This has to be among the world’s most popular edible roots! You’ll find it ground and ready to use in baked goods, preserved in rice vinegar and served alongside sushi, and cut into cubes and candied. Fresh gingerroot can be peeled and then finely diced for use in stir-frys; chunks of it can be infused into tea. It is used in Jamaica to make ginger beer.
Ginger’s past stretches back at least as far as 2500 B.C.E., when it was used by ancient Greeks to make gingerbread. Europeans imported ginger from the Orient until the 1500s, when the Spaniards succeeded in cultivating it. In 1884 alone, Great Britain imported over 5 million pounds of ginger!
I sometimes make a tea using fresh ginger, lemon, and honey (just add boiling water), and I enjoy the taste of ginger in everything from sweet baked goods to savory dishes such as biryani and Asian-style chicken lettuce wraps. Beware: when you are buying fresh gingerroot, chose one that is firm and doesn’t feel dried out. Gingerroot can become fibrous as it ages.
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Tags: asian, ginger, greeks, jamaica, spice history
