arattai

[Tamil]

Galangal. The rhizome of a plant of the ginger family, although it is smaller and more shrivelled. It has more translucent, flesh-coloured skin than the rhizome of ginger. It is peeled and grated or thinly sliced and used in the same way that fresh ginger is used, but has a slightly more complex flavour reminiscent of camphor. Greater galangal resembles a cross between ginger and pepper; lesser galangal is more pungent, with cardamom and eucalyptus flavours, whilst kempferia is the strongest.

Synonyms in other languages

Bengali

Gujarati

Hindi

Kannada

Latin names

Malayalam

Marathi

Punjabi

Sanskrit

Sindhi

Telugu

Urdu

Countries

Regions

Related terms