Pickled Ginger (Gari)

If you're into making your own Japanese food at home, then pickled ginger is a staple! This is a lovely little addition to sushi, tonkatsu, okonomiyaki, and even something as simple as a salad. It's refreshing, with a nice bit of heat. And you only need 4 ingredients!

Ingredients:

- 2 large hands of young ginger*

- 2 tablespoons salt

- 3/4 cup rice vinegar

- Pinch of sugar

Method:

- Peel your young ginger using a spoon or knife.

- Using a peeler or mandolin, shave thin slices off of your ginger, and place into a bowl.

- Sprinkle your ginger with salt, and give it a loose mix. Leave to sit at room temperature for half an hour. This is to draw any excess liquid out of the ginger.

- Once rested squeeze the ginger either with your hands or through some muslin cloth, to remove any water.

- Pack your ginger into sterilised jars. You can pack the ginger quite tightly, it will still pickle evenly!

- Finally, combine your vinegar and sugar in a saucepan until it comes to the boil. Once boiling, simmer for 5 minutes. Pour directly your jars of ginger.

- Leave to sit for 20 minutes before putting the lids on. Store at room temperature, and once opened in the fridge.

Notes:

* You want young ginger to get that classic pink colour in the pickled ginger. If you can only get older ginger, you can add thin slices of red radish (skin on) in with the ginger to aid in the pink colour.