Between gingerbread and ginger ale, we all
grew up familiar with that slight tang.Open any cookbook and there's sure to be a ginger recipe somewhere.In The Good Housekeeping Cookbook (1942) my
mother had as a bride, there are eight, including a salad made with ginger ale!
Ginger ale is what she gave me to sip
when I was sick to my stomach.Why?In part because ginger settles the stomach --
it is an emetic.Other less famous
palliative uses make up a long list, including arthritis, dizziness, migraine,
menstrual cramps, toothache and ulcers.Why would this be?One reason is
that it is an anti-inflammatory cox-2 inhibitor (Remember Vioxx and Celebrex?They, too, like aspirin, were cox-2 inhibitors.
The ginger root, which is actually an
underground rhizome, is the part we use in cooking.If you buy more than you can use, pop it into
the freezer where it should be OK for up to three months.For indigestion or morning sickness or just to
help digestion after a good meal, you can make an infusion by steeping a couple
of slices in boiling water for ten minutes.
Recipes: Two This
Month!
#1: Carrot Ginger
Salad
Ingredients:
4 big carrots
(about 6 oz.)
Half teaspoon
finely ground coriander
Half teaspoon
finely ground cumin
2 tablespoons
of minced ginger root
1 tablespoon
of lemon or lime juice
2 tablespoons
of olive oil
2 tablespoons
of chopped cilantro (or other herb you like -- parsley? mint?)
Salt to taste
Directions:
Chop the
carrots into small sticks and boil till somewhat soft.
Mix the other
ingredients and add the cooked carrots.
Give them a
chance to get to know each other before being served!
Add the salt
last.
#2: Cashew Ginger
Sauce
Good for warm
vegetables or pasta or as a dip.
Ingredients:
1 cup of raw,
unsalted cashews
2 tablespoons
of minced ginger
1 tablespoon
of minced garlic
1 or 2
tablespoons of chopped cilantro
One quarter of a cup of
coconut oil (or other oil, not olive)
1 tablespoon
of lemon or lime juice
Three quarters of a cup of
hot water
Salt to taste
Directions:
Put all the
ingredients into a blender and push the button till you have a creamy mixture.
The
first recipe was inspired by Alice Waters (The
Art of Simple Food, Clarkson Potter, 2007) and the second by Bettina Vitell
(A Taste of Heaven and Earth, Harper,
1993).