Let's talk ginger with our Culinary Roundtable Chef Brad Farmerie.
Commonly used as a palate cleanser, ginger is a staple in the regional cuisines of China and Southeast Asia. In folk medicine, it is also known to increase blood circulation and aid digestion. So how do we use this well-rounded ingredient?
Taste of Ginger
"Ginger has heat like chili peppers, but it has more of a background heat - like a secondary whisper," says Chef Brad. It also cuts sweetness, like that of carrots. Basically, it's a balancer of flavors.
Peeling Ginger
Anyone can tell you, peeling ginger can be time-consuming and troublesome. Getting to all those nooks and crannies between roots can be quite a chore. However, Chef Brad had a rather brilliant tool to peel it easily: a spoon! Ginger's fibers go along the root, north to south of its length, so a spoon can cut along the fibers with a simple movement. Just like scraping your bowl for the last morsels of a meal, you can scrape the skin off of ginger with a regular spoon. So easy and unexpected!
We have some fun ways to use ginger coming up in a few weeks. Stay tuned!