About this ingredient
Draft reference. This study is part of the cookbook’s foundations and is still being checked. Local names and cultural notes in particular are the author’s working text, pending verification, rather than settled fact.
- Where it is used
- All eleven; a foundational aromatic
- Flavour and aroma
- Bright, citrus-floral, faintly gingery; perfume concentrated in the pale lower stalk.
- How it is used
- Bruised whole for infusing broths; finely sliced/pounded into pastes; a core of kroeung and many rempah.
- How to select
- Firm, heavy stalks with tight, pale bulbous bases and fresh-cut tops.
- Storage
- Refrigerate wrapped 2–3 weeks; freezes well whole or minced.
- Substitutions
- A little lemon zest for aroma only (no true match); frozen minced lemongrass in a pinch.
- Allergens
- None common.
Names and contextPending verification
The two fields below are drafted and not yet confirmed. They are shown because they are useful, and labelled because they are not final.
- Local names
- Thai: takhrai; Malay/Indo: serai; Viet: sả; Khmer: sloek krey
- Cultural notes
- Only the tender lower stalk is eaten when minced; the fibrous top flavors broths and is removed.
The Complete Edition
Lemongrass in the book
This study is one of twenty-seven that open The Southeast Asian Table, before the eleven country chapters and the hundred recipes they carry.
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