Chinese New Year (this year is the horse) is this upcoming Friday. Even though I am not Chinese, I still enjoy celebrating the New Year by cooking a Chinese menu. At the beginning of each week, I make a dinner plan so that I can be prepared. As I was planning Friday’s meal, I noticed that ginger was a common ingredient in most of the Chinese dishes I considered making.
We generally use ginger in the form of powder and put it in cookies and cakes. In Asian cuisine, ginger is usually in fresh form. Anytime you have eaten a Chinese stir-fry, it’s likely that you had freshly grated ginger. You probably didn't notice it was there, but ginger adds an important peppery flavor. When used in cooking, the spicy quality is not as potent.
There are a few easy ways to make ginger a more common household ingredient:
- Ginger simple syrup: Add ginger slices to your 1 to 1 ratio of water and sugar, bring to a boil, and simmer for 15 minutes. This syrup will bring a punch to any lemonade.
- Add about 1 tablespoon of chopped ginger and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon to your homemade cranberry sauce to transform it into cranberry chutney.
- When making any butternut squash or pumpkin soup, sauté chopped ginger along with your onions at the beginning.
Not only does this rhizome have a vibrant, robust flavor, it contains many health benefits. It is great for nausea, dizziness, and seasickness. Every time I travel, I carry crystalized ginger in my purse. You can buy candied or crystalized ginger at almost any grocery store. It’s a yummy, cheaper alternative for motion sickness medicines. Although beware, some people find the taste of pure ginger a little overwhelming (my teenage daughter thinks it’s awful).
