai food and some asian food we need three types spice. Galangal, lemon grass and kaffir lime.
March 21, 2010 at 19:42
OK – now I will look for a kaffir lime tree to grow on the windowsill.
March 25, 2010 at 19:15
What a wonderful blog! I love to bring stuff home from holidays and try to grow it. I brought a pineapple cutting back from the Azores last year. I have just obtained some lemongrass seed and it has just germinated. If you want recipes for using galangal I can recommend Rick Steins latest book – he went all round Asia collecting recipes.
March 27, 2010 at 17:06
I’ll bet vodka with Galangal, lemon grass and kaffir lime would be pretty tasty!
March 28, 2010 at 16:53
I’ll try that, when I have all three growing 🙂
Just put my nose to the bottle, at Galangal alone smells like heaven.
Thanks Matron, I’ll look out for Rick Steins recipes with galangal.
April 9, 2010 at 22:11
I love galangal–I am lucky to live in a city with a lot of Asian markets. In the summer, a few of the local Hmong farmers sell it, along with fresh lemongrass. I use it in several Thai curry paste recipes. When I have more time, I can email you my favorites. They’re easy to make if you have a food processor. I may have to try that vodka idea!
August 4, 2010 at 00:28
Hi, my name is lupitta,I was living in USA
for a while,and I became addicted to Thai food, then I moved to another country and I couldn’t find galangal and good lemon grass,so I would like to know where I can buy a live plant in order to grow my own herbs for cooking.Obviusly it has to be sent to me by mail.Thanks for reading and hopefully sending the plant.