Magic Formula

Ginger Honey Lemon

I let out a small scream when I got on the scale the other day. The time has come for me to be on a ‘diet’ plan. Holidays and travel attributed to this awful weight gain. Why aren’t I built like a friend who can eat anything and never gain an ounce? I secretly despise her metabolism. Totally not fair! Totally!

I’m reading a Japanese ‘Dried Ginger’ cook book. Dried ginger is more potent than raw ginger to combat cold, improve metabolism, burn more fat and it is good for skin, wow! That’s what I’ve been waiting for my whole life! I could be lazy, yet still thin and beautiful? The book came with a handy drying net but I think you could dry ginger by other methods.

Day 1 – I cleaned the fresh ginger (新しょうが) and julienned. Then I put it in the drying net, hung it and waited.
As the sun was shining, I hung it outside first. It’s getting very nippy, I brought it inside.Day 2 – While waiting for that to dry, I finished the last of the Tokyo Bananas. You never know when I can have sweets again, right? By the end of the second day, the ginger was shriveled up and ready to make ginger honey lemon. I put the ginger in the food processer to make coarse ginger powder. It was way too noisy, I will just mince with a knife next time.

Ginger honey lemon – makes about 65g

• Lemon 3-4 thinly slice then cut in small pieces
• Dried powdered ginger 10g
• Honey 1/2 cup

Put everything in a small jar or plastic container with lid. Keep in the refrigerator. It is ready for use after 4 hours. I used 1 teaspoon of honey lemon ginger and 3/4 cup of hot water to make ginger tea and put a spoonful on top of plain yogurt, which is great too.

The flavor of dried ginger is more pronounced and bitter than fresh. You should dry bunch because weight of ginger shrink a quite a bit when it’s dry- about 100g of fresh ginger produces approximately 8-9 g. Put the left over dried ginger in freezer for later use, the ginger never gets frozen solid so you could use right away without defrosting.The book came with a few warnings though, consume only 1 teaspoon of dried ginger a day (1-2g), too much ginger may cause heart burn…diar…rhea …..I know there is a catch.

I woke up to a thin blanket of snow…(no, it was a sheet of frost). No school today? Of course not! It’s Saturday!This photo is not well focused yet still interesting I think.Even the spider web got a coating of frost. Brrrr, I need to go inside and have a cup of hot chocolate…I mean ginger honey lemon tea.