Wow Bao in downtown Chicago makes a homemade ginger ale... when it's good... it's very good... when it's not... it's club soda that somebody just waved a slice of ginger in front of... hit or miss... but I keep trying when in the area to see if it's the good stuff... fresh, pungent, delicious...
Recently I was in Burlington, Vermont at this lovely little restaurant called A Single Pebble... some of the best Chinese food I have ever had... before dinner I decided to try their signature martini... a (you guessed it) ginger martini... sublime... the ginger was fresh, peppery, yet smooth... in perfect balance with the vodka... and it came with a small piece of candied ginger at the end of the toothpick...
I got home and knew I really wanted that fresh ginger flavor in a drink... with selzer or iced tea... vodka... whatever...
Let the experimenting begin... first I poured over the internet looking for ginger syrup recipes... and each sounded too "cooked"... but I found one that I thought I would try...
6 cups of water, 2 cups of white sugar, 2 cups of chopped ginger... simmer for an hour...
Well... it had the peppery heat of ginger, but none of that raw freshness I was really after... I used it for a couple days... in iced tea, seltzer... and it tasted more like ginger candy... cooked!
Back to the drawing board... I could taste it... conceptualize it... and I only wanted it slightly sweet... something I could make inexpensively to have on hand.
I have it!! Make a simple syrup... but add the finely chopped ginger in after the syrup is removed from the heat... sugar is hypertonic... so I figured between the heat of the syrup and the sugar... w00t!!
Now this makes a large volume... but we use it up quickly... you could cut it in half or quarters or eighths...
8 cups of water, 3 cups of sugar (I will only use 2 next time), 1.8 pounds of peeled ginger root I pulsed in the food processor.... the ginger probably yielded about 1.5 pounds after peeling...
Once the sugar was disolved in the water and it had started to simmer, I turned off the heat... I added the ginger... stirring occassionally for about 60 minutes... sieving through a fine mesh strainer... the result... on a ginger level... absolutely perfect... not cooked tasting or candied at all.
* Note the color difference (the darker one it the first one I tried - the "cooked one")
Having some in seltzer as we speak... yum, yum, yum...
In the fridge it will keep for several weeks... now to see if I can wait til next weekend to try my hand at a homemade Gingertini!!
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