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Crystallised ginger (Haize)HaizePerennial Joined: 13 Apr 2006 Posts: 389 Posted: 03 Jun 2006 10:34 pm Post subject: Crystallised ginger -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I've veered off the recipe a bit, but it is originally from www.melindalee.com Her recipe says to mix water and 7-up ( ) together in equal parts, and to put the ginger into this mixture as you peel it, and then again after you chop it (she recommends slices about 1/8 inch thick, taken diagonally to make them larger). I just put a random amount of sugar, lemon, and lime juice into water instead, and also, made a mixture of slices and cubes too. After this, drain the ginger, and place in a steamer of some kind for 30-40 minutes, to soften the ginger a little. Make up a mixture in the ratio of 1:1.5 water to sugar, in a stainless steel, glass, or otherwise un-reactive container. This needs to be enough to cover the ginger. Bring to the boil, put in the ginger, and boil for 6-8 hours. During this time, enough water may evaporate that the ginger is no longer covered. The recipe says to mix up more of the same solution in a pan, bring to the boil, and add. However, as only the water, and not the sugar is evaporating, I ignored this and topped it up with boiling water. When you do this, as the syrup is above 100°C, some of your added water gets instantly boiled off, causing a bit of frothing, so be careful if your container is very full. Make sure you don't have to be in the house for the whole of this process, as the initially delicious smell of ginger heated in syrup eventually becomes rather sickly! I never thought I'd start to find it unpleasant, though I'm sure it will wear off. This is why you want to make a large batch, so as not to have to do it again for ages! Anyway, test the ginger occasionally (ok, eat it!) for tenderness. When it is soft enough, which takes longer with older roots or thicker cut pieces, remove the heat source, and allow to cool for 30-40 minutes. Now the recipe says to drain the ginger, and place on a cooling rack without overlapping. When they are dry enough that they are "tacky", but don't stick to your finger when you poke them, put some granulated sugar into a tub, and shake a few slices at a time in this. Remove the slices, and place on another drying rack. This needs to be left for quite a while, preferably overnight, until two slices squeezed together do not stick to each other. I'm currently coming up to 8 hours of simmering, but am not going to dry all of the ginger. Quite frankly, the syrup is now about the best bit of it, lovely and fiery, so we are going to keep some of the ginger in it. I've used ginger in syrup before for things like steamed sponge puddings (like often done with treacle or golden syrup), so it will go quite quickly. It definately has more fieryness to it than bought stuff, though it is also not quite so tender (I think my ginger might have been 'old'). However, I don't mean it's still woody, it's great. Anyway, I'm off to take it out of the oven, else I'll not get to sleep tonight. _________________ Status of our house: No heating, no bathroom, no kitchen. Washing machine, fridge, and boiler sitting around in boxes. No door on room with toilet! http://www.manicfish.com/myblog.php?bbn=haize Back to top Cabbagepatch Perennial Joined: 02 Mar 2006 Posts: 478 Posted: 04 Jun 2006 11:27 pm Post subject: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks Haize, that's another one to add to the "To Do" list Back to top |