Red Pickled Ginger (紅生姜, Beni Shōga)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Clean 500ml glass jar with a nonreactive lid
• •Bamboo zaru, or a tray lined with a clean towel
• •Julienne slicer, or a sharp thin-bladed knife
• •Small pickling weight, or a clean piece of parchment pressed under the lid

Instructions

1. 1

   Choose the ginger

   Use shin-shōga if you can, the pale young ginger with pink tips and skin so thin it rubs away. It should feel firm and heavy, with a wet-looking cut face and a clean ginger scent. Mature ginger works only as a practical stand-in: blanch it a little longer and expect a sharper, woodier pickle. The old root won't become young just because we put a red coat on it.

2. 2

   Cut into threads

   Scrape away only the rough skin with a spoon, keeping any pink tips. Slice the ginger lengthwise into thin sheets, about 1mm thick, then stack a few sheets and cut them with the grain into fine matchsticks. This cut matters. Long threads keep their snap and sit lightly on noodles or rice, while thick pieces taste blunt and short crosswise cuts feel fibrous.

   Let the knife do the seasoning here. A clean, even cut exposes enough surface for the umezu to enter without turning the ginger limp.
3. 3

   Blanch briefly

   Bring a pot of plain water to a lively boil. Add the cut ginger for 30 seconds, then drain at once and spread it on a clean towel. This brief heat takes off the raw sting and opens the fibers just enough for pickling. Longer boiling steals the ginger's perfume, and the umezu is already salty, so the water needs no salt.

4. 4

   Salt and dry

   While the ginger is still warm, toss it with the sea salt and leave it for 30 minutes. You will see water collect in the bowl. Squeeze the ginger gently by handfuls, pressing rather than twisting, then spread it in a thin layer on a bamboo zaru or towel-lined tray for 1 hour, until the surface feels almost dry. The salt pulls out excess water, and the drying keeps that water from weakening the aka-umezu.

   Do not rinse after salting. Rinsing puts back the water you just worked to remove.
5. 5

   Pack in umezu

   Pack the ginger loosely into a clean glass jar. Add the red shiso leaf if you have one, then pour in enough aka-umezu to cover the ginger by about 1cm. Tap the jar and press through the ginger with a clean chopstick to release trapped air. The threads must stay below the brine, because the umezu can only season and protect what it touches.

   Store-bought aka-umezu from an umeboshi maker is fine. Rice vinegar dyed red is not beni shōga; it makes a red ginger pickle, and that is a different thing.
6. 6

   Wait and serve

   Cover the jar with a nonreactive lid and refrigerate. The ginger is usable after 24 hours, but it is better after 3 days, when the color has deepened and the sour saltiness has settled into the cut. Serve in small pinches on yakisoba, gyūdon, takoyaki, okonomiyaki, or plain rice. Use clean chopsticks each time, keep the ginger submerged, and refrigerate for up to 1 month.

Chef Tips

• •Buy aka-umezu, not a sweet sushi ginger brine. Aka-umezu is salty, sour, and red from akajiso; that is the taste beni shōga is built on.
• •The color should be ruby to crimson, not neon. If it looks like a marker pen, someone tried too hard.
• •If mature ginger is all you have, cut it especially fine and blanch it for 60 seconds. It will be fiercer and more fibrous, but still useful on fried noodles where the sharpness has work to do.
• •Do not sweeten the brine. Sugar moves this toward gari, the sweet pickled ginger served with sushi. Beni shōga is sharper, saltier, and much less polite.

Advance Preparation

• •Make beni shōga at least 1 day ahead. It is best after 3 days, once the color and seasoning have moved all the way through the threads.
• •If you have young ginger but little time, salt and dry larger peeled pieces, pickle them whole, then cut them into threads when serving. The texture stays clean.
• •Keep extra aka-umezu refrigerated. It is useful for the next batch, but do not pour used serving liquid back into the storage jar.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 18g)