crystallized ginger

[Darienne]

If ginger is not cut across the grain, you will have strings that are about the consistency of dental floss.

Sad as it was to throw out my last batch of not-very-good Chinese candied ginger, it was not a total heartbreak. My DH always does the slicing for me and this time he sliced it with the grain on so many of the pieces. He remembered to get them as large as possible...but he forgot to slice them across the grain. He is such a huge help to me that I could not possibly chastise him. Besides, what good would it do? I'll just stand over him the next time.

Edited June 12, 2009 by heidih (log)

[Darienne]

More ginger questions...

Last night I rinsed both the Australian and the Thai ginger under hot water because they were both so heavily sugared and I want to dip them in chocolate. (I hope I didn't ruin them by doing this.)

I laid them on the shelves of my little dehydrator...thanks Andie...and then it hit me. The Thai ginger was all different shapes and sizes, the way all the ginger I have cut and candied has been.

However, the Australian ginger was all complete and regularly round pieces, like apricot halves would be.

Is Australian ginger so large that this can be done? Or was this ginger so expensive in fact because it was cut from the largest part of the rhizome, with perhaps the irregular pieces going to some other purpose?

Who knew? It's an incredibly fascinating world of food out there!

[andiesenji]

Most of the Australian ginger I have seen has been stem ginger.

I don't know how they get the stems to grow so large, but they apparently have perfected a way of growing it to produce these larger than normal stems.

I experimented with yanking the sprouted ginger out of the soil in a couple of containers and broke off all but one of the stems and new "buds" growing from the rhizome and as the single stem grew, pinched off the top and did get significantly larger stems but the process was labor intensive and didn't yield enough for my use because I do have limited space so I didn't pursue the effort.

Some time ago I was told that a lot of the ginger grown in Australia is grown hydroponically which would make it a lot easier to manipulate the growth of the stems.

Edited June 13, 2009 by andiesenji (log)

[Darienne]

Most of the Australian ginger I have seen has been stem ginger. 

I don't know how they get the stems to grow so large, but they apparently have perfected a way of growing it to produce these larger than normal stems.

I experimented with yanking the sprouted ginger out of the soil in a couple of containers and broke off all but one of the stems and new "buds" growing from the rhizome and as the single stem grew, pinched off the top and did get significantly larger stems but the process was labor intensive and didn't yield enough for my use because I do have limited space so I didn't pursue the effort. 

Some time ago I was told that a lot of the ginger grown in Australia is grown hydroponically which would make it a lot easier to manipulate the growth of the stems.

←

Thanks for the information. I just ate one of the Aussie pieces. You are right! It is stem ginger. The biggest pieces are almost 1 1/2" in diameter. That's a BIG ginger stem.

Could there be an eGulleter out there in Australia who might be persuaded to go and look at some growing ginger plants somewhere???

I have yet to plant some ginger in Canada. Now might just be the time to start. I would really like to find a calamansi tree also. However, my thumb is far from green... If I can learn to candy fruits, I can learn to take care of a few plants properly.

[Darienne]

Moving sideways slightly to Galangal. We can buy it only in a frozen state.

I am currently defrosting my package in order to candy it.

I read in another thread in the Asian cooking section that frozen galangal might well defrost to mush only. Not sure what to do now: stick it back into the freezer at once or continue defrosting and see what I get.

Help!

[Darienne]

Moving sideways slightly to Galangal.  We can buy it only in a frozen state. 

I am currently defrosting my package in order to candy it.

I read in another thread in the Asian cooking section that frozen galangal might well defrost to mush only.  Not sure what to do now: stick it back into the freezer at once or continue defrosting and see what I get.

Help!

←

Next day:

Galangal, purchased frozen, was thawed, sliced properly across the grain and after 40 minutes steaming, it was still as tough as old leather.

I took a small bite of the galangal yesterday and WOW! was it hot and peppery!!! Just to make sure, I bit into the Chinese ginger also. No comparison.

Perhaps it is very old and that's why it's so tough? Perhaps this is what galangal is like? Perhaps no one candies it anyway?

[andiesenji]

I can get fresh galangal at the local Filipino market but I don't recall ever trying to candy it.

I do use it in sambals but pound the heck out of it in a mortar (have tried processing it in food processor but get strings so the old-fashioned method works better for me).

To me it has an "earthier" flavor than ginger and while it does work in recipes, I don't like it plain.

For hot an peppery, I have candied the tiny piquin and tepin peppers - dried. As with other dried items, I steamed them first.

I used to make them when I was regularly attending Chile-Heads Hotlucks and the real "tin-throat-chile-heads" loved them but I couldn't eat them myself.

They are the original "red-hots"

Edited June 28, 2009 by andiesenji (log)

[Darienne]

I can get fresh galangal at the local Filipino market but I don't recall ever trying to candy it.

I do use it in sambals but pound the heck out of it in a mortar (have tried processing it in food processor but get strings so the old-fashioned method works better for me).

To me it has an "earthier" flavor than ginger and while it does work in recipes, I don't like it plain.

For hot an peppery, I have candied the tiny piquin and tepin peppers - dried.  As with other dried items, I steamed them first.

I used to make them when I was regularly attending Chile-Heads Hotlucks and the real "tin-throat-chile-heads" loved them but I couldn't eat them myself. 

They are the original "red-hots" 

←

Thanks Andie. I think I have a lot to learn about Galangal. Somehow I thought it was quite like ginger, more than just belonging to the same family. I thought ginger from Thailand was called Galangal. Obviously that was not the case. I'll go back and read about it more carefully.

I noticed that it has all sorts of little side 'branches' in the rhizome which make it hard to peel. And the peel is different.

So, after 2 1/2 hours of constant steaming, the slices are finally tender-ish. And the taste is less hot and less peppery, but still quite sharp and pungent. I am candying them anyway in a syrup made with orange flavored sugar (from a confused mistake). Won't hurt them I am sure.

I'll get back with the results.

I like the idea of candying tiny hot peppers. My friend Melanie would go wild for them. Did you do anything different that I should know about? Thanks.

[andiesenji]

I can get fresh galangal at the local Filipino market but I don't recall ever trying to candy it.

I do use it in sambals but pound the heck out of it in a mortar (have tried processing it in food processor but get strings so the old-fashioned method works better for me).

To me it has an "earthier" flavor than ginger and while it does work in recipes, I don't like it plain.

For hot an peppery, I have candied the tiny piquin and tepin peppers - dried.  As with other dried items, I steamed them first.

I used to make them when I was regularly attending Chile-Heads Hotlucks and the real "tin-throat-chile-heads" loved them but I couldn't eat them myself. 

They are the original "red-hots" 

←

Thanks Andie. I think I have a lot to learn about Galangal. Somehow I thought it was quite like ginger, more than just belonging to the same family. I thought ginger from Thailand was called Galangal. Obviously that was not the case. I'll go back and read about it more carefully.

I noticed that it has all sorts of little side 'branches' in the rhizome which make it hard to peel. And the peel is different.

So, after 2 1/2 hours of constant steaming, the slices are finally tender-ish. And the taste is less hot and less peppery, but still quite sharp and pungent. I am candying them anyway in a syrup made with orange flavored sugar (from a confused mistake). Won't hurt them I am sure.

I'll get back with the results.

I like the idea of candying tiny hot peppers. My friend Melanie would go wild for them. Did you do anything different that I should know about? Thanks.

←

Nothing much different with the peppers. The skins are fairly tough so they don't break down and since they are so tiny, they will hold their shape fairly well.

They should look slightly translucent - mine were sort of a "candy-apple-red" when finished.

[Darienne]

Report on candying galangal...to date:

After steaming the properly sliced pieces for 2 1/2 hours I decided that they were about as soft as they were going to get and began candying them. Some pieces were quite palatable...some were simply fibrous and I ended up spitting out a little mess of fibers after chewing them for a while. Galangal is definitely NOT ginger. Also the hot peppery taste was much subdued...rather like the change in radishes when you cook them.

Three days of candying the pieces and I just gave up and now they are in the dehydrator...our humidity is a constant 92-100%. Summer in Ontario. Nothing has changed and I suspect that they'll end up in the garbage.

Well, it was a valiant try... (unless I just goofed up somewhere).

My Chinese ginger is doing well in the dehydrator. And also I have two healthy sprouts up in my indoor ginger window box.

[gfron1]

Good try. So my favorite by product from Andiesenji's method is that syrup. Did you get to the point of making a galangal syrup?

[Darienne]

Good try.  So my favorite by product from Andiesenji's method is that syrup.  Did you get to the point of making a galangal syrup?

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I must admit I tossed it. a) the galangal after steaming was so much less in taste as noted and b) I had used orange flavored sugar in the sugar syrup...long story that there was no point in keeping it.

As I think about it...it was really the lack of 'galangal' taste that was the sticking point. The orange flavoring would not have been a large factor.

I have enough ginger syrup to start a small business. The sad part there is that my DH hates ginger unless it's in Chinese food. I use it liberally in the dishes so I don't know where the disconnect is.

And as noted in the Mandarin oranges thread, I threw out that syrup also. I have no idea of why this pungent yummy syrup ended up tasting almost burnt. No doubt someone will tell me. Wish I had siphoned more off after one or two days of candying.

Next project is to candy some tiny hot red peppers from the Asian market. I am almost afraid to taste one...they are SO tiny and SO cute. They'll probably sear my mouth for days. But my friend Melanie will love them. She is, as Andie noted in an earlier post, a "tin-throat-chile-head".

[Darienne]

This is why no one candies galangal. The structure of the plant shows up so well after it is candied and dried.

Why they call it Thai ginger and there is also real ginger from Thailand called, of course, Thai ginger, I could not say.

It was an interesting experiment and now I'll throw it out.

[Darienne]

This may be quite embarrassing. My candied ginger, about 1 1/2 month old, kept in an airtight plastic container, has fluffy type mold on some pieces. I tossed it all out.

Why did it mold?