I need to
break something to you but I’ll do it gently. Ready?
It's still winter.
Really. It won’t be spring until March.
Don’t let
these fool you:
Winter still
reigns supreme.
So with that
bombshell here is a little something to get you through those last few weeks of
winter. It’s really not difficult and
the best bit is that you get two products from one recipe. I know! Genius.
First up
you’ll get the recipe with pictures and then after you’ll get a lovely
downloadable pdf with not so many pictures. Nice! Then you can print it out and put it in a ring binder or, if you
like, make it into a paper aeroplane. Much more fun.
Crystallised Ginger
300g fresh
ginger
3 Cups water
2 ½ Cups sugar
(I would also recommend a sugar thermometer as it simply makes it all easier)
Firstly get your ginger.
Now peel that ginger. I like to use a teaspoon to do this. Yes. You heard right. A teaspoon.
Like this:
(Bad picture courtesy of self timer)
Peeling with a teaspoon means that just the skin comes off resulting in reduced ginger wastage.
Now chop it or slice it. I like small ginger nibbles so I chopped.
Now I have no photos until the finished products so here is the rest of the recipe.
1) Cover your ginger with water and simmer, with the lid on, for 20 minutes. It will still feel quite firm at this stage.
2) Drain into a jug to reserving all the liquid. Top this liquid up to 2 ½ cups.
3) Put the 2 ½ cups liquid and 2 ½ cups sugar in the pan and add back in the ginger pieces.
4) Bring this mix up to a rolling boil keep it there until your sugar thermometer reaches 106C or 225F. (This stage is likely to take longer than you think. I find that it quickly nearly reaches the temperature but takes a good ten minutes to actually hit 225F/106C. Watch it though.
Once it reaches the correct temperature take it off the heat.
Strain the ginger straight away while it is still hot (reserving the syrupy liquid) and toss the ginger pieces into more sugar until they are coated.
Here are mine...
Deeelicious.
Whats that? Oh.They're pink you say.
I had hoped you wouldn't notice.
In my excitement to make crystallised ginger I forgot one thing. To check I had everything. I didn't have enough sugar to roll my ginger in so I had to use my experimental batch...
...the batch which i had scented with rose petals...
...and coloured with natural food dye.
At least I can say I'm resourceful.
Oh yes, before I forget, I had mentioned it was two recipes in one. Well you obviously have the crystallised ginger but you also have a ginger syrup and I have more recipes for each of those coming up soon.
So here you go, as promised,a downloadable recipe card: Crystallised Ginger
(I also want to add just two things. 1) Please be careful when working with any hot liquid but especially hot sugar and 2) Use a much bigger pan than you think you will use. When the sugary water comes to a rolling boil it will at least triple in size. A bigger pan will educe the risk of spills and burns.)
