Fresh Ginger Root and Sesame Oil
Fresh Ginger Root What garlic is to the Italian and the Spanish, ginger root is to Oriental food.
Think of it as interchangeable with garlic or onion in any recipe.
Or, as in the marinade recipes, you may want to use both.
Do not confuse this fresh, green root with dried or preserved ginger.
The root looks like a malformed potato, and is mildly spicy.
Fiber less when young and peppery in taste, it becomes tough in fiber the older it gets.
The Chinese peel and slice it paper-thin.
Then they either mince a slice to blend with other ingredients; or they crush it with the flat side of a cleaver to break fibers and loosen juices, then cook it whole (the piece is removed before serving).
The Chinese are the alchemists who discovered that ginger will deodorize garlic when cooked in the same pot, making the pungent little bulb less antisocial but still full of flavor.
They also set great store by it for de-fishing fish and duck (which sometimes tastes fishier than fish).
Ginger root is a hardy tuber that can be ordered by mail and, like the potato, keeps well in a cool, dark place.
You can keep it for months in a flower pot in dampened sand.
If it sprouts, even the offshoots can be used.
Sesame Oil The oil of the sesame seed is highly aromatic, more like an essence than an oil.
Sesame frying has a pervasive odor, but doesn't be afraid of it for that reason.
Used sparingly, the oil has a bouquet, tasting like a cross between almond and peanut oil.
The Chinese use it only as a seasoning.
A few drops, sprinkled into a cup of soup, releases flavor as a ,perfume diffuses fragrance.
You can rescue the dullest salad by adding a couple of teaspoons of sesame oil to its dressing.
Or use equal parts of sesame oil and soy sauce to dress lettuce, watercress, or bean sprouts.
You will almost surely acquire a taste for it; sesame oil is mighty pleasing to the palate.
Think of it as interchangeable with garlic or onion in any recipe.
Or, as in the marinade recipes, you may want to use both.
Do not confuse this fresh, green root with dried or preserved ginger.
The root looks like a malformed potato, and is mildly spicy.
Fiber less when young and peppery in taste, it becomes tough in fiber the older it gets.
The Chinese peel and slice it paper-thin.
Then they either mince a slice to blend with other ingredients; or they crush it with the flat side of a cleaver to break fibers and loosen juices, then cook it whole (the piece is removed before serving).
The Chinese are the alchemists who discovered that ginger will deodorize garlic when cooked in the same pot, making the pungent little bulb less antisocial but still full of flavor.
They also set great store by it for de-fishing fish and duck (which sometimes tastes fishier than fish).
Ginger root is a hardy tuber that can be ordered by mail and, like the potato, keeps well in a cool, dark place.
You can keep it for months in a flower pot in dampened sand.
If it sprouts, even the offshoots can be used.
Sesame Oil The oil of the sesame seed is highly aromatic, more like an essence than an oil.
Sesame frying has a pervasive odor, but doesn't be afraid of it for that reason.
Used sparingly, the oil has a bouquet, tasting like a cross between almond and peanut oil.
The Chinese use it only as a seasoning.
A few drops, sprinkled into a cup of soup, releases flavor as a ,perfume diffuses fragrance.
You can rescue the dullest salad by adding a couple of teaspoons of sesame oil to its dressing.
Or use equal parts of sesame oil and soy sauce to dress lettuce, watercress, or bean sprouts.
You will almost surely acquire a taste for it; sesame oil is mighty pleasing to the palate.
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