How to pickle ginger? With your hands and with some tools of course. The Japanese love it. The world loves it. I love it. I love sushi and this post can't get anything better than this. The pickled ginger is known known as gari. Pickling ginger for sushi is quite important because the Japanese cuisine is all about flavors. Different flavors working harmoniously together! The pickled ginger is served so that it can be eaten in between different courses of meals. The Japanese eat the pickled ginger as palate refreshment. Then again, the sake lovers swear that it tastes damn good with a cup of sake. Gari can be eaten just as it is, or can be eaten with sticky rice, or can be used as a salad dressing. Sounds good, right? This post is all about how to pickle ginger for sushi.

To pickle ginger for sushi, you will need the following things. 1 lb fresh shin shoga ginger, ½ tbsp salt, 1 ½ cups of mirin or rice vinegar, 1 cup sugar, ½ tbsp whole peppercorns, and 1 small garlic clove. When you have these things ready, you are all set to pickle ginger.

1. Take the ginger and peel them. Make thin slices of the ginger. You can grate them finely too.

    

2. In a bowl, add in the ginger and salt. Cover it with ice water. Let it soak for an hour and drain completely.

3. Add in the sugar, vinegar, peppercorns in a small saucepan. Allow it to come to a boil and then let it simmer for a few minutes. Remove the saucepan and drain the liquid. Then pour it over the salted ginger.
    

4. And, finally put the mixture inside a ceramic or plastic container. Refrigerate the gari and use it as and when you like.

                                                                                              
And that, ladies and gentlemen, that is how you go about pickling ginger for sushi. I'm told that the pickled ginger for sushi drives pregnant women crazy. It could drive any person crazy!

Image Courtesy: addtotaste.blogspot.com