Ginger is an ingredient I absolutely love; the warmth, the kick and the floral notes it adds to dishes makes it a favourite of mine. So this week when I spotted a new stem ginger product at Jonsson’s Farm Market made in Cairns I was really excited to give it a test run.
I have previously used stem ginger from Buderim after finding it gleefully in chef pack quantities while I was touring their factory.
Wild Ginger vs. Buderim
The local product from Wild Ginger is simply named Ginger in Syrup. The ingredients are also really simple; ginger, sugar, water. It has a lot more bite when compared with Buderim’s, and I suspect Buderim boil their ginger in the syrup for quite some time to produce a sweeter stem.
Amateur Shortbread
When I was fairly new to cooking to stuffed up a batch of shortbread and my partner has never let me forget it. I halved the quantity of butter, and I made some inedible rock-like formation.
I was really keen to turn out some quality shortbread and (hopefully) redeem myself.
Wild Ginger Shortbread Recipe
Ingredients
225g plain flour
2 tsp ground ginger
75g caster sugar
2 tsp stem ginger, finely chopped
175g butter
Method
1. Sift together the flour and ground ginger into a bowl.
2. Stir in the caster sugar and chopped stem ginger.
3. Rub in the butter until the mix starts to stick together.
4. Press with a palette knife into a tin so it’s about 1cm all over, and smooth on top. I used a 28cm x 18cm rectangular tin.
5. Bake at 180C for 40mins, or until the biscuit is slightly browned.
Optional Delicious Topping
Ingredients
1 tbsp golden syrup
50g butter
4 tbsp icing sugar, sifted
1.5 tsp ground ginger
Method
- Heat syrup and butter together until melted.
- Stir in the icing sugar and ginger.
- Top the biscuits while still warm from the oven.
The biscuits were a great success. Next time I’ll make a double batch.
I must try to get my hands on a chef’s size pack of Wild Ginger’s Ginger in Syrup.
