This is a pungent drink which according to Chinese herbal medicine is also a natural remedy, said to be able to help strengthen immune system, inhibit inflammation, accelerate blood circulation, improve stomach functions, relieve nausea, dispel phlegm, reduce cough, and alleviate early symptoms of cold and flu .
I used aged ginger as per the old Chinese recipe, but sought help from two modern appliances – a food processor and a slow cooker – for the preparation. Thus, chopping and boiling the ginger into a paste was almost effortless.
The most ‘scary’ part of this recipe perhaps is to peel the ginger. Yet if you could locate organic ginger, just skip that by brushing the skin clean.
After the ginger is cooked into a paste, I keep it in fridge and prepare the tea in the morning by scooping out a tea spoon of the ginger paste from the jar and brewing it with about a cup of hot water. Fast and easy every time!
Drink the tea in the morning
More than one Chinese herbalist advised me to take this drink in the morning than in the evening. Though ginger helps tame many discomforts, there are compounds in this rhizome that keep our bodies alert and being heated, which also means it could be a stimulant and interfere with the quality of our sleep.
True, ginger is a heaty food, actually many people like drinking this tea in winter to keep the body warm. Yet there is a folk saying suggests that it is also beneficial to eat ginger during summer:
‘冬吃蘿蔔夏吃薑，不煩醫生開药方’
sort of ‘ … ginger in summer, keeps doctors away’.
Because it is said that not only will ginger spicy up our appetite, but also kill off bacteria, which are more active during the hot and humid weather.
I would however avoid drinking this when my body is ‘heaty’, having symptom like dry or sore throat. Though some regard that ginger could cure sore throat, it just doesn’t work for me. But that explains why Chinese like taking ginger tea after eating crabs, a food classified as having an extremely cold property.
Anticipating that it would take me 1 to 2 weeks to finish the ginger paste, I halved the amount of sugar but added two tea spoons of honey as a natural preservative. You may of course add more of them if you have a sweet tooth.
Note: this is informational than is intended to provide medical advice.
- Ingredients
- 60g fresh ginger
- 20g Chinese or Japanese black sugar 黑糖
- 2 tsp honey
Method
Peel: Using a small knife or a spoon with sharp edge, scrape off skins from ginger. It should be more easy to do the scrapping along the length of the ginger. If the stems of your ginger are too close to each other, just break them off. The skins peeled off should be very thin, looking as if translucent.
Chop: Wash ginger under tap water and pat dry. Cut it into small thin slices crosswise, and finely chop with a food processor. If doing this manually, then you will need to cut the slices into shreds and chop.
Cook: Mix the chopped ginger with sugar, and put them in a steam-proof bowl or container, covered. Put the container in the cooker, filled with water enough for boiling but the level should be no less than 3 cm distance from the rim of container (set it above a rack if required) to avoid water splash up into the ginger paste, covered. Bring water to a simmer, and boil for another 1 hour. I sit my bowl directly in a slow cooker with a piece of cloth underneath it to avoid eroding the cooker. Whichever appliance you use, cook the ginger over gentle heat.
Serve: Check taste, add honey according to taste and mix well. Scoop out about a tea spoon of ginger paste and dilute it with a cup of hot water, stirring well and let it steep a minute or two. Serve hot or warm.
Store: Let cool; put the paste in an air-tight container and store in fridge, but finish it in a couple of weeks.
Enjoy!
- Category: Vegetable .
- 23 comments
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How cool having this ginger paste handy…I usually boil in water for a long time…I will try this…much easier.
Thanks for the recipe Maureen and hope you are having a fantastic week 😀
@Juliana,
Can’t agree more, very handy!
I remember drinking the ginger tea in cold rainy days….it warms you up instantly. Pungent but really good!
Oh I’m so happy for this recipe. My mom loves drinking ginger tea when we go back to Taiwan but struggles to find a suitable one when we’re in the states. Can’t wait to try this one out, especially for the winter season!
I learned to make a version of ginger tea when I was in Brazil and I’ve been crazy about it ever since. I will definitely try this recipe. I need to keep ginger paste on hand too. Great tips!
冬吃蘿蔔夏吃姜 – I heard about this not too long ago too. That time I was thinking – ginger should be good in colder months too as it is known to 去寒 esp within the body. It was the first time to hear about it being good when taken during summertime. Anyway, I am going to believe that ginger is good anytime of the year :p
Love ginger tea, they are good for colds (they do work for me when I have a congested nose), cramps, hangover, warming body and for general well being 🙂
This looks amazing and I really want to try it but I’m confused about one thing – if I put the glass container in the slower cooker do I still need to add water? Is it also the same cooking time of one hour? Thanks!
@Monica,
In this recipe, it is the slow cooker that needs to be filled with water. You put only ginger and sugar in your glass container, but make sure it is steam-proof.
Thank you for writing to clarify, I have just elaborated the procedures under “cook”, hope it helps.
Enjoy!
I use to buy ginger tea (in packet) from convenient store but i would like to try this recipe. Just want to confirm, no water added in the recipe? With the ingredient showing abv (exclude honey), how many glass of ginger tea i can make?
@Jessie. L.
Yes, you do not need to add water.
This shall yield about 8 to 10 cups of tea (approximately 1 teaspoon of paste to about a cup of hot water).
Enjoy it in the morning!
Hi Jade here,I started juicing every morning for my graying and thinning hair problem ,I wonder can this tea replace my morning juice for my hair problem.
Hi Jade again,I don’t know why my turn out watery instead of paste.Can I still keep it in the fridge.
@Jade,
If the ginger is finely grated than chopped, its juice might leach out, which means you may still keep it. Besides, when the ginger was being cooked, the container needed to be covered. Otherwise, I’m not sure what would have caused it watery, excuse me.
Could you use regular brown sugar or honey only to make this?
@Sarah,
Apart from adding sweetness to the drink, the sugar here is to add more nutritions, therefore black sugar (which should be natural and least processed) is preferred. You may use brown sugar but I suppose it lacks some of the nutrients. I usually don’t boil things with honey, because the high heat may destroy its enzyme. Here I add honey after the paste is cooked (see how it is served above) and diluted it with hot water. It is said that using hot water below 80 degree C is most ideal.
Hi,
I would like to know if I could cook the ginger in a pressure cooker in a low flame, instead of a slow cooker? If so how long do I cook in a pressure cooker?
Thank you.
@Manju,
Some say that pressure-cooking makes the macro-nutrients in foods more digestible; while others suggest that high heat actually damages some nutrients. Because of such controversy (welcome any advice on this), I have not owned a pressure cooker. If you aim to take this tea as a remedy, I’d recommend that you go for slow-cooking.
/does this freeze well
[…] Black sugar isn’t a big thing in the U.S. just yet, but it’s huge in Japan and Taiwan. I can’t find a ton of information on it in English, but I think it’s like less processed sugar sold in super-dense cubes. You can eat it like candy or dissolve it in hot water and drink it as a “tea”. I haven’t found it to have any magical pain-relieving properties, but it’s damn tasty, especially with ginger. Here’s a recipe for black sugar tea with ginger. […]
Hello,I absolutely agree with the benefits of ginger. True, it is a very spicy yummy;however, as it is so benefitial for our longevity,beauty,well-being and general health we all can add it to our diet, wisely.Honey,and other natural delicious products ease its spice, whilst preserving all the vital qualities of the ginger root.
I*ve learnt about ginger from my parents at first:they were brewing various teas adding ginger to it.Some people even used a thermothe.Although it is a longish process.
I believe, this recepie with ginger paste is perfect:it saves time, and also guarantees freshness and the bestest of vital elements in ginger.Fact. Sure, I*ll use this advice.
Thank you for sharing this wise tip.Be blessed.Darya.
I have started making ginger tea in the pressure pot. I put a large sliced piece of ginger with a litre of water and bring to pressure reducing for 30 minutes. I decant into bottles and keep in the fridge. In a cup I pour out about a quarter inch and top up with hot water and a little honey or brown sugar. I find this a very effective way and it is delicious. I do through out the pieces of ginger. Tried to use them in cake but it was too hard after baking process. I will experiment more.
[…] here to learn more about ginger […]