Real World Gardener Ginger and Galangal in Spice it Up

 GINGER AND GALANGAL <p>What's the difference? Are you into Asian cooking? Not with the pre-made pastes but starting from scratch. Even if it’s just a stir fry, you may be wondering about two items you can buy in the supermarket. Both are used in Asian cooking but one is a more reddish brown colour and the other a sort of light brown.</p> Both are rhizomes,and both are members of the Zingiberaceae family, so what’s the difference? <a href='https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iYD1C5n1K-4/YML9IJhOLUI/AAAAAAAAkno/Y0Rr_dgiHwk0OXer-LFCqqWruxXHaz9gACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/ginger%2Band%2Bgalangal.jpg'></a> Galangal tends to get used in South East Asian cooking. Galangal has a very different and somewhat stronger fragrance to ginger. Centuries ago, powdered galangal was used as snuff! <ul><li>There's two varieties of Galangal,</li> </ul> Greater galangal is used mainly in cooking. Lesser galangal is used mainly for medicinal purposes. Some alternative names for galangal is Laos powder, and Siamese ginger. Ginger can be bought fresh as a brown rhizome, but it's also available in various preserved forms. Candied ginger; ginger in syrup; pickled ginger (pink in colour); ginger powder is derived by slicing the ginger root, then drying it and pummeling it into a powder.    <a href='https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BLjo53fkFoc/YMMC0TNQ1xI/AAAAAAAAknw/j5KoxuP5Si474Gr3VW-1e-wcpLqOq7SLwCLcBGAsYHQ/s800/Ginger%2BPlant6.jpg'></a> Ian's Tips <ul><li>If you often buy fresh ginger from the supermarket, or even grow your own, the best tip for peeling it is not with a knife or a vegetable peeler, but scraping it off with a spoon.</li> <li>The other tip is to use a ceramic grater especially designed for grating ginger and not the skin off your fingers.</li> <li>Fresh ginger should not be fibrous.</li> <li>The longer the ginger stays in the ground, the hotter and more fibrous it gets.</li> <li>What great tips from Ian!</li> </ul> Can you substitute galangal for ginger? Use about half but do not use it in sweet cooking because it