Anonymous wrote:I eat a lot of Vietnamese food. Yes, you do get used to the little woody bits. It's so delicious it's worth it. Fiber!

Can't stand the woody bits. I like the steep/discard like a bay leaf approach.

I eat a lot of Vietnamese food. Yes, you do get used to the little woody bits. It's so delicious it's worth it. Fiber!

You chop them into small minced pieces or blend them. Rub it on raw meat and add salt. Let it set for a few hours. Stir fry it, with high heat-like a dry stir fried. Add fish sauce or soy sauce or nothing else. Vietnamese cuisine.

You know how sometimes you stir fry meat and the juice comes out - you want to minimize that with lemongrass.

Or you can use the entire stalk cut into pieces and cook it with coconut milk/curry broth. You can do many other things but this is the easiest. Thai cuisine.

You can't eat the stalks but when minced so small, you can eat it.

The tube is ok but not great when new. I toss it after the first use though. Its a bit like bottled garlic; no matter how much you really want it to taste like fresh garlic, it just never will.

Anonymous wrote:Buy a tube of it in the produce section. Add to stir fry. So good.

This sounds like the easiest option. Going to check it out

I use it by steeping in the cooking liquid and discarding, like a bay leaf.

You can buy lemongrass paste in the freezer section too.

Unless ground very fine as part of a curry paste, lemongrass paste can have an unpleasant, gritty texture due to fibers.
To flavor a dish, smash the bulb part gently. I use a meat mallet. Then tie in a bundle using the stalks, add to pot and remove before serving.

I don't think I'd destroy my grater on lemon grass. If you need paste, remove the outer leaves, rough chop, and then pulse in a blender or food processor, or grind with a mortar and pestle.

Or, if that's too much of a hassle and the recipe calls for a longer cooking time in liquid, just cut very big pieces of lemongrass, let them cook in the cooking liquid, and pull out the pieces before you serve.

As mentioned above, throw away the tough outer leaves. Then mince using a fine grater/ micro-planer

Buy a tube of it in the produce section. Add to stir fry. So good.

Pull off the really hard outside parts. Cut it in pieces and bend it a few times. Throw in liquid. Discard before serving.

I saw a recipe for lemongrass paste but the stick is so hard, cutting it is a challenge let alone trying to mince it. It smells and tastes amazing, I'd love to incorporate it into a dish somehow.