I hate ginger

Everyone who knows me knows that I hate ginger. I make no secret of it. In fact, I'm pretty obvious. I make gag noises when I see ginger. I spit out what I'm eating when I encounter an errant piece of ginger. I harp about ginger that is used inappropriately in Chinese cooking. I'm an all around brat when it comes to ginger. I hate it.

Which is why it is SO anomalous that I made a ginger-scallion dipping oil for our Chinese New Year dinner. In Chinese, we call it "Gueng-Chung" literally translating to "ginger-onion." It is a very simple dipping sauce that even I think is amazing with simple poached chicken or a lovely piece of fish. My friend Nina came over to my house to hang out with me as I was cooking up our CNY dinner and I sent some of the gueng-chung home with her. I am just now catching up on the comments that are left on my blog and saw that Nina had a question on what type of oil I used. Well, she (and everyone else) gets the whole recipe now.

Gueng-Chung

4 scallions (long, green onion)

1/8 tsp grated ginger (IF you like ginger, though I can't imagine why, you can up it to 1/4 tsp. Keep in mind that ginger is a very strong flavor)

1/2 tsp salt

5 tbs corn oil (you can use any type of light, flavorless oil such as canola or vegetable as well)

Finely mince the scallions and put them into a small bowl. Grate the ginger using a microplane. If you still haven't heeded my advice and purchased a microplane, you can very finely mince the ginger with a knife. Be sure to peel the ginger first. Add the ginger to the bowl. Add the salt and the oil to the bowl. Stir until the salt is dissolved. Let the sauce sit for at least 15 minutes before serving. It tastes better the longer it sits. The onion and the ginger are a lovely combination. In addition to putting it on poached chicken or poached fish, you can also use this as a marinade for a fish fillet you will grill or bake.