Feb 27, 2009
Red Pickled Ginger Recipe
Homemade Beni Shouga: No Shiso? No Problem.
Tired of buying pickled ginger at up to $6 a canister? I was! But I thought it wasn’t going to be anymore economical to buy the red shiso I would need to make the traditional beni shouga.
Then it hit me. Literally — a beet fell out of a hanging basket in the kitchen and hit me on the side of the head.
Beets! Of course! Bright red and ubiquitous. (Where in the world can you not find beets? I wonder!)
Later that day I went out and bought 2 pounds of ginger, arriving home eager to get started. I decided to use raw apple cider vinegar and turbinado sugar, because I like the taste and I have a belief in the healthiness in of these things. For salt I chose a large-grain sea salt I’ve had on hand for a long time.
Next came about an hour’s worth of ginger-peeling and shredding. I listened to This Week in Science, so at least I learned something while I worked at it.
Into the bowl went all the ingredients (recipe below), including a whole beet sliced into 1/8-inch-thin long slices. Within seconds of each beet slice hitting the liquid, the bright red color was already seeping out and colouring the ginger.
About two hours later, I had a huge bowl of bright red pickled ginger! And some ginger-pickled beets, too! ^_^
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 pounds raw ginger
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 whole raw beet (medium)
- 1/2 Tbsp sea salt
- 3/4 cup vinegar
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