Ginger slaw. Ginger beef. Gingered fruit salad. Miso-ginger chicken. Ginger apple pie. Ginger pear bread. I adore fresh ginger’s floral assertiveness, and I feel like every time I grab some from the supermarket produce section, it’s going to lead to something inspired and delicious.
But while ginger is more mainstream than ever in home cooking, working with it remains a chore. With its bumpy skin, weird “armpits,” and stringy, fibrous texture, it’s hard to figure out the best way to extract the rhizome’s flavorful innards.
For help, I turned to Chef Ryan André, whose new venture, Soji, is chock-full of ginger-rich modern Asian dishes. André suggests using a microplane for grating peeled ginger root, or even covering a box grater with plastic wrap before grating the ginger root across its surface. The plastic wrap prevents the ginger from disappearing inside the box grater in a wet, hard-to-reach mass.
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For peeling the ginger, there are two ways to go. Try scraping the surface with a spoon held sideways. The skin is really pretty thin, and the side of the spoon is just sharp enough to remove it. Or, use an everyday vegetable peeler. Both of these tools work better than a paring knife.
From this state, you can either grate the peeled ginger, or slice it into larger flat pieces for infusing broth, stews or soups. You can also cut it into thin strips and mince it like garlic.
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Freezing ginger works great, too. Peel it first, cut it into manageable chunks and place it in food storage bags. When you need it, remove it from the freezer and grate it immediately. There’s no need to let it thaw. In fact, you’ll find it’s easier to grate when it’s frozen.
If ginger is not already part of your ingredient line up, work it in this week with a hardy vegetable curry, a quick shrimp stir fry or some pumpkin ginger muffins.
Maggie Heyn Richardson is a regular 225 contributor. Reach her at hungryforlouisiana.com.