Fingerroot (krachai).

Krachai grows as a cluster of slim roots hanging from one small knob, which is where the name fingerroot comes from. The skin is light brown and the inside pale yellow. It smells warm and earthy, a little like ginger but softer, with a faint camphor note, and it has a mild peppery bite. It's the flavour that sets jungle curry and many fish dishes apart from the rest.

Ways to use it

• Cut into fine matchsticks and add to kaeng pa, the jungle curry made without coconut milk.
• Stir fry matchsticks with seafood, green peppercorns and holy basil in pad cha.
• Pound it into the sauce for khanom jeen nam ya, the fish curry served over rice noodles.
• Add to fish curries and soups, where it softens any strong fishy smell.
• Pound a little with chilli and garlic into a paste for stir fried catfish.

Snap off the fingers you need, trim the ends and scrape off the skin with a spoon. Then slice or shred it thinly.

Storing it

Keep the roots dry and unwashed and use them within a few days. Scrub them with a clean brush under running water right before cooking, since soil collects where the fingers join. Roots that start to shrivel are still fine to pound into a paste.

Where it comes from

Grown to certified organic standards. The certificate for each lot is shown when you trace your pack.

Every pack will carry a lot code. Enter it on the Trace your pack page and you will see the farms in that lot, the harvest date and the certificate.