HOW TO PICKLE GINGER~GARI

I love pickled ginger, or should I call it gari. The Japanese call it amazu shoga.  If you have ever had or been to a sushi restaurant you have seen pickled ginger.  It is used to clean the palette when eating sushi. The spiciness and sweet gingery flavoring cleanse between each bite of sushi.  Normally you use young ginger which has pink tips when pickling ginger but you can use mature ginger.  Ya just need to know how to do it.  

We grew ginger this past season and I had several hands to do something with.  Of course, we kept some to replant.  Since we love pickled ginger, I decided to pickle verse using other recipes.  At the end of the season this year, I will have more and I plan on doing more things with my ginger. 

People think that ginger is hard to peel but the secret to peeling ginger is using a spoon to scrape off the skin.

Once you have that down it is pretty easy to work with.  Of course, it does not hurt that I have fresh ginger.  

Here is all the ginger peeled and ready for me to work with.

There are several ways to slice your ginger but remember when pickling you want it pretty thin.

I used a mandolin for some of the large chunks.

However, my favorite way was to use my veggie peeler.  This produced much thinner slices.

It is a lot of work but it sure looks good to me.

Since my ginger is not baby ginger I decided to boil mine.  I did this for 2 reasons.  One, it will help take out some of the spicinesses of my mature ginger.  Two, it helps to soften the ginger. 

Strain out the water.  You can keep the water for other usages. 

Once you have strained the water from your ginger slices pack them pretty tight in sterilized jars.  I used half pints.

While you are peeling your ginger make your brine.  

Add the brine to the jars.

Put on your lids and rings.

Waterbath your jars for 15 minutes.

Take them out and allow the jars to cool.  It might take up to 24 hours to seal. 

PICKLED GINGER

Ingredients

• 4 hands of ginger
• 1 cup of rice vinegar
• 2 cups water
• 2 tablespoons kosher or sea salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar

Directions

• Peel ginger.  Make sure you get off all of the skin.
• Slice ginger in thin slices.
• Boil ginger in water for 15 minutes.
• Stain ginger and retain water for another use.
• Put water, rice vinegar, salt, and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Lower heat and allow to simmer for 15 minutes.
• Sterilize canning jars either in the washing machine or in boiling water.
• Pack ginger slices into jars.
• Add brine to jars of ginger.
• Put on lids and rings.
• Water bath can for 15 minutes.
• Once the 15 minutes are up, turn off heat and allow the jars to sit in the water for another 10 minutes.
• Take out jars to cool.  All jars should seal within 24 hours.

If you do not have that much ginger or not sure you will like the recipe you can cut the recipe in half.  Or even in fourth.  You also do not have to can this recipe.  You can put your jars in the refrigerator and they should last up to 3 months.  

I recommend waiting 4 to 6 weeks to pop open a jar.  It is just like pickling other vegetables you need for everything to sit to come to a full pickle.

ENJOY!!