[pillsbury1]

exposing my ignorance...again. could u guys tell me how to use ginger in different ways? i want to flavor up a graham cracker crust with ginger for a baked cheesecake..what type of ginger do i use? then i want to sprinkle somekind of ginger on top and maybe flame it a bit to caramalize it. arent there ginger crystals in a jar or a crushed ginger...i really dont have the time do the ginger root slicing...ty

[Just Jim]

You could just mix the ginger in with the graham and bake it, then fill with your batter.
Or you could simmer your minced ginger in your cream, cool and strain, then make your ginger batter.

[tammylc]

i like to grate ginger very finely using a microplane grater, then squeeze the juice out of it and use it to flavor the ganache for my ginger truffles. it makes for a very potent ginger flavor, much more so than just infusing the cream with chopped ginger.

But since you mentioned not having much time, then you probably don't want to try this - it's not exactly quick...

[AndyG]

Put peeled fresh ginger in a juicer. Make enough for at least a few recipes. Freeze the ginger juice that you don't use right away, in a thin sheet that can be broken up, or in small cubes. Keep in a sealed plastic bag in the freezer.

[foodpump]

Ditto on the microplane. Fresh ginger is cheap and plentiful, candied ginger is more expensive and almost always contains some form of sulphur.

[TableBread]

Don't forget that there are plenty of baked goods for ginger. I did an entire story on this:

tablebread.blogspot.com/2007/11/late-night-at-table-with-ginger-root.html

You will have to add the http: because for some reason even though I have more than 5 posts it won't let me post external links.

The scones and the cake were out of this world!!!

Hope you have as much fun with 'Ginger-Root' as I did!

~TableBread