How to grow and make your own gari (pickled ginger for sushi)

To make gari, the lovely pink pickled ginger for sushi, you need to have very fresh ginger roots, which are not to easy to find. So I grew my own! Bough ginger roots sometimes have a little green bud, or develop one if you leave them outside the fridge, and in this case you can just break a piece off (the one with the bud, of course) and plant it! I did just this, not knowing what to expect, and I was rewarded with a big leafy ginger plant! When I 'harvested' the roots they were fresh and fragrant, perfect for making gari. 

For the recipe I looked up one of my favourite books, The Book of Sushi, published by Kodansha International. Sadly Kodansha doesn't publish anymore in English, which is a real pity as they made some outstanding books on Japanese culture, including several cooking books, so this book may not be easy to find now.

I washed my ginger roots (I could not break much of it, as I made the mistake of planting it in a pot with a lemon tree and the root was too deep down to remove completely), but I had enough.

The skin is easy to remove with a spoon or finger nails. Remove the buds, you just need the root, hopefully with a hint of pink in it. Then slice the root as finely as you can manage.  

Then I added a few generous pinches of salt (I used some unrefined salt, but the book is not specific on which salt - or how much, to use) and left it stand for one day. I put a weight on top too, to make sure that the ginger got well pickled by the salt, but this was not requested by the original recipe.

The day after I rinsed the ginger under fresh water.

Then the book says: ....place in a marinade made of 1 cup of rice vinegar, 7 tablespoons water and 2½ taspoons sugar. Allow the ginger to marinate one week.

Well, first of all I noticed that I run out of rice vinegar, but I had some sushi vinegar, which already contains sugar and salt. Secondly, and this is my personal taste, I rather use less sugar (and salt) so I did a mixture of half sushi vinegar and half water. Thirdly, I brought the mixture to the boil, threw the ginger slices in, boiled them from a few seconds and turned the element off. I did this simply because I felt safer pickling it this way, and the result was great! I stored the gari in a glass jar in the fridge for one week before using it, now it is about two months old, almost finished, but still very good.

The original colour is a very light pink, which I like very much as it feels natural to me. The second pink, very vibrant, I made by soaking my own made gari for just a few minutes in the brine of shibazuke, which is a Japanese pickled mix of cucumber and eggplant and red shiso. It is the red shiso that gives out the pink/magenta colour, so anything picked with this leaf will work (and pickles also have plenty of brine left over, which I never throw away but use to colour rice.

Waste not waste not, this is my motto!

Natural gari (top) and gari coloured with red shiso (bottom)

I have to say that I was very happy with the results for taste, texture and ... colours!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Tip for peeling ginger

This I discovered by chance, and I am sharing because I love grated ginger but I never knew how to peel it, except with a knife. But this only works with frozen ginger. I always have frozen ginger, when I buy some I use a bit and then I put the rest in the freezer and break out what I need from time to time (broken roots in the fridge dry up, and in my kitchen sprout, so the freezer is my only option). Today I took out a piece and I made an incision with a knife to break it. But because it was so hard and frozen I threw it in a bowl of water where I was soaking some mushrooms and dried tofu. After five minutes I took it out and the peel just started came off!

I could not believe how easy it was, this is going to be my frozen ginger peeling method from now on (just water, I don't think that the mushrooms and tofu had anything to do with it!)

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Vermicelli in coconut and veggie broth with tofu and Asian fragrances

This is an aromatic vegan and gluten free soup, light and delicious.

For the broth:
500 ml vegetable stock
1 can coconut cream or milk + one can of water (rinsing the coconut cream)
1 large yellow courgette (zucchini)
2 fresh red chilies
1 block of tofu
a pinch of freshly grated ginger
1 stalk lemon grass
a few coriander leaves

Simmer all together for a few minutes until the zucchini are soft but not mushy.

In the meantime soak the vermicelli in hot water until soft then divide between 6 bowls.
chop a few cherry tomatoes, and wash some fresh basil and some thai mint

Pour the hot soup over the vermicelli, making sure that each dish has equal parts of tofu and veggies.
Decorate with the tomatoes, basil and Thai mint and serve immediately.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Fresh juice using beetroot stalks and leaves….

… plus beetroots from the garden, carrots, apples, and a little ginger. For five juices I used about 1.5 kg of carrots, plus a few local apples, and i picked two beetroots from my veggie garden, they were small but the leaves and stalks are perfect for juicing too (of salad) so nothing get wasted. I used just a little ginger (not all the piece in the photo) to give the juice a little zest. It was really sweet and delicious!

And now, just because I like these flowers so much, here are a couple of shots of Hydrangeas from Ponsonby Central. Have a great day!

 Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Coconut and ginger tofu

Ingredients:

Two blocks of soft tofu

1 shallot

2 fresh red chillies 

1 can coconut cream

500 ml vegetable stock

1/2 teaspoon fresh grated ginger

fresh coriander

fresh Vietnamese mint (or basil)

Drain the tofu and cut into slices. Finely chop the shallot, and roughly break up the chili, discarding the seeds unless you like your food very spicy. Place everything in a pot with the coconut cream and vegetables sock and simmer for 20 minutes. Grate the ginger and add to the tofu, finish off with some fresh coriander and Vietnamese mint leaves. If you don't have Vietnamese mint use fresh basil.

Serve with Thai rice or noodles.

It is also Orchid season in Auckland (or at least in my garden!). I love them because they last for ages, and when they start to fall off the stem I still keep them in small pots or in a bowl of water.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Ginger is the ingredient of the month for July’s Little Thumbs Up event, hosted by Chef and Sommelier in Singapore.

Ginger and Chili Tofu and Ginger Bok Choy... and a Ginger, Carrot and Pear Juice

 I like cooking with ginger, especially now that the weather is getting colder. Most of my Chinese style dishes are very simple, I usually make a tofu or a gluten (seitan) dish, and a side vegetable dish, to serve either with plain rice, or noodles.

Both these recipes have ginger (in summer I tend to use fresh coriander instead). To use fresh ginger I cut a piece from the root, peel it, and then grate it using the ginger grater that I got in Japan (Italian bloggers, you can use the apple grater designed to grate apples for baby food).

Ginger and Chili Tofu

Cut a piece of firm tofu into cubes, top with a chili, sliced, and some grated ginger. Add a couple of tbsp of soy sauce (I use Japanese soy sauce, I prefer it to other types) and let the tofu marinate for a few hours, stirring it from time to time so that it gets all coated with the sauce.

 Drain the tofu but keep the sauce and all the chili pieces aside: they will be used later. Heat 1 tbsp of vegetable oil (I use rice bran) and lightly fry the tofu on all sides. Lift the tofu from the pan and set aside. Add one tsp of cornflour to the marinade, and a couple of tbsp of water (if it looks too thick), mix well and then put into the same frying pan (or wok) where you fried the tofu. Do not rinse the pan, usually some pieces of tofu get stuck there (they are the best!), but scrape them all up while stirring the sauce. The sauce will thicken immediately, add 1 tbsp of tomato ketchup, and then the tofu. Stir and serve immediately.

Ginger Bok Choy

The bok choy comes from my garden, is growing well now, one of the easiest brassica to grow, in my opinion. It looks great if you cook it whole, but for a family meal it is easier to cut it into pieces first. Wash well and cut into big chunks. In the meantime in a bowl mix 1 tsp of cornflour with 50 ml of water, 2 tbsp of soy sauce (as always, I use Japanese soy sauce), and half a tsp of grated ginger. Heat 1 tbsp of vegetable oil (I used rice bran oil) in the pan and add the white stalks of the bok choy first. Sizzle for a couple of minutes, then add the green leaves. Cover for a couple of minutes and let the greens wilt in their own steam. Add the sauce and mix until the sauce thickens. Serve immediately.

Ginger, Carrot and Pear Juice

Finally, this is not exactly a recipe, but if you like juices you may also like this combo: carrot, pear and a piece of ginger root. Super healthy!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©