Cold Ginger and Butter

These two kitchen tips come to us from a local friend, Gabrielle.

#1 — I love to use fresh ginger, but I don’t use it often enough to go through a whole root before it spoils. Also, it can be difficult to mince. So when I buy a fresh ginger root, I break it into two-inch pieces and freeze it all. When I want to use it, I take a chunk out of the freezer and it easily peels and shreds into tiny bits with a regular handheld cheese-grater (smallest holes).

#2 — I have also done this with butter! For recipes that require small, cold pieces of butter, like shortbread, certain doughs, or crackers, I freeze the required amount of butter for a couple of hours and then grate it, producing firm, small, uniform pieces that don’t stick all together in a clump. And, the small pieces are cold, but not rock hard frozen when you are finished.