Fresh galangal ready for preparation (from Wikipedia)
Galangal is a root that looks a bit like ginger and is used in Thai cooking. Before Oriental City (a big supermarket and food court that used to be near our house) closed, we used to buy it and Annette pounded and ground it up with lemon grass, garlic, ginger and chilli to make delicious curry paste for chicken curry. She’d normally make quite a lot – enough for 4-5 meals – and freeze it in chunks that we’d use as we needed.
Since Oriental City closed down though, we’ve not seen fresh galangal anywhere. Completely unexpectedly we saw it, frozen but still raw and ready to use, in a shop in Weymouth. We brought a couple of pieces back, but meanwhile I’ve been keeping an eye out for it in the supermarkets.
Waitrose actually have it for sale – dried – with the herbs and spices. I can’t remember how much it used to be fresh, but it wasn’t much more expensive than ginger – so maybe £5 per kilo and we’d get perhaps 200-300g at a time. Waitrose sell it for significantly more though – over £560 per kilo!
£560 per kilo!
Seen at Waitrose in Ruislip