Candied ginger in syrup, is not only a great pantry ingredient, but also fends off a soar throat in winter. Here in Hong Kong you buy the large stems of ginger at the market. All it takes is some cleaning, cutting, sugar and cooking!
The art of making Candied ginger in syrup
Peel the ginger stems and then cut them up in pieces, perhaps 0.2 inch (0.5 cm) cube. Obviously you can make larger pieces, but then it is wise to take cooking times a tat longer. After cleaning and cutting, we cook the pieces first in water. After that, we use the same water to make a dilute sugary syrup, in which the ginger pieces are cooked very briefly and then left alone for a day. This way the sugar can penetrate the ginger pieces and ginger juices will be extracted. The next day, ginger and syrup are separated and we cook the syrup to concentrate, until it becomes more thick. This may require cooking off just over half the volume. The ginger pieces are stored in this more concentrated syrup and kept in the fridge.
Special equipment
a sieve
Ingredients
Method
- Peel and cut up the stem ginger in 0.2 inch cubed blocks (0.5 cm cubes)
- In a pan with a lid, boil the ginger pieces in the water for 35 min
- Separate the ginger from the water
- Mix the sugar into the hot water and bring to a boil
- Add the ginger cubes and boil for 5 min
- Let cool down and set aside for 24 h
- The next day, separate the ginger from the dilute syrup and bring the syrup to a boil, evaporating the water until the volume has reduced to about 40% of the original. The syrup should be more viscous when cooled down
- Place the ginger cubes back and bring the back to a boil. Fill sterile jars and cap them.
Notes
Food allergy & intolerance information: none
Remarks
Upon storage the ginger will taste even more sweet.
The ginger syrup is an excellent coughing syrup
