The clean, hot flavor is an essential ingredient of Chinese cooking Universal Press Syndicate A bamboo ginger grater has rows of notches for grating the fibrous flesh of fresh ginger root. The clean, hot flavor of fresh ginger warms and refreshes like no other seasoning ingredient. An essential flavor of Chinese cooking, ginger is of inestimable importance to Asian dishes.
Fresh ginger resembles a thick, knobby root with pale brown skin and moist gold flesh.
Whether ginger should be sliced, minced or grated depends on the dish. For stir-fry, ginger is best minced or chopped by hand. Unless the root is extremely firm, a food processor spoils the texture of the flesh and separates the juice from the fiber. Some recipes call for smashing ginger to release the juice into a marinade. To smash ginger, place the knife flat atop the ginger and then pound the flat blade with your fist.