The other day I tumbled a fistful of chopped-up garlic, onion, celery tops and fresh ginger root into a stock pot, along with a cut-up chicken, red pepper flakes and peppercorns. Then I added enough water to cover the whole affair, along with a pinch of salt.

It simmered gently until its fragrant, chickeny luscious aroma permeated every corner of the house, at which point I lifted the lid and removed the falling-off-the-bone chicken pieces. I let them cool until they could be handled without inflicting much pain, then pulled off most of the tender morsels of meat before returning the bones and scraps to the pot, where they continued to flavor the broth as it simmered for another hour or so.

The cooked chicken has been wrapped and tucked away in the freezer. And the strained broth, after a night of chilling so I can scrape off the fat, will also end up in deep freeze.

It’s that fresh, chunked-up knob of ginger root that will set all future creations made from this liquid gold on a path far removed from most broth-based creations.

I could have added fresh cilantro, of course, and even a couple of wedges of Meyer lemons, but that would have been too rigid a governor on my end uses. When I pull this broth from the freezer down the road, it will provide a subtle Asian influence to a broad range of soups and stews without overstating itself.

One of the soups that will benefit from my gingered chicken broth is an elegant but simple preparation called Chinatown Mushroom Soup. It’s a combination of fresh mushrooms, thin Asian-style noodles, green onions, a bit of Black Forest ham and a splash of fresh lime juice for zing. I may even throw in a few pieces of the ginger-infused chicken that I just put in the freezer.

First, however, I turned some of the freshly made gingered chicken broth into a hot and sour soup. With this recipe, I have moved far from the traditional hot and sour soup one encounters in most Chinese restaurants. It’s the way my husband and I prefer it: strong on bean curd and completely lacking in bamboo shoots. The green onions are its backbone, their mellow yet oniony flavor mingling with the ginger-laced chicken broth, the two components acting in concert to lift this soup out of the commonplace into the extraordinary.

In late spring, I’ll substitute plumper, slightly heartier-flavored bunch onions as they become available at the farmers’ market. The texture is a bit coarser than the simple green onion, but the soup can certainly stand up to the variation.

— Jan Roberts-Dominguez is a Corvallis food writer, artist, and author of “Oregon Hazelnut Country, the Food, the Drink, the Spirit,” and four other cookbooks. Readers can contact her by email at janrd@proaxis.com, or obtain additional recipes and food tips on her blog at www.janrd.com.