Lemongrass, a root that looks like a tougher scallion, is widely used in Asian cuisine. It's named after the citrus fruit, thanks to its lemon-like scent — but how do the two stack up when placed side by side? To find out, Brad Farmerie, executive chef of The Thomas restaurant in Napa, CA, and member of the Lean Cuisine Culinary Roundtable, put both ingredients to a sensory test.
Find out what the results were — and how to conduct a similar test yourself — when you read on.
My mom recently gave me a bunch of lemongrass to plant in my garden. It's nowhere near ready to harvest, so I'll have to buy some to whip up a batch of this lemongrass pudding. — Vanilla Garlic
Lemongrass
A fragrant herb that is used in soups, seafood and meat dishes to produce a lemony flavor, especially in Thai cooking. Fresh lemongrass is pale green in color and has a subtle lemon scent. Its flavor comes from citral, which is an essential oil that is also found in lemon peel. When used in stock, it is cut into strips and bruised to release the flavorful oils. Otherwise the tough outer layers are discarded and the top portion is trimmed off. Also called citronella.
The great thing about making a roast chicken for dinner, is that you're almost always guaranteed leftovers for the next day. You could just reheat them, serve up some mashed potatoes (or, since this was Roasted Lemongrass Chicken serve up some rice), maybe make a side of green beans and call it a meal. Or, you could turn it into a number of other tasty delights. For example, you could use a bit of curry paste and coconut milk and create a lemongrass infused chicken curry. Or you could keep it simple and create a great chicken sandwich. However, since we've got the lemongrass flavor in these leftovers, I propose a nice light Thai flavored rice salad. To view the recipe (which can be altered to become vegetarian), read more
