Easy Pickled Ginger (Gari)

Thin slices of sweet pickled ginger, perfect to cleanse your palate and enjoy alongside sushi, sashimi and so much more. "Gari", as it is known in Japan, is for ginger lovers, who enjoy the flavour and warmth this delicious plant has to offer.

Course Pickles, Side Dish

Cuisine Japanese

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 8 minutes

Cooling Time/Pickling Time 4 hours

Total Time 4 hours 28 minutes

Servings jar

Calories 412kcal

Author Alexandra Cook - It's Not Complicated Recipes

Equipment

1 x 8 ounce/250 ml Jar

Ingredients

For the Ginger:

200 g (7 oz) fresh young ginger See Note 1
2 teaspoon coarse sea salt See Note 2
boiling water, to cover the ginger

Pickling Liquid:

¼ cup (60 g) caster/superfine sugar
½ cup (120 ml) rice wine vinegar See Note 3
¼ cup water See Note 4

Instructions

To Sterilise your Jars:

Sterilise the jar or jars you'll be using to store the ginger.Choose glass jars with an airtight, metal lid and ensure they have been washed by hand in hot soapy water then rinsed well. Check that the metal lids do not have rubber inserts. Preheat the oven to 130 Degrees C (270 F) and place the jars in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

For the Pickled Ginger:

Using a spoon, peel the ginger.
Remove any brown spots left on ginger.
Using a vegetable peeler or mandolin on a super-thin setting, slice pieces of ginger.
Put salt on ginger, stir and allow to sit for 5 minutes.
Pour boiling water on the ginger (just enough to cover) and sit for a further 2 minutes.
Drain water, and squeeze excess liquid from the ginger.
Set the ginger aside to drain further on some paper towel.
Prepare your pickling liquid by placing the water, rice wine vinegar and sugar in a non-reactive saucepan.
On a medium heat, stir to dissolve the sugar. Increase heat, and boil for 30 seconds.
Place your ginger pieces into the sterilised jars.
Pour the pickling liquid on top.
Seal the jar, and allow to cool on your kitchen bench for 30 minutes, before placing in the refrigerator.
Can be eaten once cooled, but I prefer to enjoy about 24 hours after preparing to let the flavours develop.

Notes

Use the freshest, youngest ginger you can find. The older the ginger, the more fibrous it will be. If you can find new ginger rhizomes, these are the very best to use! For this recipe, I have used young ginger.
Ensure you use cooking salt or kosher, as regular table salt may contain caking agents and is much stronger.
I have used rice wine vinegar in this recipe, and this is my preference, but some people have also tried using apple cider vinegar.
It is essential to use filtered/un-chlorinated water when pickling or preserving. (You don’t want the bad taste of the water to affect the final product!)
Please note, the nutritional information is based on the entire jar, and you will not be consuming the brine.

Nutrition