I recently bought a big bag of ginger from my local Supermarket that had been reduced to 41p with the idea of making my own stem ginger in syrup or crystallised stem ginger. This is such an easy thing to make with only two additional ingredients: water & sugar, as well as a bit of time. You too can make your own, and here’s how:
You’ll need:
Ginger
Caster sugar
Water
Heavy bottomed saucepan
1. Peel your ginger. The best way to do this in with the bowl of a teaspoon, rather than a knife as then it only takes off the outer paper and doesn’t cut into and waste your ginger flesh.
2. Cut the peeled ginger into evenly sized slices, approximately 1cm thick.
3. Weigh the peeled ginger, then weigh out an identical weight of caster sugar, and set your sugar aside for use later.
4. Place the ginger pieces into your heavy bottomed saucepan. My Le Creuset pans are perfect for this.
5. Cover with cold water until the ginger is just submerged and bring to the boil.
6. Add the lid to the pan and reduce the heat to a simmer.
7. Simmer for an hour, or until your ginger is tender when tested with the tip of a knife. If your water is getting low, then top it up with a bit of boiling water from the kettle.
8. When your ginger is tender, pour in your sugar and bring to the boil.
9. Continue to boil gently until the sugar water mix has thickened and has formed a golden coloured syrup.
10. Transfer your ginger and syrup to a sterilised jar and seal.
11. Use the ginger as you would the commercially bought jars, keeping the ginger submerged under the syrup.
