Sweet-and-Sour Young Ginger

Why people make this snack

This is one of Nourilo’s simple kitchen pleasures — crisp, sweet-and-sour pickled young ginger that perks up the appetite. The recipe is barely a recipe: just coarse salt, sugar, and pure rice vinegar, balanced to your own taste (Nourilo leans sweet). Young ginger is traditionally warming and settling for the stomach, which makes this a favorite little jar to keep in the fridge.

Method

1. Wash the young ginger, scrape off the skin and root nodes, rinse once with cold boiled water, and slice thin.
2. Mix the slices with the coarse salt, then spread in a colander in a breezy spot to air-dry about 2 hours.
3. Heat the rice vinegar with the sugar until dissolved, turn off the heat, and let it cool completely.
4. Add the ginger slices, let them steep briefly, then transfer to a glass jar.
5. Store in the fridge; ready to eat in about 4 days.

Nourilo’s Tips

Scrape and rinse with cold boiled water — not raw tap water — to reduce contamination. A red chili or two adds a fragrant kick. Nourilo used to use Japanese pure rice vinegar and now likes a local pure rice vinegar that is mild and not throat-catching.