Tuesday, April 8, 2014

A-Z Challenge 2014: ‘G’ for Ginger & Garlic

G for Ginger
Google Images
Using ginger or garlic adds a special flavour to many cuisines around the world. Combine the two and you have an unbeatable combo in flavour as well as health. I bring you these two roots whose names begin with ‘G’.

GINGER

I use grated ginger while making most of the curries and dals. Half a teaspoon of ginger extract mixed with half a teaspoon of honey is an excellent cough relief measure. Ginger adds flavour to tea and makes an awesome drink, especially in the rainy season. Ginger extract added to lemon juice prevents nausea.

Wikipedia says:

Ginger produces a hot, fragrant kitchen spice. Mature ginger rhizomes are fibrous and nearly dry. The juice from old ginger roots is extremely potent and is often used as a spice in Indian recipes, and is a quintessential ingredient of Chinese, Korean, Japanese and many South Asian cuisines for flavouring dishes such as seafood or goat meat and vegetarian cuisine.

Powdered dry ginger root is typically used as flavouring for recipes such as gingerbread, cookies, crackers and cakes, ginger ale, and ginger beer. Candied ginger, or crystallized ginger, is the root cooked in sugar until soft, and is a type of confectionery.

G for Garlic
Google Images

GARLIC

I use grated or chopped garlic to many of my food preparations. It adds an excellent flavour. Garlic rasam is a hot favourite at home.

Consuming garlic regularly keeps blood pressure under control. It’s high in Vitamin C and balances blood sugar levels. It also helps in maintaining cholesterol and improves your immune system.

Wikepedia says:

Garlic is widely used around the world for its pungent flavour as a seasoning or condiment. The garlic plant's bulb is the most commonly used part of the plant. Garlic cloves are used for consumption (raw or cooked) or for medicinal purposes. They have a characteristic pungent, spicy flavour that mellows and sweetens considerably with cooking.

Both Ginger & Garlic have many common health benefits:

They are excellent aids to digestion.
They are very good at fighting colds, coughs and other viral infections. Regular intake of both in cooked foods keeps infections away. (NOTE: Please understand here that I am not suggesting that a person suffering from viral fever should be fed this. A sick person’s digestive system will not be strong enough to handle ginger & garlic.)
They help reduce stomach cramps during menstruation.
Ginger & Garlic added to the diet of pregnant women helps reduce morning sickness.
It’s also recommended to the diet of women post child birth.

CLICK HERE to know more benefits of ginger & garlic.....

26 comments:

  1. I get the paste from market and store it in fridge...I used them in almost all gravies...but it was interesting to read about their benefits...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ginger is great - my wife makes some brilliant ginger chicken soup, one of my favourite dishes!

    Teaching English with Mr. Duncan
    A-Z of hotels

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Duncan, thanks for stopping by :) Yeah, ginger is great
      will definitely check out your blog

      Delete
  3. I use garlic in almost all of my cooking. Ginger, sometimes. I love them both!

    Precious Monsters

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Jolie, glad to hear that. Thanks for stopping by :)

      Delete
  4. I use both ginger and garlic in everyday cooking. Nice, informative post..

    ReplyDelete
  5. I use garlic a lot in cooking and garlic ka achar to is my heart fav
    ginger- adrak ki chai . nothing can beat it. Thanks for this information sundari

    ReplyDelete
  6. No debate here at all...both are too good.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Saw your blog on A to Z. Awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love garlic and ginger! I cook with garlic pretty much all of the time. I need to learn to use more ginger. I enjoy it, just not as familiar with it.

    What a delicious G post!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I cannot imagine my food without these two things! True sign of being an Indian :D

    ReplyDelete
  10. I use ginger all the time, garlic very rarely. Thanks for the post!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I use them both in most of the things I cook, garlic I guess is there in everything!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. When I was little for belly aches my mom had us chew on fresh ginger. For garlic she had a glass jar that had garlic soaking in white rum that we got a teaspoon of at the first sign of a cough of cold. LOL. It worked.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Always! I so believe in nature therapies. They leave only positive side effects if any

      Delete
  13. I love making ginger chicken. Soak it in chicken and soy sauce, cook it. Lovely. And I also love flat bread with garlic. That's a Hungarian thing :)

    @TarkabarkaHolgy from
    Multicolored Diary - Tales of colors
    MopDog - The crazy thing about Hungarians...

    ReplyDelete