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