Sawaddee ka welcome to hot Thai kitchen in this video I'm going to answer hopefully
all of your questions about lemongrass which is an absolute staple in any Thai
kitchen if you want to learn more about Thai ingredients I do have some other
videos on other ones and I will be making more so make sure you subscribe so you
don't miss those and I'll be putting them all in a nice little playlist I'll put the
links of that playlist in the description below and up here and let's get started
lemongrass in Thai is called Takrai and this is probably how you see it at your grocery
store it grows out of the ground right here but up top here there's actually very long
leaves that come out and the leaves are very sharp do ever go near by a lemongrass bush do
not grab the leaves just you know willy-nilly because it can cut you now one misconception
about lemongrass is that it is sour okay lemongrass even though it's called lemon
does not have any taste in meaning it doesn't have any sweet sour salty umami anything we
use it for it's aroma which is citrusy and lemony but a little grassy ER I know that
sounds really obvious but if you smell 11 versus lemongrass you'll know what I mean
the first thing to know is when you get a stock like this the flavor is concentrated over here
not at the top so when I cook with lemongrass I always cut the top off and I save that for
stock or for tea okay now the bottom I also remove because that's that's a hard root that
you can't use I usually peel off one layer on the outside or two depending on how dirty
it is cuz this use this layer is usually pretty dry now once you get down to here this is where
flavor is concentrated there are a few ways you can use it if you're using soup you can smash
it you can use the back of your knife or if you have a pestle you can smash it release the aroma
that's inside those cells mmm that smells good already cut it into chunks throw it into soups
it only takes 3 to 5 minutes to get the flavor out into a liquid in that form though you cannot
eat it because this is very very tough so treat it more like a cinnamon stick let it infuse and
then you discard it after okay now if you want to actually eat it you can but you have to cut
it very very fine you can toss it into salad add it in to dips throw it into stir fries and it's
small enough that you can chew it and it's not gonna be a problem for you mmm smells so good
starring unless I know I'm using it within the week I always freeze my lemongrass so what I
do is I cut off the parts that I don't use I freeze the top separately by the way for
my stalks I cut off the root end that I don't want and then I freeze it in chunks so I usually
cut you know something like this put these in freezer bags and then freeze them and they'll
last quite some time if you want to make them last even longer wrap these in foil first before
you put it in a freezer back because foil is impermeable to air which causes freezer
burn and I find that that really prolongs the life of herbs in general in the freezer
if you cannot find fresh lemongrass there are frozen dried pastes and even powdered
and it kind of depends on what you need it for my first question that I would ask is does that
recipe meet the lemongrass because sometimes it's just one of the many vini flavors that are going
on if you leave it out it'll still be okay okay your next best bet is generally frozen so this
is the only kind of frozen lemongrass I can find at my local store it's just chopped up lemongrass
that's frozen I have a feeling that this is the entire stock of lemongrass you know not
like for me I only use the strongest part of the lemongrass they probably didn't and it also has
food coloring added to it to make it more green so I don't love it for that but you know if you could
probably add this to a curry paste and it would be okay powdered I've never used but again that would
probably work it may be a dip or a curry paste there's dried lemongrass like whole pieces of
lemongrass that's dried I have had success with that in soups but not in any other application
okay so think about what this you're making and also whether you can leave it out altogether
some of you may think that lemon zest might work and and it's it's close-ish but lemon I find has
a much sweeter aroma compared to lemongrass that you will end up with a very drastically
different result so I tend to just not go that route and that is it I hope that was helpful
and if you have more questions reach out to me on Facebook Twitter Instagram or through
my website Hawkeye kitchen com if you've got tips or tricks about lemongrass please share
with us in the comments below I'm sure people would love to find out about it if you haven't
subscribed to the show make sure you do and don't forget to check out the playlist on other
ingredients link is in the description below and I refute I'm for your next TV [ __ ] time