Plant Camp Monday's

This week I'm combining three in one, Wild Ginger , store bought ginger root and fresh green beans from my garden. Sound's like a recipe to me.

My plant is Wild Ginger, Asarum canaddense




I have just this one plant that is new to the homestead. I have not seen it growing in our parts of the woods yet but I sure hope so. Just got to keep looking.

How pretty Wild Ginger is with its heart shaped leaves. . The odor and color of the flowers attract certain insects essential to pollination. Now I see why over at the ol homestead I have just one plant and its not producing that well. I need those bugs! Found out they are ants that pollinate the plant, I need ants ?

I should bring over the other Wild Ginger to get this patch growing.


The root is used from the Wild Ginger plants for making ales and medicals . If you scrape the root you can smell the ginger. Here's a link to get more info on the plant.

http://www.abnativeplants.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=plants.plantDetail&plant_id=99

Wild Ginger is not the same kind you would fine in the grocery stores, The beautiful ginger root you can buy and use in your cooking is Zingiber officinale. I'll be using this in my recipe.

Here's a link to tell about the ginger root that we see in the store

http://www.floridata.com/ref/z/zing_off.cfm

My sis and I love a chinese dish called Szechuan green beans

I couldn't wait tell my Wild Ginger grew to use this so I bought the big roots of ginger and picked some green beans for my garden. Along with some green onions. This dish is a bit on the hot and spicy side so you can tone it down a bit.



I dusted the ol wok to make this dish and went to town on making for the first time. I love cooking out of the wok but have not for a very long time. I think I'll keep it out and use more often. Hope you like this dish.

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:1 pound Chinese longbeans (also called yardlong beans or just longbeans)

1 tablespoon garlic, chopped

1 tablespoon ginger,

chopped2 scallions (spring onions, green onions),white parts only

1/2 teaspoon chili paste1 tablespoon dark soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Pepper to taste, optional

2 tablespoons vegetable or peanut oil for stir-frying, or as needed

Preparation: Wash the longbeans, drain thoroughly, and trim the tops and bottoms.Cut the longbeans on the diagonal into slices approximately 2 inches long.Chop the garlic, ginger and white part of the scallions.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat. Add the longbeans and stir-fry until they start to shrivel or "pucker" and turn brown (5 - 7 minutes). Remove the long beans and drain in a colander or on paper towels.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in the wok on high heat. Add the garlic, ginger and scallions. Stir-fry for a few seconds, then add the chili paste and stir-fry for a few more seconds until aromatic.

Add the longbeans and the remaining ingredients. Mix together and serve.

Serving suggestion: Szechuan Green Beans would make an excellent side dish to accompany Mapo Tofu but I made a fried brown rice.

Sorry no picture of finished dish , hubby started in and ate it all up. And he's not an Asian dish fan either.

I'm glad to be able to make different dishes with the green beans this year and also learn about my ginger i'm growing. I'd like to try making ginger ale someday.

If you have a favorite ginger dish or green bean dish please share.

Thanks for joining the Plant Camp this week.

Have a wonderful week with lots of Blessings

tc linda