How I store Thai flavourings.

Where I live it is not at all easy to get hold of Asian goodies so I have experimented with the following and found it satisfactory:

Lemon grass: I peel it a bit then chop into slices, open freeze and then into a baggy.

Galangal: I don't peel it, just cut into largish chunks, removing any unsightly bits, open freeze and bag.

I tend to leave these two fairly chunky so they  are easy to spot and remove from the finished dish (and I'm lazy)

Fresh Ginger:  I peel and grate it and then put into little piles, each equivalent to about 1" of  stem. Open freeze and bag.

Kafir lime leaf: Freeze as is and just pull off what I need. As it has to be torn anyway this isn't a problem.

 Chillis I just stick in a baggy and throw them in the freezer.

I use all these straight from frozen to wok and they work a treat - I am especially happy with the ginger - I used to end up throwing a lot away as it had either dried out too much, turned grey or developed mould.

I freeze grated ginger in ice cube trays and then take it out and bag it up.


Saves lots of waste. as you said 

I find it less messy grating it when frozen.