Crystallized Ginger

Day 23 of Spicemas

Another duplication! Really, I’d be disappointed, except I love crystallized (candied) ginger. There are many ways to use it, including nibbling the larger pieces as candy, and to settle the stomach. I had a few ideas, but it wasn’t until I was digging up sweet potatoes in the afternoon that it came to me.

I should back up a little. I plan a menu out at the beginning of the week, usually. It may change, and usually does on at least one evening on any given weekday, but it gives me some structure in planning what to thaw, or marinade ahead, or whatever needs to be done. Tonight was to finally finish cooking the lamb breast plate I’d marinaded some time ago, which I had then sous vide cooked at 70C for 24 hours. I also needed to thin the winter garden, and planned a green salad with the leaves of lettuce, mustard, turnips, and radishes I’d take out to make more room for root growth on others.

The sweet potatoes play very well with ginger, and I didn’t have many of the classic orange sweet potatoes. I’ll back up even further.

You can see the soaker hose in upper left, next to a young Horseradish plant. As this area is in full shade under trees, the growth was not robust.

This spring, I realized I have a long enough growing season that, in theory, I could fully develop sweet potatoes as a crop. I started slips from a grocery-store sweet potato, using a method where I half-buried it in potting soil and kept it moist and warm for several weeks. This worked very well, and I had a lot of slips when we were finally past all danger of frost. I planted these in several locations to see where they might succeed. I did not water some of them at all, and they were in shade, and these plants did not develop the thickened roots we harvest and eat. Two plants, near my elderberries, which were given some water, developed a few sweet potatoes. The slips of a purple sweet potato which were a gift from a friend, I planted on the north side of the house and provided with a drip from my irrigation system. These did well, perhaps better than I was able to dig, as the roots on these were very deep.

I may have a surprise in the spring if the soil doesn’t freeze deeply!

Dinner, then, involved lamb, salad, and roasted sweet potatoes.

Ginger-Garlic Sweet Potatoes

• 1 lb sweet potato, cubed

• 1 tbsp ginger paste

• 5-6 cloves of garlic, minced

• Drizzle olive oil

• 1 tsp coarse salt

• 2 tsp finely chopped crystallized ginger

Preheat your oven to 400F and line a baking tray with parchment paper.

In a bowl, toss your cubed sweet potatoes, garlic, ginger, and olive oil. Spread this out on the parchment paper, sprinkle with salt, and bake for about 20 minutes. Stir the potatoes, turning them over best you can, and bake for about 20 more minutes, until they are soft.

Sprinkle the chopped crystallized ginger over them and serve still hot.

I really enjoy sweet potatoes roasted like this, and I prefer them prepared with savory seasonings to the dessert-like sweet potatoes so often found as a side dish to Holiday meals. These had a nice kick with the ginger, the garlic was warm rather than biting, and the sweetness of the potato was enhanced slightly by adding in the candied ginger. Even my husband, who isn’t a fan of sweet potatoes as he’d mostly experienced them in overly-sugary preparations, was happy to have a bit of them and proclaim them not bad at all.

I haven’t made up my mind yet what I will do with the purple sweet potatoes, although I am perhaps leaning towards a shocking purple sweet-potato pie! That would be fun. Or I might revisit my daughter's Ube Roll.

In any case, tomorrow is the last spice of the Advent calendar, and I can hardly wait to see what it is. Thank you for coming along with me on this adventure and art project. I hope you’ve gotten some enjoyment from it!