Fresh ginger

The fresh rhizome of the ginger plant, knobbly and golden-skinned, sold loose year-round. A few smashed slices (skin on or off) go into almost every fish soup to kill fishiness, and into pots of cooling gourds and greens to balance their cold nature with pungent warmth. Tong sui and ginger milk curd need mature ginger, the fibrous, thick-skinned tan root: only its juice sets the milk. The pale pink-tipped young ginger in supermarkets in late summer and autumn is too mild and will not set it. Asian grocers sell 老薑 by that name from about May; keep a piece in the freezer for 撞奶.

TCM properties

Nature · warming　Flavour · pungent　Meridians · lung、spleen、stomach

Traditional food therapy

In Cantonese food therapy ginger warms the middle and dispels cold, harmonises the stomach and settles queasiness; it is the standard counterweight to cooling ingredients in the soup pot.

Cautions: read first

• Not much for those with yin deficiency and internal heat, or who run dry and hot

Preparation

Wash a few slices and bruise them, skin on or peeled.

Origin

Widely grown in Shandong, Guangdong and elsewhere. Australian ginger is mostly Queensland-grown (Buderim area) and notably expensive in winter

Availability in Australia

Easy to find

Pairs well with