Slice, smash, chop, grate, and juice it: the addition of fresh ginger to any recipe is guaranteed to send your taste buds into overdrive. Long used in its powdered form in Maritime kitchens, fresh ginger –for centuries valued as a preservative and digestive aid –transforms the ordinary into the exotic. And in these health-conscious times, it adds few calories and little fat but packs a powerful zing that will keep you coming back for more.

The Joy of Ginger, with over 150 tantalizing recipes, will have you using the gnarly rhizome in sauces and preserves, stir-frys and salads, and combining it with tofu, lentil, and noodles. Make mouth-watering appetizers like Smoked Salmon Ginger Butter Canapés, healthy and flavourful Ginger and Sweet Potato Soup, and a Real Ginger Beer. The added zip of ginger will have you once again relishing gingerbread, that classic comfort food, while your dinner guests will beg for Ginger Cheesecake, Truffled Ginger, Ginger Ice Cream and Apple, Ginger and Mint Sorbet. With this cookbook and a “hand” of ginger, the taste bud-tingling possibilities are endless!

Margaret Conrad has taught several generations of students at Acadia University and the University of New Brunswick. A longtime advocate of Planter Studies, she has also published several general histories of Canada and Atlantic Canada.

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Heather MacDonald is a trained home economist and counselor.

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