The culinary and healing properties of ginger have served people for several thousand years. This spice has such an ancient origin that it is already unknown where and when ginger appeared in the wild for the first time - ginger has long become a crop. The common perception that it is a traditional component of Asian cuisine is refuted by a host of examples. Its taste and aroma decorates not only the cuisine of Asian countries, but perfectly complements many dishes from other cuisines of the world.
Ginger root came to the European continent in the Middle Ages, and it appeared on the territory of Russia, presumably, after the journey of Afanasy Nikitin to India. Ginger is a part of products from different types of dough. In Russia, they liked to add it to gingerbread, and this tradition is still preserved. Ginger is an original and bright component of many drinks. Spice is very popular in the preparation of first and second courses, as well as many salads.
Ginger salads - basic technological principles
In the world there are several varieties of ginger with a more or less saturated taste. On sale in our country, black ginger is most often found processed, washed and peeled from the surface layer. The trading network also sells pickled ginger in banks. Young roots have a white color on the cut, and when they interact with vinegar they turn pink. Sometimes pickled ginger root tint beetroot juice to improve the presentation. Ginger, if necessary, is very easy to pickle on your own, placing it in vinegar and keeping it for several days in a dark place.
Fresh root has a sharper, pungent taste and a bright characteristic aroma compared to pickled. In addition to fresh and pickled, ground ginger is widely used in cooking, which is a powder of grayish-yellow hue. Dried ginger has a bitter taste, but, peculiar to a fresh root, the burning sensation in the powder appears slightly. The chemical composition of ginger root allows you to keep it fresh for a long time. Wrapped in a film that protects from drying out, fresh ginger root can be stored on the shelf of the refrigerator for up to six months without losing its properties.
What ginger is better to use in salads? Of course, fresh and juicy root is combined with fresh vegetables, with a lemon shade and delicate citrus aroma. Ginger marinated is suitable for meat and fish, but for the preparation of warm salads, it is better to use ginger powder, seasoning them with both the individual components of the salad, which are subject to preliminary heat treatment, and for dressing sauces.
Many professional chefs argue that every dish should contain all flavors: salt, spiciness (bitterness or bitterness), sweetness, acid. Ginger can be included both in dessert fruit salads, and in fish, meat, vegetable types of a dish - it is combined with many products.
The main rule that should be observed in the preparation of the taste composition is the harmony of taste and texture. In a multi-ingredient salad, not a single ingredient should stand out: the predominance of one product over others deprives the meaning of a cooked dish. Therefore, bringing sharp flavors to any dish, do it carefully and gradually, in small pieces, mix and try.
Ginger root has one secret: it neutralizes any aftertaste. That is, for example, after eating a piece of pickled ginger after fish, its characteristic taste and smell are no longer felt. The pungent taste of fresh ginger enhances the appetite. This is not surprising, because spiciness contributes to better digestion of food.
1. Asian Cuisine: Ginger, Melon and Mint Salad (Dessert)
Product Composition:
Melon, nutmeg (pulp) 600 g
Ginger root 50 g
Peppermint 100 g
Lime 1 pc.
Sesame 40 g
Cashew 50 g
Treacle, dark 75 g
Pomegranate 100 g (grain)
Cooking Method:
For the salad, choose a not too ripe melon, with sufficiently dense pulp. Remove the peel and seeds. Cut the flesh into large cubes or select from the seedless fruit using a special spoon. Put the melon in a deep salad bowl. Remove the zest from the lime and sprinkle with fruit pieces; cut the lime in half and squeeze the juice. Peel and finely grate a small piece of fresh ginger root, tear the mint leaves. Add to the salad. Cover the salad bowl with a lid and shake the melon so as not to mash the pieces while mixing. Put in the cold so that the melon is soaked with the juice of mint, lime and ginger. Prepare 4 ice cream bowls or red wine glasses for batch serving. Take 4 slices of lime, make a cut on them and hang on the edge of the glass. Gently arrange the melon, sprinkle with pomegranate seeds, ground cashews and sesame seeds. Water molasses. Salad ready.
2. Mediterranean cuisine: salad with pickled ginger and seafood
Ingredients:
Refueling:
Oil, olive 75 ml
Pepper ground white 20 g
Lemon or white wine 100 ml
Sugar 50 g
Mint bunch 75 g
Salt
Tuna in own juice (canned) 450 g
King prawns 12 pcs.
Marinated Ginger 100 g
Grapefruit (or Sicilian orange) 300 g
Lettuce 120 g
Rosemary for decoration
Cooking Technology:
Ingredients for refueling, combining, perebite blender. Let it brew for about an hour. Slice the tuna fillet, grapefruit into large pieces, combining them with pieces of ginger. Wash plates of vegetable salad leaves. Place on them cooked salad. Boiled and peeled shrimp put in each portion as a whole, two pieces. Garnish with rosemary sprigs and pour dressing.
3. European Cuisine: Spicy Ginger Salad
Products:
Gherkins 400 g
Cherry 500g
Ginger, fresh 70 g
Cheese, pickled 350 g
Celery (root) 150 g
Green onions 100g
Honey 50 g
Dill 70g
Lemon juice 100 ml
Parsley 50 g
Soy sauce 30 ml
Pepper, black ground
Olive oil 50 ml
Cooking Procedure:
Cut into slices, into four parts, cherry and gherkin, large cubes - cheese, small - boiled celery, chop the onion and parsley leaves, dill.
Combine honey, soy sauce, lemon juice and butter, adding pepper and finely grated ginger to the mixture, pour the dressing into a container with salad.
Optionally, the salad can be decorated with rings of sliced olives, laying it on a hill on a dish lined with salad leaves.
4. Winter salad with ginger, daikon and apples
Products:
Fresh cucumber 250 g
Carrots, red 150 g
Apples 200 g (net)
Lemon juice 50 ml Ginger root 90 g
Daikon (or black radish) 350 g
Fine salt
Sour cream (20%) 70 g
Black pepper
Raisin red 200 g
Cooking:
Cut cucumber into thin slices, washed and peeled vegetables and large sweet and sour apples - long and thin straws. Immediately after slicing the apples sprinkle with lemon juice. Add grated ginger, pepper and salt to sour cream. Stir. Combine all the ingredients, season the salad. Garnish with the ingredients of the dish or add greens.
5. Japanese Cuisine: Salad with Pickled Ginger, Salmon and Rice
Product Composition:
Salted salmon 360 g
Marinated Ginger 120g
Cooked Rice (“Jasmine”) 180 g
Sea cabbage 240 g
Soy sauce 50 ml
Cream Cheese 350 g
Sesame 100 g
“Wasabi” - 15 g
Cooking Procedure:
Roll the balls of cheese, wetting your hands in water, 30-40 g. Dip them in sesame seeds.
Put a layer of sea kale in a flat round dish. Put a layer of rice on top, the next layer is the “petals” of pickled ginger. Put the cheese balls on the ginger. Cut the salted fish into thin strips and place around the cheese. Pour over soya puff salad. Serve “wasabi” to the salad separately.
6. Malaysian cuisine: salad with ginger, smoked chicken and pineapples
Products:
Smoked chicken breast 700 g
Yogurt, natural 150 ml
Chilli or cayenne pepper 40g
Arugula 100 g
Tomatoes (cherry) 300 g
Garlic70g
Ginger 90g
Green Peas (pickled) 250 g
Boiled rice 400 g
Curry
Fine salt
Pineapples, canned 450 g
Working order:
Prepare a dressing from yoghurt, curry, ground hot pepper, garlic and ginger. Cherry cut into slices or plates, chicken and pineapple - diced. Combine and mix all the ingredients, put in a bowl or on a flat dish. Pour heavily cooked sauce and garnish with torn arugula leaves.
Ginger Salad - Tips and Tricks
Salad, which includes fresh ginger root is not recommended to store more than two hours. Such a salad, of course, does not quickly deteriorate, since ginger protects the dish from the reproduction of harmful microorganisms, due to the fact that the root is a natural antiseptic. But it is the burning sensation and bitterness that quickly spoil the taste of the salad, interrupting the taste of all other products. Spicy dressings with ginger are best served on a table separately, in a sauceboat.
Ginger root, like lemon, eliminates odors in the kitchen. Break the root and rub the surface of the board after cutting the fish, garlic. Moreover, ginger has an antimicrobial effect.
If ginger is added to hot dishes at the beginning of cooking, then its taste eventually becomes less pungent, at the end of cooking you need to add ginger more carefully so that it does not drown out the taste of other products.
Essential oils, which are contained in large quantities in the ginger root, tend to quickly evaporate. Therefore, chopped or grated ginger, in the case when you need to emphasize its flavor, do not store for a long time in the clear. Add ginger to the salads of their fresh vegetables at the very end of cooking and in small quantities.
Store cold dressings and sauces containing ginger in a closed container.
