Friday, May 27, 2011

So I made Rhubarb Jalepeno Ginger Relish, or Chutney, or something. :)

I started out making pickled ginger, Japanese style, called Gari in Japanese; but I didn't have Rice Vinegar. Undaunted, I proceeded with a combination of plain white vinegar and apple cider vinegar. Here is the recipe I used:


http://japanesefood.about.com/od/sushiforbeginner/r/gari.htm
Pickled ginger is usually served with sushi and is called gari. Try to eat gari between different kinds of sushi. It helps to clean your mouth and enhance the flavors. It's best to use fresh young ginger (shin shoga) to make pickled ginger.
Ingredients:
  • 2 lb fresh young ginger (shin shoga)
  • 2 tsps salt
  • 3 cups rice vinegar
  • 2 cups sugar
Preparation:
Wash young ginger root and rub off skin. Slice the ginger thinly and salt them. Leave salted ginger slices in a bowl for about one hour. Dry the ginger slices with paper towels and put them in a sterilized, heat-resistant container/jar. Mix rice vinegar and sugar in a pan and bring to a boil. Pour the hot mixture of vinegar and sugar over the ginger slices. Cool them. Pickled ginger changes its color to light pink. (*If you are using old ginger, it might not turn pink naturally.) Cover the jar and store it in the refrigerator.

I put all the ingredients in about a 32oz pickle jar, smushing (yes, smushing) everything down with a wooden spoon so that the liquid comes over the top of everything, then shmushed 2 jalepeno peppers in there as best I could. 

I covered it with a cloth and wrapped a rubber band around it and let it ferment on top of the fridge overnight in a glass pickle jar, then covered it with the pickle jar lid and put it in the fridge. I don't know to much about fermentation, so I decided I'd wait and do a dedicated fermenting project instead. 

After a couple days, I decided to have some with Dinner. Thing is, I didn't have the patience to slice the ginger "paper thin" as the Japanese do. Or a good enough knife I think. How do they get it that thin??? 
So, I took a bit of ginger which was almost twice as thick as a coin. Oooh! Peppery!! My Dad had some, and started coughing like crazy. He was done with the idea.
So, I put it back in the fridge. 

After my parents left, I started canning salsa with the 30 lbs of Tomatoes they brought for me from Florida, yeah! And decided maybe I should do something else with my Shin Shoga.  :)
So, I started looking up relish and chutney recipes. 

Decided to add 4 cloves of garlic, 5 whole cloves, a stick of cinnamon and an apple, not cored or seeded, but quartered. Dumped everything in my new Blendtec Blender - AWESOME by the way, saved me HOURS because I did not have to seed and core all those 30 lbs of tomatoes... I got it on QVC - 5 monthly payments of $90...
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Anyway! I blended. Well, I had to divide the mixture because it wouldn't all fit in one blend, but that's okay. It was so good!! :)

I loved the taste of this new relish. Now I'm debating boiling it all and canning it because I have so much. Then, I think if I did that, it would become a chutney. Not sure. 
Ha ha, but you have to try this!! So spicy, sweet and delish!




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