Week 18 - Ginger

I'm a little picky when it comes to ginger. I love the flavor ginger adds to dishes, especially in Chinese cuisine, but I am not a fan of big chunks or slices of ginger showing up on the plate. That super-strong concentrated ginger flavor just overpowers everything, and it can be very sharp. I don't even really like the pickled ginger you get on the side of sushi (although I do find that more tolerable on yakisoba). Ginger candies for nausea are sometimes too much. I usually give most of the ginger of that type that I get to A, who loves it. On the other hand, I'm completely fine with ginger if it's finely chopped, ground into a paste, or in any form where it isn't so strong that it overpowers everything it's served with. I guess in time we'll see where B falls on the ginger-loving spectrum.

The Week 18 challenge, ginger, therefore was going to require me to choose a recipe very carefully. I needed to find something where ginger was a star ingredient and a predominant flavor, but one that wouldn't make me wince from how strong it was. It didn't take me long to find a recipe for ginger scallion ramen noodles on Bon Appetit, a recipe I think I bookmarked some time ago but never made.  (This was back before I learned about Bon Appetit's treatment of its BIPOC contributors; I don't look for recipes there anymore.) I do like the ginger scallion sauce often served with chicken at Chinese restaurants, so I felt confident that this recipe would work to both showcase ginger and be something I could tolerate (and hopefully be not too strong for B either).

Ingredients:

Being able to make this recipe hinged on one important question (since this was back in April when grocery stock was far less reliable and consistent). Would our Whole Foods delivery include ginger, or would we have to postpone the challenge until we could get some? Most of the other ingredients we already had, other than toasted sesame oil (but we had regular), but considering ginger was the star of the recipe, there was no way around it. Luckily, ginger was not one of the out-of-stock items from our delivery (just no scallions, but thankfully we already had some, or yeast), so we were able to proceed. Our modified ingredients list was:


- 4-5 inches of ginger, peeled and finely chopped ($0.42)
- 5 garlic cloves, finely chopped ($0.20)
- 1 small bunch of scallions, thinly sliced ($1.29)
- just under 1/2 cup grapeseed oil ($1.20)
- 2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce ($0.40)
- 1 tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar ($0.20)
- freshly ground black pepper ($0.02)
- 1 tsp toasted sesame oil ($0.59)
- small squeeze of agave ($0.15)
- 4 packages of ramen (each about 3.5 oz) ($3.50)

A few ingredient notes:
- We used just under 1/2 cup of grapeseed oil (the recipe called for 1/2 cup) because we used less scallions and less ramen (by ounce) than the original recipe, but we probably could have used the whole thing (or even slightly larger quantities of that and the other liquid ingredients) to make more sauce. Interestingly, the comments to the recipe say that most found it too greasy and too oily, but it didn't seem that way for us. Maybe it was the noodles we used that soaked everything up better?
- We only had a small bunch of scallions left, some of which were already wilted because they were old, but would use a bigger batch next time. Would also use more garlic.
- We used the A-Sha Tainan-style noodles because it was what we already had at home, but the slightly thicker, more wavy ramen noodles might be a better fit because they might hold the sauce a little better. We bought them so long ago that we don't actually remember what they cost, so I just guessed.
- The approximate cost of the noodles was $7.97, and we ate it with some vegetable spring rolls, so dinner probably cost $10.37 total. Not bad for a tasty, filling dinner for three (no leftovers and still ate dessert later).

Steps:

We followed the recipe fairly closely, and the steps were:


1. Prep - finely chop garlic and ginger, thinly slice scallions. [I probably chopped more finely than necessary, but I wanted to make sure the raw ingredients weren't too crunchy for B.]

2. Put the chopped garlic, ginger, and 2/3 of the scallions (including all the whites) in a large bowl.

3. Heat grapeseed oil over high heat until shimmering (hot but not smoking yet, doesn't take very long), and then pour hot oil over the mixture in the bowl. Stir to make sure everything is coated by the oil.

4. Wait 5 minutes and then add the rest of the scallions. Stir well.


5. Add soy sauce, vinegar, black pepper, sesame oil, and agave. Let mixture sit for about 15 minutes, and adjust for taste (didn't need any adjustment).

6. Make ramen noodles.

7. Drain ramen noodles, mix in ginger-scallion sauce (reserving a small amount in the bowl), and mix well so all the noodles are coated by the sauce.

8. Serve ramen in bowls, and top with some of the sauce and infused oil.

Conclusion:


This turned out really well! When I tasted the sauce on its own, the ginger flavor was strong, but not unbearable. Mixed in with the ramen, the ginger flavor was more subdued, far less sharp, but still very present. The overall flavor of the sauce was great, and we all liked it, including B. Just kind of wished there were more of it to mix in with the ramen. We would definitely make this again!