All things GINGER!

purpleivy

Last week I went to Costco and bought a kg of organic ginger for £4.99.  Lovely big pieces so not drying out round the edges and going wrinkly.  

My plan, well, wanted to do a couple of things.

Mary (of Mary's Nest Youtube channel) has instructions in her Modern Pioneer Cookbook for making a ginger bug and also ginger ale.  I have my ginger bug started.  Fizzing nicely.  

You know those expensive ginger shots made my Moju that are £4.50 on offer and about £6 full price?  I like a slug of that in my home made Kombucha.  So I have blended some ginger with water (didn't bother with apple juice and the rest of the stuff) and now adding to my drinks.  

On freezer clear out and had some whole limes in there, made some lime and ginger cordial, lovely! 

Planning to make some kind of cake with some.  Maybe James Morton's Squidgy Gingerbread Muffins.  

Will grate some for the freezer for general adding to recipes. 


What else would you use it for?  

I was in Aldi this lunchtime and their little packs of little pieces of ginger are £7.60/kg.   So I got a good buy...if I don't waste it!  

Brie

Aren't you supposed to plant a piece of the ginger and it will continue to grow?  Never tried it myself as ginger is not one of my go-to s.  That said as a youngster we often had ginger cake always served with a hot lemon syrup.  Wonder if there's a recipe in mom's old book somewhere.....

PollyWollyDoodle

Store it in the freezer and grate it straight from frozen, rather than grating it first.  You don’t even need to peel it. 

C_J

I use fresh ginger in a fruit tea thing - I blitz oranges, lemons, apples and ginger (skins and all) in a blender, then add some turmeric powder (or put fresh turmeric root in the blitzing if I have any) then freeze the pulp in large ice cube trays. To serve it, add a couple of cubes to a teapot, cover with freshly boiled water and stir in a teaspoon of honey. Strain and enjoy, it’s delicious.

bouicca21

Lime and ginger cordial recipe, pretty please.

not quite the same thing but I have bought a jar of stem ginger which I will add next time I make Twink’s fake hobnob recipe (for which I now use wholemeal flour and dark brown sugar, seriously yum).  I passed the recipe on to a friend who has been adding ground ginger and is well pleased with himself. 

DigForVictory

Convert some into stem ginger? Just to snack on, to add to biscuts (ooh Twinks hobnobs with stem ginger, mmmn), to dunk into dark chocolate as a special Christmas treat for some lucky individual?

Another eager to see the Lime and ginger cordial recipe, if you would be so kind...

purpleivy

This ginger is going an awful long way!   


I didn't put in the zest.  a) they were frozen so not possible. b) even if not frozen I wouldn't have done it, I'm lazy! 

I'm making as many of my drinks as I can these days. Ready made can contain artificial sweeteners which I attempt to avoid, due to digestive stuff. Husband finds that things with sulphites in can set off an allergic reaction.  

So far, done redcurrant and rhubarb cordial, blackcurrant, lime and ginger cordial, limeade. Then there's the kombucha.  The cordials have all frozen well.  The redcurrants were from my parents garden, old house. They moved 9 years ago I think.  I had been wondering what to do with the redcurrants they gave me before they moved.  I'm pleased to say that since I used the redcurrants last year I have been much better about using stuff. up.  

Here's the lime and ginger cordial recipe

https://cookingflip.wordpress.com/2022/07/21/lime-and-ginger-cordial-rick-steins/

goldfinches

I can definitely recommend these four recipes although some of them use only a small amount of fresh ginger.

Ginger biscuits recipe | Good Food
Spring cabbage with mustard seeds recipe | Good Food
Mashed Black-eyed Beancakes with Ginger Onion Marmalade recipe | Delia Smith
Luscious Vegan Gingerbread | Nigella's Recipes | Nigella Lawson

Nigella has a lot of other gingerbread and cake recipes that you might like but the above vegan one is the only one I've made myself.
I think the Delia marmalade would keep but haven't tried that myself and of course you don't need to make the beancakes if you don't fancy them.

I haven't tried these below but thought they might be useful.

Then there's this recipe for Marrow Jam which I think you could adapt to courgettes quite easily if you have a glut Marrow & ginger jam recipe | Good Food

Then I went looking for ginger jam/marmalade recipes because I've seen it used as a baking ingredient and found these.
Ginger Jam | Community Recipes | Nigella's Recipes | Nigella Lawson
https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/ginger-jam-recipe
Chilli and Ginger Jam Recipe | How to Make Chilli and Ginger Jam
Nigel Slater's marmalade recipes | Food | The Guardian

Hope that's helpful and do let us know the results.

purpleivy

@goldfinches that's a lovely list of things! Some great resources.  I make 50+ jars of marmalade every year for my parents (one a week!) and I know they like ginger marmalade.  Mum used to make marrow and ginger jam, but I think she used dry root ginger.  Like Nigel Slater's recipes.  Just got one of his books 2nd hand, was recommended to me. 

Other than that, a good selection to start researching.  

Thanks to everyone who has sent ideas.  Oldstyle is always a good starting point!  

My ginger bug was ready today, so have made a batch of ginger ale up, there's not very much, bit disappointed!  No flip top bottles as yet, that's the next thing.  I don't have many large jars at present and my Kombucha is occupying most of them!  

twopenny

Our local teashop used to make the ginger cake from the BBC good food site,
It's one of the best things I've ever tasted 🙂
Goes especially well with a good coffee. Heavenly 👌 

RipleyG

I make a riff on the stem ginger you get in syrup. Peel the ginger (keep the peelings for ginger tea), finely chop it, then simmer in sugar syrup for about 30 minutes. Pop in jars, and immediately seal. You can use it straight away, but better left for a month or so - the syrup gently leaches into the ginger over time and turns it translucent like the stuff you buy at the shop.

We use it over winter on porridge, on yogurt with chopped nuts, and it's lovely in cakes.