How to Use/Prepare Lemongrass

[beaverly]

Several recipes lately have called for peeled and sliced/chopped lemongrass. My lemongrass is pretty much that. Lemon scented grass. There is nothing to peel. Is there more than one kind? Do you use the roots? Help! Thanks.

[gertdog]

My lemongrass comes in a bundle of long, thin (1/4" diameter or so) stiff stalks that are yellowish-white at the base and light green toward the top.

I usually take off the outer layer or two of the lemongrass stalk before using... tends to be very tough and difficult to cut. I don't use the roots. When the recipes say peel, maybe they mean like peeling off the outer layer of an onion, rather than peeling like you would a carrot.

The only thing I've ever used lemongrass for is to make homemade thai curry paste, and that's how the recipe instructions told me to use it... peel off outer layers, cut off roots, and thinly slice. So there may be other prep methods for different recipes. Will be interested to see advice from others!

[beaverly]

Gertdog-

Thanks for your reply. I've been wandering in and out of CL sites. In the Cooking Class they have a section on Thai cooking. And one of the little segments was on how to prepare lemongrass. I was right that the plant I bought is not the real lemongrass. It was more lemon grass. It's not thick. Thanks again for your input. I appreciated it. Beverly

[Melman]

If you can find a copy of Mark Bittman's "The Minimalist Cooks at Home", there's a diagram in there that shows how to use lemon grass including the peeling process, etc. I'm sure there are other diagrams in other books, but I just saw it in this book a few days ago. Someone borrowed the book so I can't even include the description until Monday. If you still need help by then, I'll add the details.

[beacooker]

beaverly, I have the same problem with my lemongrass. But mine is a plant I just got a few weeks ago, and I'm wondering if I just didn't pot it in too small a pot. Is yours in the ground? of course, now I am worried that its not the same thing as the real lemon grass. Does anyone know if there are two different kinds of lemon grass plants? Mine was labelled 'lemon grass', not 'lemongrass'.

[beaverly]

beacooker - Yes, mine is in the ground. I too was wondering if there are other varieties. I know I bought the wrong kind of fennel too. No bulb. Lots of fronds. But you can't chop fronds like celery. I was so excited when I found my lemon grass at the nursery. I'd always wanted to try it. Oh, well. Look at CL's cooking class for Thai cooking. They have very good pictures there and my grass looks nothing like theirs. I think I found it on the home page under Food then went to the Cooking 101/Cooking Class.

[This message has been edited by beaverly (edited 06-22-2001).]

[beaverly]

Thanks Melman. I think I have a friend with that book. I'll check it out.

[AmyS]

Just another FYI-the best way to keep lemongrass is to freeze it...I usually wrap it in foil, but you can just freeze it as is...the thing is that once it is cut, it will retain its flavor!!

[JHolcomb]

My lemongrass is in a pot and looks like what you guys described. I think that it needs to get bigger before you can use it. The lady at the farmer's market said that it would get 5 ft tall. Mine's about 1 1/2 ft. tall now, and the stalks are still really small and the tips are quite grassy. The bottoms, however, are just starting to look like what I get at the Asian market.

[beaverly]

Thanks, JHolcomb. You give me hope. Beverly

[Laura Wick]

I purchased mine last Spring. I planted it in a sunny location and it did get almost five feet tall. I live in San Diego. The lemon grass got very sick looking over the winter, so I cut it back. It has been putting up new shoots of tall grass, and will probably be five feet tall again in a month or so.

The only way I have ever used it is to mince and use in chicken marinades that also contain ginger. (OT: Did you know that you can put ginger through a Pampered Chef garlic mincer? Doing that puts the ginger flavor really "out there, front and center".)

Because the grass blades are so long, it would seem like a natural choice for tying things with (like a bundle of aspargus or green beans, a pounded, filled then rolled chicken breast, etc.

Does anyone have any recipes like that, or any suggestions for developing one? What would you fill a lemon grass tied chicken bundle

TIA.

Laura