Oh this is a good one. And more simple than you might imagine. A few Saturdays ago, it was a sunny afternoon and me and Hungry Hubby had returned home with our shopping and a handful of freebie magazines I’d collected as we shopped. One happened to be Tesco’s magazine. This won’t be the first time I have found a real gem of a recipe or even more simply an idea which has inspired me but it is probably the best one I’ve found so far! So, what is it a recipe for I hear you ask?! Homemade stem ginger, I cry!
This really could not get easier and if you feel nervous about preserving or making jam, this would be an excellent introduction. You simply boil some peeled ginger until tender then add sugar and cook until a syrup forms around it. Crikey, I barely need to write up a recipe for it but I will give you more instructions than that!
Depending where you come from, you may call stem ginger something else – perhaps preserved, candied or glacé ginger. Once, I bought a jar of it which was called (bizarrely) Chinese ginger. I say bizarre, as a foodie friend from Singapore told me recently she couldn’t get anything like this herself locally! I only wish I’d discovered this method and realised what a gem it is; I could have encouraged her to make her own. I encourage you to make some. It is fantastic.
One of the things I love about this recipe is you could make a very small amount or a huge, huge vat full and as long as you know the weight of you peeled ginger and have the equivalent amount of sugar, you are good to go my friend. I think it would be a magnificent idea to make a big batch that you good bottle up and give away as gifts – especially around Christmas time. Apologies for bringing up the “C” word in May. My bad. You could even use more water and sugar and bottle up the syrup separately to the ginger to use on ice creams, to ripple into mascarpone and sandwich sponge cakes with, to dribble onto your breakfast yogurt, to perhaps add to soda water with a twist of lime. Let your imagination run riot.
Just look at that colour. I had a couple of stem ginger nuggets remaining from a store bought jar (which may interest you to know cost more than three times the amount of this home spun version) and I compared and contrasted. The store bought looked pale and the syrup runny and almost colourless. I suspect they cook the ginger then pour over a ton of simple sugar (sugar and water) rather than simmering the two together to get as much ginger flavour as possible into the syrup. Jo is not impressed. Also, the fragrance, not to mention the flavour of the home made stem ginger was oh so more potent. I picked up a large piece of fresh ginger root and used it the same day so it’s skin was moist and the flesh tender. Those who love ginger as I do will surely love its fiery heat as much as the palate cleansing, well-being inducing juicy flavour. Making this yourself is not only cheaper than buying a jar, it is world’s apart in the flavour stakes.
Once you have your stem ginger and you have finished clapping your hands with joy, you need to know what to do with it. A quick typing of “ginger” into the search box on this blog will show you just how much of a ginger nut I am. Us Brits love the stuff and if you have never tried it, I implore you to take a leap of faith and make some for yourself. Chop it and add to ginger biscuits or cookies, mix into and top a steamed stem ginger pudding, maybe make an Anglo-Australian take on a lamington with some. Add it to some scones (like my hot cross ones), maybe make a version of my vanilla yogurt cake and add some ground ginger to the cakes and stem ginger to a buttercream filling with some lemon curd. I might just do that this week!
However, what I did with it first is make my Step Mum and Daddums’s favourite ginger thing – this triple spiced ginger cake. They are coming to stay this week and I am very excited to have them back at the Apple Chapel and will be doing tons of cooking in celebration! Step Mum just adores this cake – she claims “not to do pudding” yet she usually manages to make short work of most of my offerings with surprising gusto for one not blessed (cursed) with a sweet tooth and this cake wins her over every time. A jug full of custard is usually brought out when this squidgey, damply delicious, sweet and sticky yet heavily spiced and hot with it cake is about and you won’t find a soul turning it down. I do believe it is the most wonderful of the homemade gingerbread recipes and by gingerbread, I mean this soft and sweet cake version, not the hard cookie version. Think McVities Jamaica Cake but oh so much better for making it yourself. It likes to be wrapped up and tucked away for five days before eating to make the most of the spice and the squidge. It is a delight to eat. Perfect for pudding and an excellent use of your freshly homemade stem ginger. I defy you not to feel like the ultimate Domestic Goddess if you make this cracking little recipe, and proudly display a couple of jars on your pantry shelves.
Homemade Stem Ginger
- Fresh ginger root
- An equivalent amount of caster sugar
- Sterilised glass jars and lids
Method
- Peel your ginger and weigh it – I used a piece which weighed 175g. Measure out the equivalent weight in caster sugar and put to one side.
- Slice your ginger into evenly sliced coins – not quite a centimetre thick is about right.
- Put your ginger in a pan only just large enough to accommodate it and cover by half an inch with cold water. Bring to the boil then simmer, partially covered for an hour until tender – depending on how supple your ginger was to begin with, this may take longer. Just test it with the point of a knife as you would for potatoes. Top up with water if it bubbles away before the ginger is cooked.
- Once cooked and tender, and the water has reduced down to barely cover the ginger add in your sugar and return to the heat, stirring to help dissolve.
- Bring to the boil then reduce the heat so it is gently bubbling until the water and sugar forms a syrup similar in texture to runny honey.
- Spoon into a sterilised* jar and seal immediately. If not using immediately it should keep in a cool dark cupboard for a very long time. Once open, store in the fridge and try to keep the ginger chunks covered in syrup.
*=To “sterilise” your jars you can either put them through the hot wash in your dishwasher or you can wash in hot soapy water and rinse throughly before putting in a low oven until dry. Use the jars whilst the preserves and the jars are still hot and seal immediately. I reuse store bought jar jams or buy ones for the purpose of home-preserving which will withstand the temperatures required to sterilise them.
Recipe and method property of Jo Blogs Jo Bakes of www.joblogsjobakes.wordpress.com but inspired by Tesco Magazine (no author cited to credit).
Yum yum yum – I’m such a big fan of stem ginger. Seriously. Big. Got loads of it in the fridge…
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I thought you’d like this one ;). Frugal and fabulous as it is lol…
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great stuff!!
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Love this, Jo! I am a gjnger fiend so I will be making this very soon, the stem ginger and the cake.
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Yay! I don’t think you’ll be disappointed Joost 😀
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I regularly make my own as I can’t buy it here in Crete. The only thing I would say is use the freshest ginger root you can find for best results. The syrup alone makes this worth making!
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It’s a bit of a revelation to me that it can be made so very easily at home Anne so I’m quite excited by it! Yes the fresher the better – I literally bought it an hour before making and made sure I got the freshest looking piece 🙂
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Delish, Delish, Delish ! 🙂
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I so agree!
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I love stem ginger, and that pan looks fantastic..
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It was a wedding gift from my Moo 🙂 ❤
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You know I love ginger Jo so I will be making this asap! What a fab idea.
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Jo, I ALWAYS have ginger at home – I’m Chinese, I’d be betraying my culture if I didn’t 😉 I can’t wait to make this. I’m going to make vats ‘n vats of it this summer. I can just imagine all the cocktails I can mix with the syrup! And that triple spiced ginger cake looks fan-freaking-tastic – so dark, rich and spicy. Who cares if it’s not Christmas (I don’t mind hearing the C-word in spring/summer, lol)? Ginger recipes work all year round!
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Oh what a great idea to make cocktails with the syrup! I had a great ginger mojito in a Spanish bar in London last year, must recreate that soon 😉
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I love ginger cakes and now you got me curious about the one you make for your step mum. So I guess I’ll have to give stem ginger a go 🙂
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It really is wonderful to make it yourself – my word was this batch spicy! The cake keeps very well and is best after a week of being wrapped in baking paper and foil 😀
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Really excited by this recipe – I live in France and have not found stem ginger in syrup – one of our favourite cakes requires it and I do not want to keep asking friends and relatives to bring a jar – will try it very soon – Heather
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Well I hope you enjoy it. Ive made it lots and it works a treat 🙂
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Hi this sounds much easier than all the other recipes I’ve seen. Some say to boil 3 times after changing the water and one, bizarrely, said to boil, simmer then wait 3 days. What? I’ve just made 7 jars from your recipe above. They smell and look gorgeous. My syrup didn’t get to runny honey stage but I canned them anyway as they’d been simmering for 2 hours and I was losing the will to live. The syrup is a golden colour. I put hot ginger, with hot syrup into hot, sterilised jars. My only question is – I want to leave them for a year or so in my pantry (with the rest of my canned stuff), do you not need to water bath them then? I never water bath jams but I’ve been water bathing fruits in syrup – because it always says to do so in the recipes. What do you think? I’m new to canning fruits in syrup and all I ever see on the internet is Botulism – it’s scary. I’d appreciate your advice. I’m quite happy to go buy more ginger and water bath them – a good excuse to use the 7 jars to make 100 of that fab looking triple ginger cake! Many thanks.
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Hi Ellie, thank you for stopping by to comment and for trying my recipe out. Now, I know canning is popular over in the States but it’s not a method I have tried or know enough about to advise. I don’t see why you couldn’t keep the jars as you have prepared them for a year unopened – I doubt they would keep a year once opened. I’ve read abut the botulism thing but only in reference to garlic so hopefully the ginger is safe as it is. Those who advocate multiple boilings and discarding of the syrup are concerned about the syrup being bitter from what I’ve read, rather than to remove impurities 🙂
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Hi Jo. Thanks so much for replying. I’m actually Welsh and living in Bulgaria with my English hubby! We opted for the “good life” ie working 17 hours a day growing veg, harvesting 80 odd fruit and nut trees and keeping chickens, ducks, geese, pigs etc. Beats working in an office any time (which I did for yonks. I’ve been canning stuff for 2 years but only just started on fruits in syrup this year and would prefer not to kill anyone! From what I’ve read sugar is as much of a preservative as vinegar is so I’m just going to put them in the cellar and see what happens. I’m making your triple ginger cake tomorrow – can’t wait. You have so many recipes that are making me drool…………..
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Love the recipe – which I am trying. It does seem to take a long time to get the ginger tender -smells good though. I was wondering if using a pressure cooker for the initial stage would work. It should greatly reduce the cooking time.
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That sounds like a good idea Lou. I don’t have a presssure cooker so can’t advise on that one but why not try it and see?
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just what i need! do you find the flavour/sweetness of the ginger develops much with storage, or is it tasty enough to use in a recipe straight away?
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You’re absolutely good to go straight away, no need to wait 🙂
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cheers!
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My mother lover stem ginger in syrup and we had the imported variety around, which was packed in a clay pot, had green glazed on the outside. Yes, it came from China (and Singapore is not in China). Now 30 years older and remembering it, I haven’t been able to find any stem ginger in syrup like that anywhere. So thanks for the recipe, it brings back many memories, and: it tastes great on Gouda cheese!
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Do you have to put it in sterilized jars; if you are using it in the next few weeks can you just store it in the fridge?
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Well I tend to sterilise everything which is going to be around more than a few days (depending on the actual foodstuff we’re talking about). I wouldn’t like to say go ahead, from a food safety point of view I’m afraid!
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Love it! I added the peel of a lemon in the syrup during boiling and just before putting the ginger in the jars I added the juice of the lemon to the syrup. I love the combination of lemon and ginger. It’s like the sun starts to shine in your mouth.
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Ooo what a good idea! I must do that too 😀
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I am not surprised that your friend cannot find ginger in sypup in Singapore. My future Son-in-law is from Beijing and had never tasted sweetened ginger before, only as a component of savoury dishes. He didn’t like it at all, especially when chocolate covered! I love ginger in all its forms. I think jars of homemade ginger in syrup would make great Christmas gifts! Maybe I could even find some ginger jars to dress it up in. I also love ginger wine, now I wonder what that would do to the flavour of this preserve…
I make ice cream, a vanilla icecream that you make, put into the freezer and forget about until 20 mins before you want to serve it (try Googling Silly Twits Icecream), I think think this ginger would make a fine addition!
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