Kitchen Tools : Porcelain ginger grater and the best tip ginger tip ever

One of the reasons it's so fun working in The Chatelaine Kitchen is that we get to play with so many new and cool kitchen gadgets. However, as I mentioned in a previous post, as cool as these gadgets are we often revert back to our simple tools to get the job done. 

Over the years, I’ve managed to accumulate some kitschy items in my home kitchen that I’ve found while traveling or browsing in local stores. One of my favourites is this handy porcelain ginger grater, which is modeled after the Japanese oroshigani, a centuries-old shark skin grater used to grate wasabi and horseradish. Unlike generic graters, this porcelain grater is not perforated, and instead has little nubs that catch onto the ginger’s fibres and shred it.   

Fresh ginger can be hard to grate and finely chop because of its very fibrous core, and this porcelain grater does the job with ease. Just try grating ginger with a generic grater, and you'll often end up with more ginger juice than pulp (not to mention the dangerous clean up of prying the leftover fibers off the grates!).   

But don’t fret! Even if you don’t own a porcelain grater, you can still grate ginger effortlessly! Tip: Simply freeze your ginger, and grating it will produce fine shreds that make clean up a snap (and keep your fingers intact!). 

Look for your porcelain ginger grater here or your local kitchen store!

-Irene