Ginger is a legend of a spice. It adds a sweet punchy flavour to your dishes that few other spices can compete with. Add this guy to a dish with some lime and you’re having a seriously good time. The thing with ginger, however, is that it can be quite annoying to prepare.
Between peeling and slicing these oddly-shaped gems, the process of getting ginger ready for cooking can be a hell of a time-sucker. But, of course, we’re here to let you know that there’s a hack you can use to cut your prep time right on down.
American chef and food writer Kenji Alt-Lopez went ahead and did us all a solid by sharing a video to Instagram highlighting his favourite way to mince ginger. And it’s pretty damn brilliant.
In the post, he wrote that before the mincing begins, “you have to peel the ginger and slice it into coins against the grain first”.
Hot tip: to peel your ginger, you can just go at it with a spoon, Simply Recipes shares. The skin of the spice is fairly thin when fresh so you should find it pretty easy to tackle.
Next, Alt-Lopez took a Shibazi Chinese cleaver – although he said that “a western cleaver, a meat pounder, or the bottom of a skillet” works just as well – and smacked down on the ginger.
Quite literally, the chef took the flat side of his knife and smashed down onto the ginger piece. When he lifts the knife back up again, it’s minced.
It’s truly a thing to behold.
Check it out for yourselves, here:
Alt-Lopez also pointed out that this neat little trick works perfectly for garlic as well. So, next time you find yourself feeling too lazy to properly mince your spices, give this hack a go. Let us know in the comments how you go.
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