Herbs and How To's - Ginger

I have a love hate relationship with this one particular herb. Reason being, as a child my mother used to cut these rhizomes into pieces which, to me looked like potatoes. As I sank my teeth into them only did I realize that it was a piece of ginger. By which time it was a little too late to spew back out. (I would have gotten it good from mum if I did).

It was not until recently that I discovered after reading a newspaper article that ginger is used to treat nausea related to both morning sickness and motion sickness.

Bouquet: warm, sweet and pungent.

Flavour: Fiery and pungent

Heat Scale: 7 Preparation and Storage
Storage:
Ginger is best used fresh and is either minced, crushed or sliced. Fresh ginger can be kept for a few weeks in the salad drawer of the refrigerator. Dried ginger should be kept outside and ‘bruised’ by beating it to open the fibers, then infused in the cooking or making ginger beer and removed when the flavor is sufficient. Dried and powdered ginger should be stored in airtight containers.

Culinary Uses:
Fresh ginger is essential to Asian and oriental cookery. It is used in pickles, chutneys and curry pastes and the ground dried root is a constituent of many curry powders. Tender young ginger can be sliced and eaten as a salad. In the West, dried ginger is mainly used in cakes and biscuits, especially ginger snaps, gingerbread and ginger nuts.

It is also used in puddings, jams, preserves and in some drinks like ginger beer, ginger wine and tea. Pickled ginger is a delicious accompaniment to satays (skewered meat) and a colourful garnish to many Chinese dishes. Preserved ginger is eaten as a confection, chopped up for cakes and puddings, and is sometimes used as an ice cream ingredient.

Its uses in other parts of the world:

Ginger has long been ascribed aphrodisiac powers, taken either internally or externally. It is mentioned in the Karma Sutra, and in the Melanesian Islands of the South Pacific it is employed ‘to gain the affection of a woman’. Conversely, in the Philippines it is chewed to expel evil spirits.


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Picture courtesy of
http://alasarpk.com/images/ttar_ginger_v.jpg
Information courtesy of
http://www.theepicentre.com/Spices/ginger.html