Caramelized Ginger And Gingered Caramel

Total Time: 1440 hrs 25 mins Preparation Time: 1440 hrs Cook Time: 25 mins

Ingredients

• gingerroot
• sherry wine (cooking or regular or probably also rum)
• sugar
• butter (for caramel only, not for caramelized ginger)

Recipe

• 1 caramelized ginger: cut a ginger root to fit into a plastic bowl with a lid.
• 2 cover the ginger root pieces in sherry.
• 3 let this sit until the ginger is fully soaked through with sherry, which can take a month or more.
• 4 the ginger will be dark tan in color and firm and somewhat stringy in texture.
• 5 it will be almost translucent.
• 6 remove the ginger root from the sherry and set the sherry aside for later.
• 7 cut the rind off of the ginger root and cut the inner portion into pieces about the size and thickness of 1/2 a dime.
• 8 put the small ginger pieces into a bowl and cover completely with sugar.
• 9 i had about 1/4 cup of ginger and i put in about 3/4 cup of fine grained sugar.
• 10 add back about 2 tablespoons of the sherry.
• 11 the resulting mixture, with the ginger pieces in it, is a thickish but runny syrup.
• 12 put a mound of sugar (at least a cup) on a plate or in a small bowl and set it aside where you can reach it when you are standing at the stove.
• 13 cook the ginger/sugar/sherry mixture on the top of the stove until it boils but not until it darkens, (i. e., remove it from the heat before the sugar starts to burn).
• 14 stir a couple of times while the mixture is heating.
• 15 use a slotted spoon and remove the ginger pieces from the boiled liquid and plop them onto the sugar mound, keeping them separate from each other as much as possible.
• 16 spoon more granulated sugar over the top and let this sit for about 1 minute.
• 17 then stir the whole thing to coat the ginger with sugar.
• 18 let it sit for 5 minutes, then remove the ginger pieces and set them on a piece of baking paper to air dry.
• 19 gingered caramel: the boiled sherry/sugar stuff that's still in the pan can be boiled up again for about 30 seconds.
• 20 just as it starts to brown, remove it from the heat and add two or three tablespoons of butter.
• 21 let it cool for a few minutes and then pour the now very thick caramel onto more baking paper.
• 22 this is fantastic caramel!
• 23 notes: this recipe starts with about 2 four inch pieces of ginger root and the yield is about 1/4 cup of caramelized ginger and about 1/3 cup of gingered caramel.
• 24 i happened to have cooking sherry on hand so that is what i used.
• 25 i had purchased two or three small (maybe 4 inches long) pieces of ginger root and i had not used them for anything.
• 26 i had heard that you can soak your ginger in sherry to preserve it so i had cut the roots into 2 inch pieces, give or take, and covered them in sherry in a plastic bowl with a lid.
• 27 i forgot about the ginger and it sat on my kitchen counter for 4 or 5 months.
• 28 possibly it would have been ready to caramelize a lot sooner than that but it was in perfect condition for this recipe after months of sitting.