How to Prepare Ginger

Video Transcript

"My name is Anne Appra and I'm with Catering Tips 101, but I'm really a Mary Anne and this is ginger. Ginger. This ugly little root packs a whole lot of flavor. You use it in Asian foods, you can use it in marinades, in salad dressings, in a garnish, what have you. It's really delicious. I have a tip for you on how to handle ginger, gingerly. I'm using a regular teaspoon and I'm going to use the teaspoon to rub off the hard, coarse peel. See how simple that is? Just rub it against it. I'm not applying too much pressure but enough. OK? You can eyeball about the size of piece that you want to use. About the size of your thumb is for your average use. What's nice is ginger keeps for a pretty long time as long as you keep it wrapped. So this big chunk of root, I can use for three or four dishes. Now I'm going to take my paring knife or in this case my chef's knife and just get rid of the very outer pieces. I'm going to cut my ginger much like a piece of garlic and I'm going to mince it using my sharp chef's knife. I'm just going to do lots of nice little cuts. Now that's very fibrous, so know that that's going to be happening. Going to also use my favorite little mezzaluna tool to make sure it gets cut right through cause it's stringy and fibrous. Another really lovely tip for ginger is using one of my other favorite tools, a little hand grater. So I'm going to take the ginger, I'm going to put it over my bowl and I'm just going to just use the hand grater. I'm going to rub it coarsely across the holes. I'm going to yield a nice pulpy finish that all I need to do is squeeze it. Now I have fresh, pungent ginger juice. You can also put the pieces in it and add it. It just adds a little more flavor body and nutrients. Ginger. Very good for you. Very healthy and delicious."