Freeze Your Ginger for Easier Grating

I consume a lot of ginger, which means I buy a lot of ginger, which sometimes translates to not using all of the ginger before it starts to shrivel up. I have dried-up ginger mitigation strategies but, after a recent overly enthusiastic ginger purchase, I tossed about six large roots in the freezer to keep them a fresh as possible for as long as possible.

This was, as it turns out, a very good move, and I will be storing all of my ginger in the ice box from here on out. Not only does it stay fresh pretty much indefinitely (though some report a loss of flavour after half a year), but it grates like an absolute dream.

The cold firms the flesh of the root, making it easy to shred with a box grater, but the real magic happens when you hit it with a microplane, which results in a clouds of fluffy, fluttery, tiny ginger specks that just melt into hot oil, sauces, and cocktails. I doubt I will ever try and grate fresh ginger ever again.

One word of caution: once the ginger is out of the freezer, it will start to become quite soft and juicy. This is because water expands as it freezes, rupturing and softening the cellular walls of the root, but you can just pop the whole thing back in the freezer to prevent it from mushing out. You can also chop the root into manageable, one-inch pieces before freezing, then take what you need as you need it. (Some people peel it beforehand, but I don’t. Peeling ginger is for suckers.)