Ginger

This plant from South Asia is also called the white root. It is also grown on an industrial scale in Australia, India, China, Indonesia, West Africa, Jamaica, Ceylon and Barbados. Ginger was one of the first spices, which was brought back in the 16th century from Asia to America, where it took root and found its fans.

It is grown only as a cultivated plant; in natural conditions, ginger cannot be found. But you can easily plant at home in ordinary boxes or containers.

To make spices, the rhizome of the plant is used. It represents round flat pieces, divided into "fingers", which is why it resembles different little men. Ginger it can be white or black, it depends on how the rhizome is treated. If it is first washed thoroughly, the upper hardy layer is cut off and dried in direct sunlight, white ginger is obtained.

If it is not cleaned, washed, but not doused with boiling water and also dried in the sun, black ginger is obtained, which, by the way, is more aromatic and has a more pungent taste. Both types of ginger are off-white in color. In use, ground ginger is more common - a yellow-gray powder. In the recipes of the national cuisine of Russia, it is often found in various traditional drinks and pastries (see for example Gingerbread Cookie and gingerbread).

In those countries where the spice is cultivated, it has also found wide application. For example, in Asia, ginger is added to canned meat, tea, and other spice mixtures. And from the fresh rhizome of ginger they make jam there or use it candied... In Burma, China and even in England, chow-chow is prepared from fresh ginger root - also jam, but with the addition of orange peels.

Ginger powder, also called "ginger flour", is produced in India and comes in several varieties, depending on how much ginger it contains. In America and Great Britain they release beer with the addition of ginger... In general, in European and American cuisines, spice is traditionally used more for making sauces, marinades, drinks, and in Asian cuisine - for cooking meat dishes, moreover, ginger and flavor gives the meat a special and improves the taste, it becomes less hard.

For a kilogram of meat and dough, no more than one gram of ginger powder is usually laid. Ginger is added to meat dishes twenty minutes before it is fully cooked, in sweets - five minutes, but in sauces - immediately after readiness.

Babina Irina Anatolievna