Last week, I shared how to buy, cut, store and transform ginger into a tasty beverage. Now, let's start some serious cooking with this gnarly herb. By the way, don't call ginger a root. It's actually an underground stem that grows horizontally — a "rhizome," to be specific. One day, in a Final Jeopardy round with $1 million on the line, you'll thank me for that random bit of information.
Fresh ginger should taste snappy, refreshing and spicy-sweet. Use too much of it in a dish and it will totally annihilate other flavors. Remember that the smaller you cut the ginger, the more pronounced the spice. In a typical dish that serves four, you only need a half teaspoon grated, one teaspoon finely chopped or a 1-inch chunk cut into thin coins and smashed with the side of your cleaver to provide a nice ginger background without overpowering. Don't you dare try to substitute dried, ground ginger for the fresh stuff. That's just wrong.
If you're making a stir-fry and only want a hint of the herb, gently heat up oil with the smashed ginger coins. After it gets hot, discard the ginger and go on with the rest of your stir-fry. You can also infuse broth with ginger by dropping in a couple coins and simmering for a few minutes before discarding the spent stuff.
I often use grated ginger because it practically disappears throughout a dish, yet you still get the full flavor of the herb. There's nothing more annoying than getting a strand of ginger stuck in your teeth! For this week's recipe, Steamed Black Bean Spareribs, I want ginger flavor dispersed evenly throughout, so we're using grated ginger and smushed garlic, mixed with high-quality jarred black bean sauce.
These ribs are a typical dim sum dish, and one of the easiest to cook: There're only a few ingredients and a total hands-on time of about five minutes. You can find the meat at Publix, but nobody except Applebee's can stomach the idea of "riblets," so look for "rib tips." You can purchase black bean sauce at any major supermarket or Asian market; my favorite brand is Lee Kum Kee. Sometimes you'll find black bean sauce with garlic or black bean sauce with chili — either of those will work just fine.
If you don't have a bamboo steamer, grab your widest pot with a tight fitting lid and two pie plates. Overturn one plate, set it on the bottom of the pot and use it to prop up the plate with the ribs. Fill the pot with enough water to come just under the pie plate. Alternatively, you could use three shot glasses, each filled with an ounce of Van Gogh Double Espresso Vodka. Take one shot glass, drink, and repeat with the other two. Use the empty glasses to prop up your pie plate.
Chinese Steamed Spareribs in Black Bean Sauce
(Serves four as part of multi-course meal)
1-1/2 lbs pork rib tips
2 tbsp black bean sauce
1 tbsp Chinese rice wine (or dry sherry)
2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp finely grated ginger (use a microplane grater)
2 cloves garlic, finely minced (or smushed through garlic press)
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp cooking oil
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
Using a pair of sharp kitchen shears, snip apart the riblets to separate them. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a shallow, heat-proof dish that will fit inside your steamer. Toss in the ribs to coat, and let marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes. Set spare ribs in steamer. Steam on medium high heat for 18-20 minutes until ribs are no longer pink. Make sure that when you are steaming you don't run out of water in the steamer. Replenish with additional water, if needed.
Jaden Hair blogs at steamykitchen.com.
This article appears in Jan 23-29, 2008.