Pickled Ginger Recipe: An Original Oriental Appetizer at Home

Pickled ginger gave us an amazing and mysterious East. At home, for its pickling, they usually use the classic combination of vinegar and sugar. This product is quite possible to find in free sale, but it is better to cook it yourself. And today we want to tell you a simple recipe for pickled ginger at home.

Pickled ginger, cooked at home, is quite capable of competing in quality and taste with store-bought counterparts.

A little about the color of the snack

Many are interested in the question why pickled ginger petals, which are commonly used in Japanese cuisine, have a pink color, because the shade of the fresh root is light yellow. Some believe that this depends on the variety of the root vegetable, since in fact ginger can be both white and pink. The first is called Hedychium coronarium and is most common in the mountainous regions of Tibet and Nepal, it is also found in Cuba and Brazil. Red ginger, or Alpinia purpurata, is native to Southeast Asia, Thailand and Malaysia. At the same time, these varieties differ mainly in the shade of inflorescences and their shape. As for the root that we eat, it is the same for all species.

In modern cuisine, pickled ginger gets its red or pink color solely from the addition of a dye. E129 is usually added directly to the marinade, in which the spicy root spends some time.

On a note! Previously, in traditional cuisine, pink color was obtained by adding beetroot juice to the marinade!

Why color ginger petals? Solely for the aesthetics of the appearance of the dish to which this snack is served. Pink and red colors are very harmoniously combined with other products on the table, but the dye itself does not affect the taste in any way.

Usually, each cook decides for himself whether to color the root crop with E129 or not, but sometimes legislation also affects this. For example, if in the United States red pickled ginger is allowed to be sold on a par with white, then in some European countries, products that contain this dye are banned. And if pink ginger is found in European restaurants, it is only due to the use of beetroot juice.

On a note! In addition to beetroot juice, you can also use red or rosé wine!

For this reason, before pickling ginger at home, think carefully about what color of snack you want to get as a result.

The taste of red pickled ginger is no different from white

Recipes. Ginger white and pink

Let's move on to the main thing - how to cook pickled ginger at home. We invite you to consider two key recipes, the first of which will be basic, which uses a minimum set of products, and the second - with the addition of additional ingredients to give the dish a pleasant pink color without chemical dyes.

The classic cooking

We will need: 200 g of fresh ginger root, one and a half glasses of vinegar (rice), 3 tablespoons of granulated sugar and 2.5 teaspoons of salt.

Let's do the ginger first. The root is thoroughly washed under running water, peeled, rinsed and cut into thin slices.

Advice! To make the petals very thin and the same, it is better to cut the root on a special vegetable cutter - a mandolin!
Gently put the chopped root vegetable in a bowl, add one and a half teaspoons of salt and mix well.
Now let's move on to preparing the marinade for ginger - making it at home is quite simple. In a small saucepan, combine vinegar, sugar and the rest of the salt. With constant stirring, heat the contents of the container until the salt and sugar are completely dispersed, but do not bring the marinade to a boil. Take the saucepan off the stove.
Rinse the ginger petals with water to remove excess salt from them, and lower them into the hot marinade. Leave for 5-6 minutes, then return the saucepan to the fire. With a low gas supply, cook everything for about half an hour.

On a note! With such a “neat” heat treatment, the appetizer turns out to be especially tender!
After the specified time, we distribute the ginger along with the marinade in sterile jars and cover with lids. Let cool, screw on the lids and send the snack to storage in the refrigerator.

After 5-6 hours, an appetizer can be served at the table

Now let's figure out how to make pink pickled ginger at home. According to the recipe, we need: 400 g of spicy root, 50-55 ml of wine (you can take both red and pink, the main thing is that it is dry), 35 ml of good vodka (without flavorings and other additives), 140 ml of vinegar (rice ), 3 tablespoons of granulated sugar.

As usual, at the first stage we are engaged in the processing of ginger: we wash, peel, rinse and cut as thin as possible. In this embodiment, we do not sprinkle the petals with salt, but simply boil them in boiling water for a couple of minutes.
Next, we are engaged in marinade: in a saucepan we combine wine, vodka, sugar. We put everything on fire and warm it up until the latter is completely dissolved. Do not forget to constantly stir and make sure that the mixture does not boil. We add vinegar. The marinade should now boil. We take it off the stove.
We lay out the boiled ginger slices in sterile jars, fill them with hot marinade and cork.

Such an appetizer should be infused - it usually takes about 3-4 days.

If the pink color that you got during the preparation of the marinade is not bright enough for you, then it can be corrected with beetroot juice. Add it in small portions and mix constantly so as not to miss the color that suits you.
For pickling, it is better to use young root crops - they have a light, very thin skin without wrinkles, and are quite easily peeled with a simple spoon. The most delicate will be the lateral processes, while the main part of the root is often rough with hard fibers in the center.
In the role of a sweetener, it may well be not sugar, but natural honey. But just remember that it has a richer taste, and therefore it should be added to the marinade in a slightly smaller amount.
Pickled ginger is usually stored in the refrigerator under a tightly screwed lid. Under such conditions, the snack can successfully stand for several months.

On a note! In Japan, pickled ginger cut into very thin slices is called garri. It is always served and consumed in combination with wasabi or soy sauce. If, during the pickling process, the root crop was cut into chips, then the finished snack will already have a different name - “benisega”. Usually it is he who has a red tint and is presented with meat or noodles!

But you can serve pickled ginger in a slightly different way - in a salad.

Light salad

To prepare this dish you will need: a small head of Beijing cabbage, 1 sweet and sour apple, 1 bell pepper, a bunch of fresh herbs, lettuce leaves, cherry tomatoes, a few petals of pickled ginger (to taste), 1 tablespoon of honey and vegetable oil, lemon , salt.

We wash the cabbage in running water and finely chop. We put it in a deep bowl and add it.
We also wash the apple, remove the peel from it, free it from seeds and seed box, cut into thin strips. Squeeze the juice of a lemon and sprinkle it with a chopped apple.
We thoroughly wash the greens and lettuce leaves, shake off excess water, dry on a paper towel and chop finely.
Cut cherry tomatoes into 2 parts, bell pepper into thin strips.
We prepare the dressing: in a small container we combine vegetable oil and liquid honey, mix.
We spread the apple, ginger petals, greens, tomatoes, peppers to the cabbage. Mix everything and dress the salad.

Light salad with pickled ginger, apple and vegetables

Warm salad with salmon

To prepare a salad with pickled ginger and salmon, you will need: 400 g of salmon, a few petals of pickled ginger, 2 cloves of garlic, a package of watercress, 50 ml of yogurt, lime, a teaspoon of honey, 2-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil, salt, pepper.

Cut the salmon fillet into small pieces and place in a bowl. We prepare a marinade for him: we combine yogurt, finely chopped garlic, a couple of tablespoons of lime juice, vegetable oil, salt and pepper to taste. Pour the marinade over the fish and refrigerate for an hour.
After the specified time, we send the salmon to bake at a temperature of 230 ° C. After a quarter of an hour, we take it out of the oven and let it cool slightly.
Put watercress, ginger petals on a large dish, pieces of fish on top. Drizzle with vegetable oil and lime juice.

Warm salad with salmon and pickled ginger

As you can see, all pickled ginger recipes are easy to reproduce at home and, with a minimum of time, make a versatile dish that can be both an excellent appetizer and a savory ingredient for salads.