Galangal is an aromatic, peppery, gingerlike spice. First used in Chinese and South- east Asian cuisines, galangal has traveled around the world and is found in Egyptian, Indian, and a few European applications. There are three types of galangal: the greater galangal, the lesser galangal, and the kaempferia galangal. Greater galangal, called liang xiang in Mandarin (which means “mild ginger”) or lengkuas in Malay, commonly used in many dishes of Southeast Asia, is more popular globally than the other varieties. Lesser galangal, called kencur in Malaysian, and kaempferia galangal, called temu kunci in Indonesian (referring to the many elongated fingers of the rhizome) are used as seasonings in many Southeast Asian pungent curry pastes and sambals.
Scientific Name(s): Alpinia galanga (greater galangal), Alpinia officinarum
(lesser galangal), Alpinia rotunda (kaempferia galangal). Family: Zingiberaceae (ginger family).
Origin and Varieties: greater galangal is indigenous to Southeast Asia and
southern China and is cultivated in Indochina, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The lesser galangal is indigenous to Indonesia and South India and today cultivated in Southeast Asia and China. Kaempferia galangal has its origins in southern China and is cultivated in Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, and other parts of Southeast Asia.
Common Names: greater galangal: galangale, Java galangal, galanga, Siamese
or Thai ginger, mild ginger. Also called kholanjan (Arabic), kulinjan (Bengali), leung keung, liang chiang (Cantonese, Mandarin), galganga (Danish), galgant (Dutch, Russian), djus rishe (Farsi), souchet long (French), galangawurzel (German), galanki (Greek), kolinjan (Gujerati), galangal (Hebrew), kulinjan (Hindi), galanga (Hungar- ian), laos (Indonesian), galanga (Italian), nankyo (Japanese), rom deng (Khmer), kha tad eng (Laotian), lengkuas (Malay), aratta (Malayalam), koshtkulingan (Mar- athi), gengibre do Laos (Portuguese), galang (Spanish), galangarot (Swedish), palla 2842_C005.fm Page 111 Tuesday, September 19, 2006 8:27 AM
112 Handbook of Spices, Seasonings, and Flavorings, Second Edition (Tagalog), arattai (Tamil), khaa (Thai), kachoramu (Telegu), sga skya (Tibetan), galangal (Turkish), kulanjam (Urdu), and rieng nep (Vietnamese).
Lesser galangal: Chinese ginger. Also called lille galangal (Danish), sian noih, shan nai (Cantonese, Mandarin), kentjoer (Dutch), galangal camphre (French), kleiner galgant (German), kineszike gao liang chiang (Mandarin), piperoriza (Greek), abuyu campa (Hindi), ban ukon (Japanese), van hom (Laotian), kachola (Malayalam), kencur, cekur Jawa (Malaysian, Indonesian), maraba (Russian), dusol (Tagalog), pro hom (Thai), and cam di la (Vietnamese).
Kaempferia galangal: aromatic ginger, finger root, Chinese ginger. Also called suo shi/lap seuh jeung, ao chian jiang (Cantonese, Mandarin), temoe koentji (Dutch), Chinesischer ingwer (German), temu kunci (Indonesian), kunci (Malaysian), gazutu (Japanese), kchiey (Khmer), kasai (Laotian), Chinese key (Singaporean), krachai (Thai), and ngai num kho (Vietnamese). In Indonesia, it is sometimes confused with lesser galangal and called kencur. Zedoary (called white turmeric), which has a very bitter taste, is sometimes confused with kaempferia galangal.
Form: the rhizome comes whole (fresh, frozen, or canned) and dried (whole,
ground, sliced, or pickled). The slices of dried galangal need to be soaked in boiling water for 20 to 30 minutes before use. Its flowers are also eaten fresh. The lesser galangal is smaller in size, like ginger. Kaempferia galangal has a central smaller globular shape with ten or more slender, long tubes sprouting in the same direction from the central core, like fingers on a hand, and, hence, it is often called fingerroot.
Properties: fresh greater galangal has a knobby look with an inner yellowish
brown to pale brownish skin that has reddish brown rings. The fresh form has different flavor profile from the dried form. The fresh galangal is aromatic, spicy, peppery, gingerlike and has a slightly sour note. The interior which has similar color as the exterior, is hard and woody in texture. Dried galangal is spicier with a cinnamon-like taste. Young rhizomes are pink in color and are more tender and flavorful.
The lesser galangal has a reddish brown skin with a soft white interior. It is crunchy and more pungent, with a gingery, cardamom-like taste and hints of euca- lyptus notes. The dried version does not possess the same flavor intensity as the fresh form.
Kaempferia galangal has a pale reddish brown or yellowish brown skin, and the inside is watery and soft. Its taste is similar to lesser galangal, but it has a more camphorous and medicinal-like taste.
Chemical Components: greater galangal has 0.5% to 1.5% essential oil, with
fresh galangal having mainly 1,8-cineol, α-pinene, eugenol, methyl cinnamate, far- nesene, bisabolene, camphor, and d-pinene. The dried version has a different com- position than the fresh, with lesser aroma components (farnesene and 1,8-cineol). Its pungent taste is due to galangol or alpinol, which are phenyl alkanones, and diaryl heptanoids.
Lesser galangal has 2.5% to 4% essential oil, with ethyl cinnamate, 1-para- methoxy cinnamate, 1,8 cineol, and β-phellandrene, the levels depending on its origins.
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Kaempferia galangal has about 1% to 3% essential oil, mainly ethyl cinnamate, 1,8 cineol, camphor, ethyl-p-methoxycinnmate, p-methoxycinnamic acid, and 3- carene-5-one.
How Prepared and Consumed: greater galangal is used abundantly in Malaysia,
Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Cambodia, and Indonesia. By itself, galangal’s texture is woody and its flavor is undesirable, but when it is added and cooked with other ingredients, it enhances the overall flavor profiles of applications.
Greater galangal pairs well with coconut, garlic, chile peppers, kaffir lime leaves, turmeric, fish sauce, tamarind, and shallots. In Malaysia and Singapore, the Malays and Nonyas (female descendants of Chinese traders and local Malay women) use it abundantly with lemongrass, garlic, scallions, and tamarind for laksas, soups, and curries. In Thailand, it is used in pungent curry pastes, meat marinades, soups, and stir-fries. Indonesians use it in their fiery hot rendangs and popular rice dishes, such as nasi goreng and nasi padang. Thais and Indonesians use more galangal than ginger and enjoy its flowers when they are fried or pickled.
Lesser galangal is generally less popular than greater galangal. It is freshly grated or sliced and added to satay sauces and fiery, pungent spice pastes of Indonesia that season meats, vegetables, and fish. It is also combined with chile peppers, ginger, turmeric, and other spices to create bumbu, a seasoning used to spike up sauces and soups in Indonesia. In Bali, lesser galangal is used in a spice paste called jangkap with lemongrass, chile peppers, ginger, nuts, and other spices. This spice paste is rubbed on duck that is then wrapped in banana leaf and baked or roasted. It is also commonly used by the Indonesians in Netherlands.
Kaempferia galangal is used in liqueurs, bitters, and beers of Russia and Scan- dinavia. It is popular in Thailand, where it is grated for use in meat curry pastes, soups, and fish curries with chile peppers, kaffir lime leaf, and coconut. It is also used in Indonesia and in pungent Malay-style curries, sambals, and condiments.
Spice Blends: Thai red curry paste blend, bumbu blend, rendang blend, laksa
blends, Thai stir-fry blend, Thai five-spice blend, Nonya curry blend, tom kha blend, and jangkap blend.
Therapeutic Uses and Folklore: Asians use galangal for indigestion, respiratory
problems and to stop nausea.
GARLIC
One of the world’s most popular spices, garlic is used extensively from China to the Americas, in French aioli, Turkish cacik, Vietnamese pho bo, Indian korma, or Greek
skordalia. Garlic’s name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word garleac, meaning
“spear plant.” Since ancient times, garlic has been used as a cure as well as a food. Egyptians used garlic since 3700 BC to provide strength and prevent disease. Jews ate it on their long journeys, Romans honored garlic for providing strength and courage, and Greeks used it to treat colds and coughs. Many cultures call it “white onion,” including Malaysians, Indonesians, Sri Lankans and Ethiopians.
Scientific Name(s): Allium sativum (softneck); Allium ophioscorodon (hardneck).
Family: Alliaceae (onion family). 2842_C005.fm Page 113 Tuesday, September 19, 2006 8:27 AM
114 Handbook of Spices, Seasonings, and Flavorings, Second Edition
Origin and Varieties: garlic is indigenous to central Asia, and it was brought to
the Mediterranean regions, Egypt, France, Spain, and Italy. It is now cultivated in the United States, Asia, Europe, the U.K., Taiwan, South America, Mexico, and Hungary. There are about 200 varieties of garlic, with different colors, sizes, shapes, and flavors, but only two cultivated varieties exist—hardneck and softneck varieties. The hardneck variety (Siberian, Spanish roja, Prussian white, Italian rocombole, German white, German red, Marino Xian, Persian star, and Romanian red) is superior in flavor but is harder to grow and has smaller yields and a shorter shelf life. Softneck varieties have smaller cloves that are harder to peel. Approximately 90% of all garlic sold in the United States is of the softneck variety from California. Other softneck varieties are French white, Creole Red, Burgundy, Inchelium, and Chinese.
Elephant garlic is not really garlic, but is a member of the leek family. It is mild and does not have the pungency of regular garlic.
Common Names: garlic is also called netch shinkurt (Amharic), thum (Arabic),
sekhdor (Armenian), naharu (Assamese), rasun (Bengali), chyethonphew (Burmese), suen tauh, suan tou (Cantonese, Mandarin), huidlog (Danish), knoflook (Dutch), sir (Farsi), ail (French), knoblauch (German), skordo (Greek), shum (Hebrew), lasun (Hindi, Marathi), fokhogima (Hungarian), aglio (Italian), ninniku (Japanese), phak thien (Laotian), bawang putih (Malaysian, Indonesian), velluthulli (Malayalam), alho (Portuguese), chesnok (Russian), sudulunu (Singhalese), ajo (Spanish), kitunga saum (Swahili), vitlok (Swedish, Norwegian), velai pundoo (Tamil), kra tiem (Thai), vellulli (Telegu), goghpa (Tibetan), sarmisak (Turkish), lehsun (Urdu), and cay tai (Vietnamese).
Form: each garlic bulb contains plump and succulent egg-shaped bulblets called
cloves, within an outer skin that is white, buff, rose, or purple, depending on the variety. Garlic comes fresh or dried. Fresh, it is a firm whole clove that is also available crushed, sliced, minced, chopped, roasted, or as juice. Dried garlic comes powdered, granulated, flaked, diced, ground, minced, chopped, sliced, or added to salt.
Properties: the flavor of freshly cut garlic ranges from mild and sweet to strongly
pungent, depending on the variety. Some can be pungent at first but become milder during cooking. Hardneck varieties are pungent and strong flavored, that usually lingers after cooking. They have a wider range of tastes than softneck varieties. German White has a strong pungency with heat that is experienced at the back of the throat. Prussian White has a pleasant aftertaste and Spanish Roja has a lingering taste with a pungency on the tip of the tongue. Softneck varieties can be harsh to mildly sweet to pungent and sometimes contain sharp bites. Mild softneck garlic can become more pungent during storage.
Whole garlic is odorless when intact but gives a strong aroma when cut or bruised. When fresh garlic is cut or bruised, the enzyme allinase acts on alliin in garlic to produce allicin. This breaks down to diallyl disulfide which gives the penetrating sulfur-type aroma. The sharp bite typically subsides after cooking or roasting. Cooking softens the flavor, while roasting gives garlic a well-balanced, delicate, nutty flavor. Dried garlic (mainly from the white-skinned variety) has a very strong, persistent aroma and taste. Roasted garlic has a slightly sweet and delicate flavor.
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Chemical Components: garlic has 0.1% to 0.25% essential oil, formed
enzymatically when cloves are crushed, cut, or rehydrated. It consists of sulfur compounds, 60% diallyl disulfide, 20% diallyl trisulfide, 6% allyl propyl disulfide, and diallyl sulfide. Allicin (diallyl disulfide) contributes to its strong aroma.
Oil of garlic (undiluted form) has 200 times the strength of dried garlic and 900 times the strength of fresh garlic. The oils come in many dilutions for easier blending and handling in applications. Oleoresin garlic is brownish yellow and contains 5% of the volatile oil of garlic; 8 lb. of oleoresin are equivalent to 100 lb. of dehydrated garlic, and 2 lb. are equivalent to 100 lb. of fresh garlic. Garlic salt consists of garlic powder, salt, and an anticaking agent (tricalcium phosphate or starch).
Raw garlic contains calcium, phosphorus, vitamin C, and potassium. Dried garlic has higher potassium, phosphorus, and magnesium levels but has a lower calcium level and negligible or no vitamin C.
How Prepared and Consumed: garlic is widely used in French, Italian, Spanish,
Middle Eastern, Asian Latin American, and American cooking. It is fried in oil or gently simmered before onions or other spices are added to create a wonderful base for stir-fries, curries, soups, or sauces. Garlic pairs well with onions, ginger, basil, turmeric, greens, beans, spinach, chicken, pork, and seafood. It rounds up and modifies other flavors, such as tomato, chilis, onions, and ginger.
Garlic is an essential component of many spice blends that enhance the flavor of soups, stews, and curries in Asian cooking. For Chinese and Indians, garlic is a must with onions and or ginger in curries, stir-fries, pickles, or BBQs. Chinese and Thais pickle garlic in vinegar for use in noodle dishes, roast pork, and chicken. Thais fry whole garlic in oil and add this to create enhanced flavors and textures in many dishes. Vietnamese add to spring rolls, marinades, and noodle soups, or phos.
Mediterraneans roast garlic for many dishes, such as cassoulet, beef bourgui- gnonne, sofritos and gambas alajillas. Raw garlic is added to Greek skordalia (with potatoes) and tzatziki with souvlaki or hummus with sesame paste. For Italians, it is an integral flavoring along with olive oil, basil, and tomatoes in their pasta sauces (pestos, vegetables, soups and sprinkled over pizzas for added flavor). Latin Amer- icans and Caribbeans add dried garlic to meat marinades, many salsas, condiments, and seasonings such as adobos, mojos, rouille, sofritos, jerk paste, chimmichurri, and soups and stews. Cuban mojos or Puerto Rican adobos will not exist without garlic. Mexicans use garlic in their famous mole sauces and condiments.
Spice Blends: tabil, rouille, aioli, refogado blend, adobos, sofritos, moles, hum-
mus, ketchup, mojo, tzatziki, and chimmichurri.
Therapeutic Uses and Folklore: called the “stinking rose” by the English, garlic
has been used since ancient times to drive away evil spirits, kill intestinal parasites, and stimulate blood flow for a healthy face and body. Known in Russia as “Russian penicillin,” it is one of the world’s oldest medicines. In the sixteenth century BC, the Egyptians listed twenty-two remedies containing garlic, using garlic to treat everything from heart disease and tumors to insect bites. The Greeks gave it to the condemned to purify them of their acts. While wealthy Romans did not eat garlic, they gave it to their soldiers to make them strong.
In Asia, Hindu priests and the strict Buddhists eliminated garlic from their diets because of its reputation as a sexual stimulant.
116 Handbook of Spices, Seasonings, and Flavorings, Second Edition Garlic’s curative powers have been recorded since the eighteenth century. It has been reported to stimulate the digestive system, thereby helping poor digestion, lower blood pressure and help blood circulation by reducing the amount of fat in the blood and thinning it, thereby enabling platelets to move more freely.
Recent research has focused on garlic’s role in preventing heart disease, decreas- ing cholesterol and blood pressure, enhancing the immune system, preventing cancer, and enhancing memory.
Since ancient times, garlic has been used as an antibiotic and as a fungicide.
GINGER
Asia’s most treasured spice, ginger, derives its name from the Sanskrit word shrin-
gavera, meaning “shaped like a deer’s antlers.” Used by Indians since 5000 years
ago and by Chinese since the sixth century BC, it is highly esteemed throughout Asia for its therapeutic effects as well as for its flavor. Ginger is most noted for its soothing effect on the stomach, as it has been a popular traditional cure in Ayurveda and Chinese Traditional Medicine for common stomach ailments, nausea, and motion sickness. Indispensable in Indian, Chinese, and Southeast Asian cooking, ginger’s spicy-sweet flavors complement and enhance many of their curries, stir-fries, mar- inades, and soups.
Arab traders brought ginger to the Mediterranean region from Asia before the first century AD for use by Romans. The Greeks made gingerbread, which later gave rise to gingersnaps, cakes, and biscuits. In the sixteenth century, Spanish explorers grew ginger in Jamaica and exported it to Europe.
Scientific Name(s): Zingiber officinale. Family: Zingiberaceae (ginger family). Origin and Varieties: there are many varieties of ginger—Indian (Cochin, Cal-
icut), Chinese, Jamaican and African. Indigenous to southern India and Southeast Asia, ginger is also grown in Hawaii, Fiji, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico, Sri Lanka, and Australia. The names for fresh and dried ginger differ in many regions of the world.
Common Names: Fresh and dried ginger are called by different names in Asia.
Root ginger, green ginger, gingerroot, stem ginger, and black ginger. It is also called zinzibil (Amharic), zanjabeel (Arabic), gojabheg (Armenian), ada-fresh (Bengali, Assamese), ginh-fresh (Burmese), sang geung-fresh, geung-dried (Cantonese), ingefer (Danish, Norwegian), gember (Dutch), jamveel (Farsi), gingembre (French), ingwer (German), piperoriza (Greek), adhu-fresh, sunth-dried (Gujerati), zang’vil (Hebrew), kai (Hmong), adrak (fresh), sauth (dried) (Hindi), gyomber (Hungarian), zen-zero (Italian), shoga (Japanese), khnthey (Khmer), saenggang (Korean), khing (Laotian), halia (Malaysian, Indonesian), inchi (Malayalam), sheng jiang-fresh, gan jiang dried (Mandarin), ahle-fresh, sunth-dried (Marathi), gengibre (Portuguese), imbir (Russian), inguru (Singhalese), jengibre (Spanish), tanga wizi (Swahili), inge- fara (Swedish), luya (Tagalog), ingi/ellam-fresh, sunthi-dried (Tamil), khing (Thai), elamu-fresh, sonthi-dried (Telegu), gamug (Tibetan), zenefel (Turkish), adraka-fresh (Urdu), and sin gung-fresh, gung-dried (Vietnamese).
Form: ginger is a rhizome (an underground stem that looks like a thick root)
that is available as a spice in many forms: fresh, dried, black, or white. Fresh ginger 2842_C005.fm Page 116 Tuesday, September 19, 2006 8:27 AM
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is preserved and crystallized. The fresh form is knobby and branched, firm and tan colored, and comes whole (unpeeled), sliced, julienned, chopped, crushed, or grated. Young or immature fresh ginger is juicy, less pungent, and more delicate in flavor with pink shoots, a thin skin, and a crispy texture. The mature fresh ginger has a tough, shriveled skin with a desirable flesh underneath. Some types of ginger are peeled before sale.
Dried ginger is used bruised, sliced, or powdered. Black ginger is created by scalding or steaming the rhizome and then drying it. White ginger is made by peeling the outer layers before washing and drying it. Preserved ginger is made from fresh young or green rhizomes that are peeled and sliced and then cooked in heavy syrup or brine. Crystallized ginger is preserved ginger, which is fresh ginger that is peeled, cooked in sugar syrup, dried, and rolled in sugar. Pickled ginger is fresh, peeled gingerroot that is thinly sliced and pickled in a vinegar solution, which gives it a pink color.
The ginger leaves are used to flavor some Asian dishes. The pink ginger bud (or torch ginger bud), called bunga kantan in Malaysian lends a floral and aromatic sensation to laksas or noodles in fragrant spicy broths and curries. This torch ginger bud is from the Etlingera elatior family.
Properties: ginger’s flavor and color vary with its origin and harvesting, storage,
and processing conditions. Fresh ginger has a juicy, spicy, refreshing and slightly sweet, lemonlike aroma, along with a strong bite. It is more aromatic than dried ginger. Drying conditions change ginger’s flavor and pungency. Fresh ginger is firm and plump, not shriveled, and its color varies from tan to pale brown. Dried ginger is fibrous and has less pungency than fresh ginger. Aged or older ginger is fibrous, tough, and harsher in taste, whereas young ginger is tender and delicate in taste. Longer cooking time tends to increase fresh ginger’s pungency and decrease its aroma.
Jamaican ginger is light tan in color and has a delicate aroma. It is more pungent than African ginger, which is darker in color and has a weak aroma and a harsh flavor. Cochin and Calicut (South Indian) gingers are strongly aromatic and pungent with a lemon aroma. They are considered the best gingers. Japanese and Chinese ginger are weak in pungency and aroma. Chinese ginger is whiter in color, more fibrous, slightly bitter and is usually used in the preserved form (in sugar syrup or candied).
Chemical Components: the essential oil (mainly sesquiterpenes) from ginger is
pale yellow in color and ranges from 1% to 4%, depending upon the variety. The oil gives ginger its characteristic aroma but not its bite. The chief aromatic constit- uents are zingiberene (70% in fresh and 20% to 30% in dried), curcumene, α-pinene, sabinene, limonene, borneol, linalool, farnesene, and citral. Ginger’s bite or pun- gency is due to nonvolatiles—gingerol, zingerone, shogaol, and paradol. Fresh ginger (depending on the variety) is the most pungent because of high levels of gingerol. Dried ginger or fresh ginger stored for a while has less pungency because it has less gingerol, because of its conversion to milder shogaol, zingerone, and paradol contents.
118 Handbook of Spices, Seasonings, and Flavorings, Second Edition Oleoresin ginger is dark brownish green in color and is extracted from dried