This is one of the world's premier confections. It is wonderful by
itself as a small sweet. It serves with distinction as an
accompaniment to expresso and cakes in the afternoon, or Champagne and
fruit in the morning. Given a bittersweet chocolate coating garnished
with chopped macadamia or hazelnuts it is an elegant candy. Chopped or
julliened it garnishes pastries, custards, pumpkin pies, stewed
fruits, cookies and many other desserts. It is even a welcome
accompaniment to a Curry.

This is not a hard recipe, but it needs to be watched, and the heat
regulated carefully, so that all goes Slowly, and that the cooking is
stopped at the proper time. I took these notes this evening from a
batch I just finished, hope it can be understood.

Crystallized Ginger
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First, the ginger. You want young, tender ginger, as fresh as
possible. The characteristics you want to look for are:

    * Thin, tender and even brown skin.
    * Firm flesh with minimal "give", or "spongyness".
    * Well shaped main body with minimal extraneous protrusions.
    * A fresh and pleasant odor.

For this recipe, buy about 10 ounces of ginger, which will give you
about 6 ounces of cleaned and sliced ginger root. Once you have
learned the basics, this recipe can be multiplied to almost any
quantity.

First, carefully peel off the outside brown skin of the root. Remove
the secondary knobs, freeze them for something else. Cut out any
discolored or dried out spots. Cut the root into 2 inch lengths and
slice lengthwise into 1/8th inch slices. Punch holes in the slices
with a needle or fork, sort of like you would tenderize a steak. Toss
the slices in a bowl with:

2 Cups sugar.

Add 1 Tbl of water to a 6 or 8 inch iron frying pan or a heavy wok,
pour in the ginger and sugar, and bring very slowly up to a gentle
simmer. Stir occasionally for an hour. Lower the heat to a minimum and
let very slowly simmer, stirring occasionally and separating the
slices, until the syrup starts to get thick and crystallize. There
will be a rim of sugar that crystallizes out around the edge of the
pan, and the mixture will become quite thick and syrupy, and will have
a lot of sugar crystals in it. Soon the mixture will bubble slowly all
over the surface, and when gently stirred will crystallize more and
more. (This last phase only takes a few minutes, so watch carefully
toward the end. If it carmelizes, it is junk.) Soon the syrup is
mostly crystals, and the whole mass will start coming together when
stirred. When you can make a pile of it in the middle of the pan, and
very little syrup drains out, take it off the heat, and toss gently
while it cools. Make sure the slices remain separated. If done right,
the crystallized ginger slices will separate from the sugar at this
point. Spread it all out on a tray to cool and dry, then store
airtight somewhere dark and cool. Use the sugar in coffee, cookies, or
anywhere else that a fresh, clean ginger accent would be nice.

From: Sr. Gloriamarie Amalfitano
Date: Tue, 22 May 2007