In Season: Ginger adds a zing to cooking

Although ginger is available all year around in our stores, it does have a season. August is when the new roots arrive, so you will never have fresher, zingier or more flavorful ginger than at this time of year.

Besides, large commercial ginger suppliers have some pretty dicey ways of keeping the roots fresh over considerable lengths of time at room temperature. One way is to give the roots a bath in water containing harmless trichoderma fungus. The trichoderma colonizes the surface of the roots and prevents rot from getting a toehold. Then the roots are placed into vacuum-sealed plastic bags and irradiated with gamma radiation.

So you can see that it behooves you to snag August's fresh ginger while you can.

Look for smooth skin. The root should be firm to the touch and feel heavy in the hand. Avoid soft roots or ones with wrinkled skin. At home, wrap the roots in a moist (but not dripping wet) paper towel, then place them in a plastic bag, exclude as much air as possible, securely close the bag, and store in a vegetable crisper. The roots should be good for a month that way.

Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is a beautiful plant, somewhat resembling bamboo, that grows to about 6 to 8 feet tall. Its flowers are a clear, striking blue. The part we use are the underground rhizomes - that is, roots that spread out through the soil.

As for its culinary uses, a sauce of grated ginger, finely minced garlic and soy sauce is the classic accompaniment for Asian food. Much can be added to this triumvirate: toasted sesame oil, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, lime juice, coconut, galangal, onions, spicy hot chilies, tamarind. But why stop at Asian food? Now that most of these condiments and spices are easily available in markets like Oliver's and Whole Foods as well as Asian stores like the excellent Asiana Market at 7665 Old Redwood Highway in Cotati, it's time to apply these flavors to other types of dishes.

A good example is the dinner that takes under an hour to make, start to finish. First, put on a pot of arborio rice. Then dust the parts of a cut-up organic chicken with fresh ground black pepper and brown them in a skillet with 2 tablespoons of canola oil over medium high heat, cover them, and turn down the heat to medium low, turning them twice over the next 25 minutes, until they are done. Place the chicken parts on a serving platter and pop it into a warm oven. Don't clean the skillet.

Add a ¼ cup each of Marsala and water, 2 tablespoons of peeled, grated ginger root and a teaspoon of tamari to the skillet. Turn up the heat and cook it rapidly for two minutes, scraping up the browned bits, then toss in a skinned ripe tomato, seeded and chopped into small pieces.

After cooking for another two minutes, pour half of the sauce over the chicken, and garnish the platter with a small sprinkling of equal parts chopped Italian flat-leaf parsley and purple basil.

Place the rest of the sauce in a gravy boat to pour over the rice. This is an Asian dish with an Italian accent (or vice versa).

Is the fresh ginger root now in our stores organic? The fresh produce manager at Oliver's said he didn't know. To date the only fresh organic ginger I have found has been at a local farmers market.

In our warm climate, though, you can plant pieces of store-bought ginger root with well-developed growth buds in a pot of rich soil or in the garden in the spring after the soil warms up. It will sprout bamboo-like shoots. Keep it well watered. Harvest pieces of young, nonfibrous roots beginning after three months. You'll know they're organic. It will naturally die back in the fall, and the roots may rot in our cold, wet, winter earth, so treat it as an annual.

If you coarsely grate ginger into a few folds of cheesecloth and then wring it out firmly, you'll have ginger juice to add to your chocolate or vanilla ice cream, to use to baste a pork roast, or mix with mashed garlic to flavor chicken. It also softens any fishy odors of seafood. You can freeze this juice in an ice cube tray, transfer the cubes to a freezer bag, and store them in the freezer indefinitely.

Grated ginger also stores well in the freezer. Grated ginger adds a crisp bite when just a little bit is tossed with a salad. Ginger, lime juice, garlic, tamari and white wine make a perfect marinade for fish or chicken.

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Gado gado is an Indonesian salad of mixed steamed or stir-fried vegetables and hard-boiled eggs. This is the traditional peanut-ginger sauce that complements it.

Crush the peanuts in a plastic bag with blows from a rolling pin, or use a blender. Or substitute ¾ cup peanut butter. Five-spice powder is found at most Asian markets. The sauce is spicy, so adjust the peppers to suit your palate. But don't wimp out.

Gado Gado Sauce

Makes about 2 cups

2 fresh red jalapeñno peppers, seeded and finely chopped

1 1-inch piece of fresh ginger root, peeled and minced

1½ cups of lightly toasted unsalted peanuts, thoroughly crushed

- Juice of one lime

2 tablespoons canola oil

½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil

1 teaspoon five-spice powder

2/3 cup water

- Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat and sauté the ginger and jalapeños for about two minutes.

Add the water and the peanuts and cook for another four minutes.

Add the lime juice, five-spice powder, salt and pepper and stir together. Remove from heat and transfer to a serving dish.

Jeff Cox is a Kenwood-based food and garden writer. Reach him at jeffcox@sonic.net