Are There Any Workable Substitutes For Fresh Lemongrass?

[Bill Klapp]

Many thanks for the websites! I searched, but did not turn those up. That should solve my problem. I have plenty of bird chilies to play with, too...

[jsager01]

Many thanks for the websites! I searched, but did not turn those up. That should solve my problem. I have plenty of bird chilies to play with, too...

Amazingly, when i walked into the Wah Nam Hong grocery store in Rotterdam yesterday, there was this display of a tray of Pandan plants and another of curry leaf plants (Murraya koenigii), right at the entrance. More amazingly, they were priced at 3.99€ each, and the pandan plants were of a decent size, about 20 cm from the soil level, and 3 stalks of lemon grass with good amount of root stub below the ‘ bulb’ at 80 euro cents. I have never seen such plants for sale in a chinese grocery store in Netherlands, hope this is not a one-off sales stunt.

If you are interested, i could buy them, package them as best as i can and then mail them to you, at cost price, or for the bottle of Barolo you offered upthread. Not sure what the mailing charges would be, but i expect it will be more than the cost of the contents. If you are interested PM me, not sure how this works as i have not used PM on this forum.

[Bill Klapp]

Many thanks for that and the links, but I have ordered it!

[boudin noir]

On 8/21/2013 at 0:30 PM, Bill Klapp said:

I am in Italy, and will likely not be able to find lemongrass plants until later this fall. While you can find many fresh ingredients from a variety of Asian cultures, no lemongrass. I found cut, dried lemongrass, which, when reconstituted, provides a hint of the real thing, but not much. I also found powdered lemongrass in the jar spices section of a supermarket, and it is worse than uselss. It is possible to mail-order cut fresh lemongrass from London, but at a steep tariff. If I bite the bullet and order, can fresh lemongrass be frozen or otherwise preserved so that it will retain a reasonable amount of its pungency?

I have been using pure lemongrass oil which is easy to find on the internet. It is very potent . I dip the tip of a metal  skewer into the oil and the into the dish. An ounce will last a lifetime.