Parripak Foods has started processing galangal alongside its fresh vegetables and garlic purees. According to the fresh vegetable specialist, demand for galangal is steadily increasing, and the firm is now processing 10kg buckets with a shelf life of 10 days.
Used in Thai and South East Asian cooking, the galangal herb belongs to the ginger family of plants and was originally found only in the grasslands along southern parts of China, and in some places in South East Asia. Galangal is a rhizome that is characterised externally by a dark, reddish-brown colour and, although it resembles ginger in appearance, it has a completely different taste.
The physical shape of the root meant the company had to re-think the best way to achieve the perfect puree. “Because galangal is shaped like ginger, it presents a real challenge to achieve a good puree,” said Dominic Pleasance of Parripak. “We have had to make various modifications to our processing machinery, as it has had to work much harder to produce the consistency we require, but the end result is an extremely good product.”
