Kencur

Kencur is the fresh or dried rhizome of Kaempferia galanga, a low-growing ginger relative sometimes called lesser galangal, sand ginger or aromatic ginger -- though it is none of those things precisely, and calling it galangal invites confusion with Alpinia galanga. The plant rarely tops thirty centimetres, its flat rosette of leaves hugging the ground, and the rhizome is small, pale-fleshed and intensely aromatic. The signature molecule is ethyl p-methoxycinnamate (EPMC), a cinnamic acid ester that gives kencur its unmistakable camphor-meets-cinnamon-meets-eucalyptus aroma, utterly distinct from the pine-citrus of galangal or the warm heat of common ginger. Indonesian cooking treats kencur as a base-layer aromatic: it is pounded into base gede, the Balinese mother spice paste that underpins babi guling and lawar; sliced raw into the Malay-Thai kerabu rice salad with herbs, coconut and dried shrimp; grated into jamu -- the Javanese herbal tonic tradition where kencur-and-rice jamu beras kencur is the single most popular formula, drunk daily by millions; and fried into rempeyek crackers. In Thai cuisine it appears as pro hom in southern curries and salads. Malaysian and Singaporean nasi ulam, the herb rice, counts kencur among its essential roots.