Sunday, February 1, 2009

Candied Ginger-
















There is no mistaking that candied ginger is ginger. In case you were wondering or assuming that coating thin slices of ginger root in sugar would in some way dull the infamous spicy after taste- it most certainly dose not. Is it still good? Yes.

That being said, doing the candying process in your own kitchen is very cool. You have to remove the paper thin skin off the root and then get to have fun slicing  it on a mandolin. It is a little bit of work but if for some reason you need a pound of sugar coated ginger, very worth while. I have a few ideas for how to use the stuff, and will have plenty of room to experiment given I do in fact have a pound of ginger now. 

You could go the ginger snap cookie rout, and there are TONS of good recipes out there. I really want to hunt around and find something different to make with my ginger, something a little more unexpected. 

Until then, enjoy these little snacks of sugar coated ginger goodness. Eaten one at a time on there own they are really tasty and have a unique taste, but as mentioned about, you know you're eating ginger. 

Happy Super Bowl Sunday. 

Candied Ginger-

One large "hand" of ginger
5 cups water
Sugar

Break hand into manageable pieces and remove skin by quickly scraping a small knife up and down the sides. Set mandolin to 1/8 of an inch and slice ginger into rounds. (If you don't have a mandolin, you can try and use a large knife but ginger is very fibrous and sometimes hard to cut thin.) Add ginger and pour water into a medium sized pot. Bring to a boil then lower to medium high temp and cook for about 35 minutes. Strain out ginger but reserve 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid. Measure the weight of the cooked ginger and then add an equal weight of sugar to the cooking pot. Add back the cooked ginger and the reserved liquid and cook on medium high heat until all of the liquid is cooked off. Spread out on wire rack to cool.  


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