ginger cascade
Jan. 31st, 2012 08:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wombat1138Trader Joe's uncrystallized candied ginger finally reappeared, a bit after I'd bought a huge bag of fresh ginger from Costco to scale up the candying recipe.
Tonight I finally embarked on a multi-step process to deal with all of the fresh ginger, though I'm still not entirely certain what to do with it in the end.
The ginger itself has been peeled, sliced into ~1/4-1/2" slices, and is simmering on the stove until it gets tender. All of the ginger peel scraps are simmering in a neighboring large pot with cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and peppercorns to start a new batch of chai concentrate. Once the ginger slices are tender, I'm going to drain them, reserve ~1 cup liquid, and pour the rest of the ginger liquid into the chai concentrate batch. Everything then gets to sit in the refrigerator or at room temperature overnight (there's no sugar involved yet and everything's going to get brought back up to boiling again).
Tomorrow, I'm going to add tea and sugar to the chai concentrate, bring it back to a boil, and then strain it into a pitcher. The semi-depleted chai spices will then go into a large stockpot with several bags of scraps and bones fom the freezer to make stock. (Last week, after I noticed that the wombat-consort had stopped drinking the existing batch of chai concentrate because it had gotten to the fine spice-particulate sediment level at the bottom of the pitcher, I impulsively chucked the sediment into the oxtails I'd just started stewing, since the pho-related seasonings I'd already put in were pretty similar. The result resembles a five-spice mixture with a touch of orange, which is what cardamom strongly resembles to my palate. And the freezer bags already contain all of the oxtail bones from that as well as some assorted roasted pork knuckle bones, so I think it should work out pretty well.)
As for the ginger itself... it seems superfluous to candy it at this point, though OTOH it's a pretty easy process and easy to store afterward. I could try turning it into ginger-lime marmalade, except that would take up room and we'd never eat it all (esp. since the wombat-consort still shies away from bread most of the time). I'll figure something out.
Meanwhile, once the chai concentrate is done, some of it can get funneled into re-making that chai chocolate custard from a while back. Eventually.
And all the poor wombat-consort did tonight was suggest making custard. Custard will appear eventually. But not tonight.
Tonight I finally embarked on a multi-step process to deal with all of the fresh ginger, though I'm still not entirely certain what to do with it in the end.
The ginger itself has been peeled, sliced into ~1/4-1/2" slices, and is simmering on the stove until it gets tender. All of the ginger peel scraps are simmering in a neighboring large pot with cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and peppercorns to start a new batch of chai concentrate. Once the ginger slices are tender, I'm going to drain them, reserve ~1 cup liquid, and pour the rest of the ginger liquid into the chai concentrate batch. Everything then gets to sit in the refrigerator or at room temperature overnight (there's no sugar involved yet and everything's going to get brought back up to boiling again).
Tomorrow, I'm going to add tea and sugar to the chai concentrate, bring it back to a boil, and then strain it into a pitcher. The semi-depleted chai spices will then go into a large stockpot with several bags of scraps and bones fom the freezer to make stock. (Last week, after I noticed that the wombat-consort had stopped drinking the existing batch of chai concentrate because it had gotten to the fine spice-particulate sediment level at the bottom of the pitcher, I impulsively chucked the sediment into the oxtails I'd just started stewing, since the pho-related seasonings I'd already put in were pretty similar. The result resembles a five-spice mixture with a touch of orange, which is what cardamom strongly resembles to my palate. And the freezer bags already contain all of the oxtail bones from that as well as some assorted roasted pork knuckle bones, so I think it should work out pretty well.)
As for the ginger itself... it seems superfluous to candy it at this point, though OTOH it's a pretty easy process and easy to store afterward. I could try turning it into ginger-lime marmalade, except that would take up room and we'd never eat it all (esp. since the wombat-consort still shies away from bread most of the time). I'll figure something out.
Meanwhile, once the chai concentrate is done, some of it can get funneled into re-making that chai chocolate custard from a while back. Eventually.
And all the poor wombat-consort did tonight was suggest making custard. Custard will appear eventually. But not tonight.