Street Caf\u00e9. Japan by Emi Kazuko<\/a>, I made it straight away. The recipe called for fresh ginger and I didn’t understand at first that “fresh” meant young, cream-coloured bulbs without the hard brown skin. Needless to say, my experiment with “standard” ginger was a bit disappointing and when I finally realised after some web research what the \u00a0problem was, I assumed I will never be able to make this delicious pickle at home because \u00a0I had never seen young ginger anywhere in my city. Imagine my joy when only after a couple of weeks I realised I was actually able to buy it in my favourite Asian grocery shop!<\/p>\nI have slightly modified the original recipe . Moreover, apart from the short-term, “fridge” pickled ginger (will keep up to three months apparently), I have also prepared a second batch of long-term, Western-style processed pickles (the only difference is that I processed the jars in boiling water). I will be updating this post to report about the changes (if there are any) throughout the year. The pickling liquid in both jars has taken on a slightly pink hue (alas the ginger colour hasn’t almost changed at all, maybe because I used cider vinegar) and the fridge version turned up \u00a0exactly as I wanted it to be: refreshing, slightly crunchy, but still soft, not too sweet and without the “soapy” aftertaste I sometimes find in store-bought pickled ginger. It wasn’t as soft as the store bought pickled ginger, but it didn’t really bother me.\u00a0Apparently young ginger is in season until the end of summer, so I hope I can prepare more of these pickles.<\/p>\n
UPDATE: After several months the long-term pickled ginger (processed in boiling water and stored in my pantry) tastes even better!<\/p>\n
TIP: If you plan long-term pickles, change slightly the amounts and do not add water (see the \u00a0ingredients’ list below)<\/p>\n
Special equipment: a mandolin to slice the ginger\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nPreparation: 40 – 50 minutes + at least 24 hours before tasting<\/em><\/p>\nIngredients (yields at least 1 x 300 ml\/ 10 oz \u00a0jar; if you prepare long-term pickles, prepare 1 more small jar just in case):<\/em><\/p>\n150 g fresh, young ginger, peeled<\/em><\/p>\n2 tablespoons sea salt<\/em><\/p>\n125 ml (1\/2 cup) rice vinegar (I have used 4,5 % cider vinegar, simply because I have several bottles in stock; use 250 ml\/1 cup vinegar if you prepare long-term pickles)<\/em><\/p>\n60 ml (about 1\/4 cup) water (for long-term pickles I have skipped water)<\/em><\/p>\n60 ml (about 1\/4 cup) white sugar (for long-term pickles I used 90 ml\/ about 0,4 cup sugar)<\/em><\/p>\n1 teaspoon salt<\/em><\/p>\nCut up the ginger into \u00a0knobs and then, using a mandolin, cut each knob lengthwise into paper-thin slices (lengthwise direction is very important!).<\/p>\n
Rub the ginger with salt and put aside for 3 hours (the ginger will soften).<\/p>\n
Rinse the ginger, pat dry and put into a jar.<\/p>\n
Bring to boil the vinegar, the sugar, the salt and the water, if you prepare short-term pickles.<\/p>\n
Pour the hot (not boiling) mixture over the ginger, close the jar.<\/p>\n
Leave it to cool down and then refrigerate for at least 24 hours.<\/p>\n
It can stay in the fridge for three months.<\/p>\n
If you prepare long-term pickles, place the cooled jars into a big pan, bottom lined with an old kitchen towel folded in two (this will prevent the jars from breaking),\u00a0cover up with hot \u2013 but not boiling- water to the level just below the lid. Bring to boil and keep on a very low heat, in simmering water, for around 15 minutes.<\/p>\n
Stick on self-adhesive labels, write the name of the pickle and don\u2019t forget to mark the date.<\/p>\n
These will keep for at least a year in your pantry. I will update this post saying if the ginger taste changes.<\/p>\n
NOTE (concerns only the long-term pickles): For the readers who live in the USA, the USDA-approved canning method is different. You can find it described here:\u00a0http:\/\/www.uga.edu\/nchfp\/publications\/uga\/using_bw_canners.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A very funny thing happened to me about a week ago (my Asian friends will laugh their socks off now!). I went to my Asian…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[220,82,50,133,85,18],"tags":[45,211],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10403"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10403"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10528,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10403\/revisions\/10528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"garip\"](\"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/garip.jpg\")
<\/p>\n