Home Made Stem Ginger

Tales From The Kitchen Shed
Sarah James


Oct 3
Homemade Stem Ginger

Homemade Stem Ginger is so easy to make & so much better than shop bought. Chop finely & add to ginger cakes, puddings or biscuits for a real ginger hit. The syrup makes a delicious ginger cordial.

Homemade Stem Ginger is so easy to make & so much better than shop bought. Chop finely & add to ginger cakes, puddings or biscuits for a real ginger hit. The syrup makes a delicious ginger cordial.

There’s a slight sense of sadness here at the Kitchen Shed as we pack things away for the winter and wind down the freezer contents. I thought I’d pretty much worked out how to use up all our frozen food until I discovered a bag of ginger which was way too much for a stir fry or curry for two. Seemed to me there was only one thing to do, make some stem ginger and take a jar with us to Guernsey to enjoy over the winter.

Homemade Stem Ginger is so easy to make & so much better than shop bought. Chop finely & add to ginger cakes, puddings or biscuits for a real ginger hit. The syrup makes a delicious ginger cordial.

Stem ginger is much easier to make than you might think – it’s a case of peeling and slicing the ginger into chunks, covering with water and cooking until tender.

Homemade Stem Ginger is so easy to make & so much better than shop bought. Chop finely & add to ginger cakes, puddings or biscuits for a real ginger hit. The syrup makes a delicious ginger cordial.

Although some recipes use an “all in one” approach, I prefer to drain the cooking water from the ginger and use it to make a syrup – this way you have greater control over the quality of your syrup because of the more accurate water to sugar ratio.

Homemade Stem Ginger is so easy to make & so much better than shop bought. Chop finely & add to ginger cakes, puddings or biscuits for a real ginger hit. The syrup makes a delicious ginger cordial.



The ginger is added back to the pan with your syrup and simmered for twenty minutes before transferring ginger and syrup into a sterilised jar.
The tenderness of ginger stems cannot be guaranteed and some recipes recommend blanching three or four times to tenderise the stems. I’ve omitted blanching as freezing the ginger breaks down the cell structure and tenderises the stems, so I’d recommend freezing your ginger before cooking. Also, frozen ginger is easier to peel so it’s a win win situation.

Homemade Stem Ginger is so easy to make & so much better than shop bought. Chop finely & add to ginger cakes, puddings or biscuits for a real ginger hit. The syrup makes a delicious ginger cordial.

If you’d like to try this recipe for yourself, here it is below.


5.0 from 5 reviews
Homemade Stem Ginger

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Prep time
10 mins
Cook time
2 hours
Total time
2 hours 10 mins

Homemade Stem Ginger is so easy to make & so much better than shop bought. Chop finely & add to ginger cakes, puddings or biscuits for a real ginger hit. The syrup makes a delicious ginger cordial.
Author: Sarah James @ Tales From The Kitchen Shed
Recipe type: Preserving
Serves: 1 x 500 g jar
Ingredients

325 g (12 oz) fresh ginger root
300 g (1½ cups) sugar
Water to cover the ginger
150 ml (3/4 cup) ginger cooking water

Instructions

Optional: Freeze the ginger overnight (freezing tenderises the ginger)

Peel the ginger and cut into 2 cm thick slices.
Add the ginger to a pan and cover (by a couple of centimetres) with water. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for about an hour until nice and tender.
Lift out the tender ginger pieces and set to one side while you make a sryup.
Measure the cooking liquid and add 150ml back to your pan along with the sugar.
Return to a gentle heat and stir to dissolve the sugar - once the sugar has dissolved stop stirring.
Bring to a boil and simmer gently for about 15 to 20 minutes until you have a nice thick syrup.
Add the cooked ginger back to the pan and simmer gently for 20 minutes before transferring ginger and syrup into a sterilised jar and sealing.
Store in a cool, dry place for up to a year.

Notes
Does not include optional overnight freezing.
Recipe can easily be doubled.
Use the syrup in cocktails or like a cordial with a sparkling water.