Finger root plant

Description

~Kra Chai~

Fingerroot

Boesenbergia pandurata

(Roxb.) Schltr.

Origin: Southern China and Southeast Asia.

Zingiberaceae (ginger family)

FingerRoot is used in China only for its medicinal properties, whereas in Thailand it is cultivated for culinary and medicinal purposes.

In Thailand it is used in curries, particularly fish curries. It is widely used in Javanese cuisine in Indonesia. In Thai cooking it is called Kra Chai.

This spice is an old Chinese medicine and has found limited use as spice in some parts of South East Asia; I have seen it occasionally in Vietnam and Indonesia.

Its center of popularity, however, is Thailand, where the grated rhizome is added to vegetable or fish curries; it appears frequently in Thai curry pastes (see coconut).

Slices of the dried rhizome are used if no fresh rhizome is available.

The fresh spice is frequently, together with kaffir lime leaves, added to Thai soups.

FingerRoot is sometimes available in Thai food stores. It can be found fresh in well-suited Asian-markets.

It can be grated or, more rarely, used in form of thin slices. In the west it is usually found pickled or frozen.

Its appearance is rather characteristic: The central part of the rhizome is rather small (2 cm) and globularly shaped,

but most catching for the eye are the several (typically, ten or more) slender, long tubers sprouting from the central part all in the same direction

(like the fingers of a hand). The tubers are about 5 mm thick and 10 cm long, and covered by a pale reddish-brown skin;

the interior has about the same color and is soft and watery. Interestingly, the tubers and the central part differ in their fragrance.

Kra Chai is used as an antiflatulent, expels air and nurtures strength.

Used as a male tonic, vigor, health promotion, longevity

You get 1 plant line the last pic