A SPOONFUL OF GINGER:
Irresistible, Health-Giving Recipes
from Asian Kitchens
Nina Simonds
Photos: a few
Ease: 2-4
When I first read this book in 1999, it was an awakening. The concept of eating and preparing foods for healing and health had always dwelled on the periphery of my mind (don’t eat too many fatty foods, take chicken soup and ginger tea when you’re sick, etc.), but I certainly didn’t consider the cooling (yin) or warming (yang) properties of what I cooked or ate, or whether they were in balance with the season. Nina Simonds does a remarkable job with introducing the Western reader (and I am a Western reader, though of Japanese and Filipino descent) to the gentle wisdom and all-encompassing philosophy of Chinese herbal and food traditions.
Each chapter opens with well-written articles about different foods (mushrooms, poultry, noodles, etc.), their properties and effects on the body, and their uses in healing. The recipes are well thought-out, grouping ingredients together for each step (e.g., marinade, tea-smoking, vinaigrette) to assist in your mis en place, and most have a side bar note about the beneficial qualities of one or two key ingredients. The photography invites the reader in – whether to a noodle factory producing wonton wrappers or in close-ups of crisp scallion pancakes.
This cookbook is definitely for cooks with a well-equipped pantry since rice wine, sesame oil, black vinegar, rice noodles, and black mushrooms figure prominently throughout. But once the investment is made, be prepared for delicious soul-satisfying good-for-you eating, including Grilled Beef with Thai Spices (146), Yin-Yang Shrimp with Hawthorn Sauce (78), Steamed Scallion-Ginger Fillets (58), Flaky Scallion Pancakes (240), or any of the congees (i.e., rice porridges, pp. 232-7).
This is food you will want to cook. And you will learn a little something along the way about why you instinctively crave these lovely dishes.
