Fresh Ginger — season, tips, and recipes in New Zealand
Fresh Ginger is a vegetables available in New Zealand during January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December, peaking in February, March, April. This page is a practical guide for home cooks: when to buy fresh ginger, how to pick a good one, how to store it, what it goes well with, three original recipes, and detailed nutrition information.
NZ imports most of its ginger from Fiji and Australia, but some is grown in Northland. The young pink ginger (available in Asian grocers) is milder and doesn't need peeling.
How to pick a good one
Should be firm with smooth, taut skin. Wrinkled or soft ginger is old. Snap a piece off: it should break cleanly with visible fibres and smell strongly.
How to store it
Fridge unpeeled in a bag for 2-3 weeks. Freeze whole and grate from frozen (works brilliantly). Keeps for months frozen.
Goes well with
garlic: Ginger and garlic cooked together in oil is the aromatic base of much of South Asian, East Asian, and Southeast Asian cooking. The combination of ginger's warm sharpness and garlic's pungent savouriness creates a base flavour that neither achieves alone.
soy sauce: Ginger's warmth and soy's deep savouriness are complementary across Japanese, Chinese, and Korean cooking. Used together in marinades, dipping sauces, and dressings.
lime: Lime's cold, citrus acidity and ginger's warm, peppery heat cover opposite ends of the flavour spectrum. The combination is found across Southeast Asian and Caribbean cooking.
honey: Honey's sweetness moderates ginger's sharpness while amplifying its warmth. Used in dressings, glazes, and drinks. Ginger and honey in hot water is one of the few folk remedies with clinical evidence behind it.
chilli: Ginger and chilli provide different kinds of heat -- ginger's is aromatic and warm, chilli's is sharp and immediate. Used together they provide heat with more complexity than either alone.
Recipes
Ginger Tea
The simplest cold remedy.
Ingredients: thumb ginger (sliced), 1 lemon, 1 tbsp honey, boiling water
Method: Put sliced ginger in a mug. Add lemon juice and honey. Pour over boiling water. Steep 5 min.
Ginger & Soy Dressing
On everything Asian.
Ingredients: 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp rice vinegar, 1 tsp sesame oil, thumb ginger (grated), 1 tsp honey
Method: Whisk everything. Use on salads, noodles, steamed veg, dumplings.
Quick Pickled Ginger
Sushi-style. Ready in 1 hour.
Ingredients: large piece ginger (peeled sliced paper-thin), 100ml rice vinegar, 2 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp salt
Method: Blanch ginger slices in boiling water 30 sec. Drain. Dissolve sugar and salt in vinegar. Pour over ginger. Leave 1 hour. Keeps in fridge for months.
Nutrition
Contains gingerol, a bioactive compound with powerful anti-inflammatory and anti-nausea properties. Clinical trials have confirmed ginger is effective for nausea (morning sickness, motion sickness, post-surgery). Also shown to reduce muscle soreness after exercise by 25%. Contains antioxidants that may help reduce the risk of infections. The nutritional value isn't in vitamins but in these unique bioactive compounds.