Adventures in Thai Cooking & Travel
Lemon Grass
Lemon Grass (dtakrai)
by Kasma
Loha-unchit
Text Copyright © 1995 & 2000 Kasma
Loha-unchit.
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Lemon grass
(dtakrai): Related
to citronella, this bulbous, greyish green
tropical grass is a favored herb in Southeast Asian cuisines, where its delicate, lemony
essence permeates a wide assortment of dishes. In Thai cooking, lemon grass is used most
frequently to flavor soups, salads and curries.
Lemon grass is a very fibrous grass and comes in long, slender stalks about a foot long, normally with its coarse, flat, grassy blades already cut off. Choose thick, light green stalks that feel firm all along its length and that are not dried out and wilted. They usually require further trimming before they can be used. Cut off the woody root tip of each stalk until the purplish-tinted rings begin to show. Remove the loose, dry outer layer(s) and use only the faintly colored, dense inner stalk that holds together when cut into shorter segments or into concentric rings. Usually, the top third of the stalk is dry and fibrous and, if so, should be trimmed off.
For soups and simmered dishes, cut the trimmed stalk at a very sharp angle into inch-long pieces, exposing its fragrant interior. Smash with the flat blade of a cleaver or heavy knife to bruise and release the aromatic oils before adding to these dishes. For salads, cut with a sharp knife into very thin rounds, breaking up the fibers that run the length of the stalk. When slicing, if the outer layer seems fibrous, peel it off before proceeding. Such thinly sliced rounds of the inner stalk can be easily chewed with other salad ingredients for a refreshing burst of lemony herb flavor.
For curries, cut the stalk into thin rounds before pounding in a stone mortar to reduce to paste. Although lemon grass appears dry when you are slicing it, when crushed, you will see that it really is quite moist. Crushing breaks the juice sacs in the fibers and releases the aromatic oils that make lemon grass so special.
Lemon grass is now widely available all over the country and can even be found in some chain supermarkets. Its mild, delicate, but yet exotic, flavor has made this tropical herb popular in East-West cuisines. So there is no reason to use the inferior dry or powdered kinds. Lemon grass can be easily grown in any frost-free area, or in a planter to bring indoors in winter; it is not particular about soil as long as it gets plenty of moisture. Root a stalk by submerging the root end in a glass of water, or insert directly into damp soil and keep well watered. One stalk easily multiplies into fifty in no time and forms a large clump. Lemon grass grown in cool-weather areas tends to be more grassy with smaller and shorter stalks tinted a deep purplish green.
Wrap well in plastic before storing in the refrigerator to keep the stalks from drying out. Depending on how fresh the stalks are when bought, they can keep for one to three weeks. If you must substitute with dry lemon grass, simmer in water to make stock for soups and soak in warm water to soften a little before chopping and pounding in a mortar to make a chilli/curry paste. Since the powdered kind does not substitute well and the dried pieces do not soften enough to chew, skip lemon grass entirely in salads that require thinly sliced rounds.
Text Copyright © 2000 Kasma Loha-unchit in Dancing Shrimp: Favorite Thai Recipes for Seafood. See pages 62 & 63.
This is just one of many listings in the "Alphabetical List of Ingredients" in chapter four (pages 49 to 73) of Dancing Shrimp: Favorite Thai Recipes for Seafood.
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Lemon Grass (dtakrai)
As 
its name suggests,
this herb is naturally scented with a delicate lemon fragrance. The greyish-green, multilayered
stalk grows straight and tall, opening up into long grasslike blades. But unlike its name,
lemon grass does not grow like the grasses in the fields, and if you wish to cultivate it, you
need not worry that its seeds will be scattered by the wind and take over your entire garden.
Instead, lemon grass is bulbous and spreads outward in a clump as it is established, and the
clump remains manageable as you pull out the outer stalks and use them in your cooking. It is
very easy to grow, even in temperate zones, and requires little care. A fresh stalk from the
market roots in a few weeks when placed in a glass of water or dipped in a root hormone and
stuck into the ground. Since it is a tropical herb, it should be planted in a hot, sunny
location in your garden or in a planter on your sunny deck and kept moist. A single plant will
supply you with all the lemon grass you will need.
The wonderful flavor of lemon grass has rapidly earned it a favored reputation around the world. In fact, an international food writer recently dubbed it "the basil of the '90s." This prolific weed has thus been elevated to the status of a "designer" herb. In California, the fresh stalks are available year round in Asian markets. Look for them also at farmers' markets with ethnic stalls. In the Bay Area, many supermarkets and gourmet grocery stores are starting to carry them on a regular basis, but if you cannot find or plant fresh lemon grass where you live, you may discover it sold in dried pieces at Southeast Asian markets. Avoid the powdered stuff; it lacks a lot and sometimes can be very salty as salt used as an abrasive to help reduce the tough fibers. Fresh stalks of lemon grass will keep for two to three weeks when wrapped in plastic and stored in the refrigerator or placed with the root end submerged in water in a glass outside the refrigerator.
Though the long grass blades have a lemon scent, the dense, light green inner stalk, especially the lower inches, hold the strongest flavors, which is why lemon grass is regularly sold with the blades already trimmed off. The stalks you buy from the market are usually twelve to fifteen inches long and average about a half inch to three-quarters of an inch in diameter on the bottom; when they are home-grown in a cooler climate and shadier exposure, they tend to be much shorter and thinner. Lemon grass is very tough and fibrous – almost woody near the root. Use only the dense multilayered part, all the way up to about an inch before the grass blades start, and cut and discard the bottom tip and peel off the loose outer layers.
When used in soups like dtom yum gkoong, lemon grass is cut into big chunks, each about an inch and a half long, and smashed with the back of a cleaver to bruise. This helps break the juice sacs in the tough fibers, releasing the essential oils that carry the aromas and flavors and transforming the previously dry chunks into juicy pieces. If you do not have a cleaver, pound the chunks with the end of a large knife handle. The stalk may be cut crosswise, then split in half lengthwise to expose the wetter interior, or easier yet, sliced at a long slanted angle, then bruised. In soups, lemon grass serves as a stock ingredient to flavor the broth; the tough pieces are not meant to be chewed and eaten. Thai people usually do not strain them out before serving; they know what can be eaten and what cannot, and some like to suck on the lemon grass pieces for a delightful hit of flavor. But if you are serving guests who may not be familiar with Thai soups, you may want to strain out these hard pieces so that no one gags on them, especially if you like the flavor of lemon grass and use lots of it, like I do.
As a lover of lemon grass, I find the stalks grown in the less-than-tropical climates of California and Florida to be less full-flavored than the lemon grass from my mother's backyard and the marketplaces of Thailand, and so I use more of it than I would in cooking back home. The strength of flavors of many tropical herbs derive from secretions the plants produce to protect themselves from the intensity of their environments. The more intense the environment, the more intense the herbs' flavors become. Therefore, when cooking Thai food with ingredients grown in more temperate climes, it is best to go by taste rather than specified quantities in a recipe
Lemon grass also adds an exquisite flavor to Thai salads, especially those with seafoods and meats in them. In order to be able to chew and eat the herb, it is necessary to slice the stalk very thinly. The tough fibers run lengthwise, so slicing crosswise in thin rounds with a sharp knife breaks the fibers into easy-to-chew-and-enjoy pieces. The greener and less woody upper half of the stalk is easier to slice and has a delicate, clean flavor, whereas the bulbous bottom end is more hearty and bitter. Use both for a full range of flavors. After the fiber has been cut in this manner, the thin pieces reduce easily to a paste when pounded in a heavy stone mortar for making various kinds of chilli and curry pastes.
Beyond its popularity as a culinary herb, lemon grass is highly regarded by traditional herbal doctors for its profuse healing qualities. It has been used for centuries to treat colds and flus, stomach cramps and indigestion, flatulence and urinary dysfunctions, fatigue, back pain and menstrual irregularity and yeast infections. Infusions of lemon grass are said to be good for the fire element and an effective treatment for conditions arising from too much wind. Its essential oils are reputed to contain a substance similar to insulin and, therefore, can be used in the treatment of diabetes.
Lemon grass also has become a common ingredient in many Western herbal teas. It is not to be confused with citronella, a close relative with a heavier and noticeably different perfume. Citronella is a valued ingredient in natural cosmetics and is regarded to be an effective mosquito repellent.
Text Copyright © 1995 Kasma Loha-unchit in It Rains Fishes: Legends, Traditions and the Joys of Thai Cooking. See pages 85 & 86.
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Recipes with Lemon Grass :
Soups
Hot and Sour Prawn Soup (Dtom yum Gkoong)
Coconut Seafood Soup with Galanga (Dtom Kah Talay)
Salads
Northeastern-Style Spicy Minced Chicken Salad with Mint and Toasted Rice (Lahb Gkai)
Hot-and-Sour Shrimp Salad (Plah Gkung )
Curries
Green Curry with Fish/Shrimp Dumplings (Gkaeng Kiow Wahn Loogchin Bplah/Gkoong)
Seafood Dishes
Catfish Rounds Simmered in Turmeric-Flavored Coconut Sauce (Dtom Kem Gkati Bplah Doog )
Hot-and-Sour Lemon Grass Tiger Prawns (Gkung Dtom Yum Haeng )
Noodle Dishes
Stewed Beef Noodle Soup (Gkuay Dtiow Neau Nahm Khon)
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Text Copyright © Kasma Loha-unchit, 1995 in It Rains Fishes, and 2000 in Dancing Shrimp. All rights reserved.
First drawing Copyright © 1995 Toby Goodenough. All rights reserved.
Second drawing Copyright © 1995 Margaret DeJong. All rights reserved.
All material on this website is Copyright © 1995 to 2008 Kasma Loha-unchit. All rights reserved.
For comments, feedback or questions, contact Kasma.
Last updated 15 April 2003.