[punatic]

I helped a friend repair his rainwater catchment system (I replaced the pressure switch on his pump). 
An easy fix - $6 part and 15 minutes.  He is very happy and grateful. 

My friend grows ginger and purple sweet potatoes.
He sent me home with 20+ lbs of fresh ginger root. Says there's a big box of sweet potatoes for me tomorrow.

What am I going to do with 20+ lbs of fresh ginger root?

Any ideas / recipes?

[Pawtucket Patriot]

There are tons of possibilities.  I use fresh ginger root in just about any szechuan dish and a lot of indian dishes too.  If you like wok dishes (I think I remember you saying you use a wok pretty regularly), I highly recommend Fuchsia Dunlop's
Land of Plenty.  Amazing szechuan recipes that use a lot of fresh ginger.

[nicneufeld]

Process what you won't use into ginger paste and freeze in ice cube trays, then into bags in the freezer for easy access...it's perfect for east asian, southeast asian, and south asian cooking.

And make a few batches of ginger beer, mead or wine!  Been a few years since I've done one, but ginger porter is good stuff.

[tschmidlin]

I'd candy some, make some ginger drinks, and cut the rest into 1-inch pieces and freeze it.  The frozen chunks grate really easily with a microplane grater, and it doesn't go bad.  I don't even peel it, just make sure it is clean.  If it sits for a long time some of the moisture comes out, but that is ginger juice and gets thrown in whatever I'm making anyway.

I've never had 20 lbs though!  A pound or so of ginger or galangal is it.  Maybe candy a lot of it.

[gordonstrong]

Make mead.  Steve Piatz won Meadmaker of the Year at the NHC in Cincinnati with a ginger mead.  Recipe has to be in Zymurgy.  I like the flavor of ginger best in a sweet mead.  Then you can get that sweet + hot thing going on.  Yum.

But I agree with Tom about freezing it and grating it with a microplane grater.  Saw that tip on TV and have never thrown out rotten ginger since.

I like the idea of turning it into ginger paste and freezing it.  You could freeze it in an ice cube tray sprayed with pam.  That's how I deal with pesto.

If you commonly make Asian food, you might always use a ginger and garlic mix or a ginger, garlic and scallion mix.  You could do the same thing and prep them in advance and freeze into cubes you can then use to speed up a recipe.

[bluesman]

A ginger mead sounds great and +1 to Tom's idea of freezing it for future meal planning. Just cut it into pieces and vacuum seal it prior to freezing to increase shelf life. Leave it unpeeled when freezing.

I'd like to see the ginger mead recipe. Sounds interesting.

[gordonstrong]

I'd like to see the ginger mead recipe. Sounds interesting.

I forgot he gave me the recipe for inclusion in the mead exam study guide:

Steve Piatz’ Ginger Metheglin
AHA NHC Gold Medal Winner 2008
20 lbs raspberry blossom honey
3.75 lbs fresh ginger
Lalvin 71B yeast
Staggered nutrient additions
Sliced ginger in primary. Back-sweeten with a very sweet raspberry blossom mead until ginger flavor is balanced and sweetness level is judged to be sweet. Force carbonate to petillant.

[bluesman]

I'd like to see the ginger mead recipe. Sounds interesting.

I forgot he gave me the recipe for inclusion in the mead exam study guide:

Steve Piatz’ Ginger Metheglin
AHA NHC Gold Medal Winner 2008
20 lbs raspberry blossom honey
3.75 lbs fresh ginger
Lalvin 71B yeast
Staggered nutrient additions
Sliced ginger in primary. Back-sweeten with a very sweet raspberry blossom mead until ginger flavor is balanced and sweetness level is judged to be sweet. Force carbonate to petillant.

Very nice! I will have to remember this one for sure.

Thanks.

[punatic]

Thanks for the ideas everyone!  Think I'll try pickling and candied ginger to start with.

I do use ginger in my asian cooking.  At the rate I use it I figure 20# will make around two tons of chicken hekka or fried rice...  

Mead-wise, I am not overly fond of ginger in mead.  Back in the day when I was a judge, I tasted waaaaay too many Barshack Gingermead entries.  Seems like that was the first one everyone tried when they started making mead.   Kinda ruined my taste for it.

[tschmidlin]

Have you ever had ginger jam?  Great stuff, I like it mixed in to plain yogurt, as part of a marinade for pork or chicken, there's tons of uses for it.

[1vertical]

Pickled ginger is a good thing as well.  I cook a red ginger chicken with some that is
colored red...maybe with red beet juice.   

[punatic]

Pickled ginger is a good thing as well.  I cook a red ginger chicken with some that is
colored red...maybe with red beet juice.  

This is the recipe I used, sans red beets, and ghost peppers instead of Thai (I have Thai, but wanted to use ghost instead):
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ming-tsai/pickled-ginger-recipe/index.html

I know, I know... "Presentation is everything!"  Pink pickled ginger is the standard.  I've tried them side by side and (my non-pink) fresher is better.

Excellent recipe w/o beets.  With beets - IDK.

[1vertical]

I am sure that fresher is better. But that much .......I would can it somehow and I am certain
that the beet is just added for coloration and not much if any flavoring.

[morticaixavier]

Have you ever had ginger jam?  Great stuff, I like it mixed in to plain yogurt, as part of a marinade for pork or chicken, there's tons of uses for it.

I like to use a jar of ginger preserves in vanilla icecream. The pectin really helps with the texture of the final ice cream and Ginger icecream on apple pie is just plain yummy!

[jaybeerman]

No ginger beer (strongly flavored ginger ale) recipes?  No ginger beer (beer with a strong flavor of ginger) recipes?  You could make switchel too.