Ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.)

Ginger plant with rhizome pharm1.pharmazie.uni-greifswald.de

Ginger plant

World-wide, ginger is among the most important and valued spices, as the many synonyms indicate. Today, the plant grows in tropic regions all over the world and plays part in the local cuisines. In Europe, however, it is not common, although it had been an important spice in Roman times (see silphion for more information about the taste of ancient Rome). Fresh ginger (also called green ginger) is now easily available in Western countries.

Many people like raw ginger, and it is particularly popular in China and other Far Eastern countries. Fresh ginger is grated or finely chopped, optionally soaked in water for several hours, and then added to the dish not long before serving. This kind of usage will result in a fresh, spicy and pungent taste which is best suited for salad-like preparations. Examples of this kind include Chinese salads made from boiled spinach (jiang-zhi bo-cai [姜汁菠菜]) or green beans (suan-rong jiang-dou 蒜蓉豇豆]), some Newari snacks in Nepal (see garlic for details) or the Japanese tofu salad hiya yakko [冷や奴, ひや やっこ] (see below).

If fresh ginger is cooked, it will increase in pungency but decrease in freshness. Thais add grated ginger together with many other ingredients (in the form of curry pastes) to their creamy coconut milk curries. Indonesians frequently use spice pastes based on fresh chiles and ginger to rub meat before grilling or baking (see lemon grass for a general discussion and lesser galangale for an example). Ginger tea, prepared by soaking slices of fresh ginger in black tea for a few minutes, is a spicy and healthy drink enjoyed in hot tropic climates (Indonesia), but also in the chill Himalayas (Sikkim); it may be also prepared without tea leaves, just by boiling crushed ginger in water.

Ginger plant

On frying, the flavour of ginger changes dramati­cally; as such, it is pre­ferred in India and Sri Lanka: If chopped ginger is fried (typi­cally, together with garlic or onion), the hot and spicy taste gives way to a mellow, mild, rich flavour (see ajwain). Especially Northern Indian recipes make much use of this technique as the basis for delicious sauces to vegetable or meat dishes. During the often long cooking of these dishes, ginger blends very harmoniously with other flavours and becomes rather an unspecific background flavour.

In Chinese cookery, fresh ginger is both used boiled and fried. Food that needs a long simmering time is often flavoured with slices of ginger, because the slices release their flavour quite slowly (see orange for an example and see also cassia on Chinese master sauces). On the other hand, there are the so-called stir-fries (Chinese chao or chow [炒]), which means that the food is cooked rapidly in very hot oil, with constant stirring; such recipes usually require finely cut or even grated ginger. In such short-fried dishes, ginger flavour remains discernible in the finished dish.

Young ginger plant

A great and well-known recipe of the latter kind is kung pao chicken, sys­temati­cally spelled gong bao ji ding [宫保雞丁]: Chop­ped chicken breast pre­viously mari­nated in soy sauce and rice wine are stir-fried in chile-flavoured oil together with a good amount of ginger and some garlic; the dish acquires a distinct character by addition of peanuts. With its liberal usage of chiles and fresh ginger, gong bao very well illustrates the cuisine of Sichuan, China’s most spicy cooking style; see chile for another example.

Ginger has its place even in the cuisine of Japan, where it is used in small quantities only; for example, chicken is flavoured by rubbing it with juice obtained from squeezing fresh ginger rhizome. A salad or appetizer called hiya yakko [冷や奴, ひや やっこ] consists of pieces of chilled bean curd (tōfu [豆腐, とうふ]) that has an custard-like, soft texture, which are dressed with grated fresh ginger, soy sauce and green scallion slices. Japanese cuisine has two different versions of pickled ginger: Beni shōga [紅生姜, 紅しょうが, べにしょうが] is made from fresh ginger cut to thin strips and a red pickling brine which owes its pink colour to perilla leaves; it is eaten as a condiment or relish to warm foods. Another type is gari [がり, ガリ] prepared from very young ginger rhizomes, which is either pale or slightly pink; is often served with sushi (see wasabi).

Ginger, being today grown as a cash crop in both Africa and Latin America, has entered many local cuisines. Some recipes for Jamaican jerk paste (see allspice) use ginger, which is not surprising since Jamaica’s ginger is of extraordinary quality.

Ginger inflorescence

Ginger field in South India

Ginger ale is a soft drink that enjoys con­sider­able popu­larity in the USA. Like root beer (see sassa­fras), it is not a fer­mented beer, but simply sugar, plant extract and carbo­nated water. However, during the last cen­turies of the Middle Ages and the Re­nais­sance, ginger has also been used to flavour true beer, i. e., the alcoholic beverage obtained by fermenting malt; see also gale.

Dried ginger, on the other side, is rather different in taste and cannot substitute the fresh one. Dried ginger is an optional component of curry powders (see curry leaves) and even of the Chinese five spice powder (see star anise); furthermore, it appears in berbere, a spice mixture from Ethiopia (see long pepper). See greater galangale for an Indonesian recipe using dried ginger.

Dried ginger is not much used in regions where fresh ginger is traditionally available. The taste is more aromatic than pungent and has found some applications in Europe, especially for spicy crackers; it furthermore enhances the taste of tasty gravies and soups. Ginger has, however, a little bit come out of use and is seldom called for in newer cook books, but it has been retained in the French spice mixture quatre épices, which goes back to baroque cooking styles; see nutmeg for the other ingredients of this very aromatic mixture.

Ginger field in South India

In Middle Eastern cooking, ginger plays only a small rôle; yet sur­prising­ly, ginger (az-zanjabil [الزـَّنـْجـَبـِيل]) makes an appear­ance in the Quran, being one of the two aro­matics of Para­dise: The blessed drink ginger-flavoured water from the fountain called salsabil [سـَلـْسـَبـِيل]. In this passage, the warming action of ginger, together with the cooling effect of camphor (al-kafur [الكـَافـُور]) symbolize the protection from cold and heat, respectively. Only few other spices are mentioned in the Quran: olive (az-zaitun [الزـَّيـْتـُون]), garlic (al-fum [الفـُوم]), onion (al-basal [البـَصـَل]) and pomegranate (ar-rumman [الرـُّمـَّان]). See the last one for a similar compilation of spices mentioned in the Bible.