Candied/Crystallized Ginger and Dark Chocolate Ginger Bark
The holidays are coming and that means money spent for the kitchen. Those little 2 oz jars of candied ginger cost eight bucks in my local grocery store, but look at the ingredients on the side? "Ginger, sugar." That's it. Folks, here's how to make this essential holiday snack or ingredient at an eighth of the cost. All is takes is a little time. (A lot of recipes on-line will have you boil the ginger separate from the sugar. It's a wasted step.)
- 1 pound of fresh ginger (usually four dollars a pound)
- 3 cups sugar
- 1/3 cup water
Later:
-1/3 cup sugar
Peel ginger, slice it (if you are making it as a snack unto itself) or cut into small chunks for baking purposes. Toss ginger with 3 cups of sugar in sauce pan. Add water. Bring to a low simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, for an hour and a half. (Low simmer only, you don't want the sugar to actually caramelize or burn.) Ginger will become slightly translucent and seem to shrivel a tiny bit.
On a plate or peice of aluminum foil, sprinkle a 1/3 cup of sugar, fish out the ginger from pan with slotted spoon and place in sugar and toss around a bit as it cools. Store in an airtight jar. It should keep for a couple/few weeks.
The advantage of this recipe is not only do you get the crystalized ginger, you also get a ginger syrup (the left over sugar water in the pan) that can be used to make ginger ale/beer (club soda, bit of lime juice) and ginger sugar (from the sugar you tossed the bits of ginger in at the end) that can be used with baking ginger cookies/biscuits.
But my favorite is Ginger Bark:
Take a bar of really good dark chocolate (72-74 % cocoa) , melt it over a double boiler or a nice ceramic bowl in a pan of simmering water, add a heaping tablespoon of crystalized ginger chunks. Stir once. Pour out onto foil or parchment and let cool until hard. (With the really good chocolate this can take a while.) If you want to give a bit more zing, use the dark chocolate with espresso beans already mixed in.
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Kip's Cookery
Non-FictionWhile you all are waiting (patiently) for more John & Jenny's adventures in India, I thought I would share another of my creative sides.
