Lemon grass.
To: <stdjws07.shsu.edu>, <herbs.teleport.com>
Subject: re: Lemon Grass
From: Chris Reeve CReeve.banyan.com
Date: Fri, 8 Mar 96 11:46:12 EST
> Does anyone have any information on lemon grass. I have gotten some started from a section that I bought from a Chinese grocery store. What are its uses? Does anybody have any recipies for its use?
No recipes- but I did throw some into a stir fry last night right before I served it. I was finally able to germinate the seeds after several tries, and now have a fairly healthy looking plant, that I have managed to keep alive in the house over the winter. It smelled really nice when I cut it into pieces- I bet it would
be a nice addition to tea.
From: Lawrence Willey <LWilley836.aol.com>
Lemon grass is an integral part of Southeast Asian cooking. The flavor is slightly different than lemon (more like citronella) and it gives the odd little zing in many Thai dishes. It is used in soups, curries, salads, in marinades for meat, just about everything. You need to wait until you have a fairly large clump of lemon grass and find a stalk about ½ inch in diameter at the base or larger. Cut it off at ground level, the cut off the long green leaf at the top leaving about 6 inches or so of stalk. Peel away the outer green casing and expose the white stalk. Cut very fine disks from this (about 1/16th inch thick) then mince these VERY fine. The stuff is so fiberous that this is about the only way to eat it. Try sprinkling some in soup, add it to barbeque sauce, sprinkle some on a salad. Delicious! Just about any Thai cookbook will have it in a number of recipes. The disgarded parts can be cut up and used to make tea or to flavor other teas.
I was in Vietnam in the war and when I tried to cook Vietnamese dishes using lemon peel in place of the lemon grass, I knew the flavor wasn't quite right. When I finally got a lemon grass plant I finally got the flavor right! The stuff grows like a weed in hot humid climates. You can devide the clump when it gets big during the cool season. It looks like you've killed it but the stuff refuses to die and soon you'll have too much lemon grass.
I hope this is of some help.
From: mcd135.psu.edu (Michael Demchik)
Lemon grass is good in stir fry, really good in tea and if you like to chew on something a hell of alot stronger than chewing gum its really good. Oh, you can also use a half of a stem to flavor the water you cook rice in. Donot use too much though. Note: It taste very different than it smells. Also note: you can buy it fresh or dried. The smell of the fresh is better, but the taste is similar.
From: Esther E.Czekalski.m.bull.com
Someone asked for a lemon grass recipe; this was on the gardens list today. A strange coincidence as the gardens list doesn't get too many recipes.
Esther
Author: Gardens & Gardening <GARDENS.UKCC.uky.edu> at SMTPlink-USIS1
From: Jaime/WildFire Farm <jknoble.INTERSERV.COM>
Lemon grass is virtually indispensable in Thai cooking. Usually only use one and a half inches of the root end or ground into paste. Here's an example:
Nam Satay (Rich Peanut Sauce - use to accompany grilled chicken or such)
2 stalks lemon grass
6 chiles (if dry, soak until soft)
1 large onion
2 tsp shrimp paste (you can omit if unobtainable)
3 cloves garlic
1 ½ cups coconut milk
1 cup water
3 tblsp lemon juice
1 tblsp sugar
6 tblsp oil
2 tsp salt
4 tbsp ground peanuts
Put lemon grass, chiles, onion, shrimp paste, garlic in a blender & blend. Heat oil and stir fry until the oil separates - about 3 minutes. Add all other ingredients except ground peanuts and simmer for a few minutes. Stir in peanuts & cool.
Note: coconut milk is *not* the stuff inside a coconut, it's a product that can be purchased from specialty stores & some grocery stores either canned or frozen. There is no substitute that I know of.
Culinary herb FAQ: http://www.henriettes-herb.com/faqs/culi-2-19-lemong.html
