Stem ginger

Excited by the concept of the ginger cake presented by Dan Lepard of the Guardian i decided to experiment with the ginger his way. My original concept of caramelized ginger is great, but not lasting – you can not rely on long term storage without the risk of infection.. I used stem ginger in my version of the ginger and honey loaf. Once completed and sealed it might crystallize with sugar in the jar, but don’t worry. Make sure you chop or slice it finely before use.

• Fresh ginger. My example had 742g of (peeled weight) ginger.
• Same amount (by weight) of white sugar, plus extra to finish.
• 1/3 of ginger weight of honey, golden syrup or glucose. My example had 250g of honey).

1. Left the ginger in kitchen freezer for 24 hours. It should break down the fibres slightly and make it easier to cook.
2. I peeled the stems by rubbing the skin off with a knife, much like we used to peel carrots; it is easier than using a peeler and wastes much less material.
3. Cut the ginger into 2cm chunks.
4. Placed the chunks on the kitchen scale, noted the weight (in my photographed run it was 742g).
5. Into the pot, cover with water, just – not more than i thought was really necessary.
6. Simmered the ginger for over an hour, making sure it was still covered with water (top it up from time to time) until pierced easily with a knife.
7. Added 1/3 of sugar, simmer for 10 minutes then removed from the heat and left to cool for a few hours.
8. Repeated with the second 1/3 of sugar, let sit.
9. After the last 1/3 of sugar was added I returned the whole affair to the boil and simmered until the sugar became a thick syrup around the ginger. Took us  over an hour to get there:
10. Added honey.
11. Boiled again until the syrup became thick.
12. Bottled while hot in sterilized jars with clean screw-top lids.
13. Sealed and left to cool completely before using.

My 742g of ginger (plus 742g of sugar, 245g of honey and some water) madetwo 500 ml jars..