In this video, I am showing how to make Kakiage, a type of Japanese tempura made by mixing various finely cut vegetables and seafood together in a light tempura batter.
In my Channel, I show step by step of alternative but authentic Japanese home cooking, which can be made with the ingredients that are easily available outside of Japan.
This video provides a step-by-step guide on how to make homemade Gari (sushi ginger). The creator emphasizes using fresh ginger for the best flavor and explains that the pickled ginger is intended as a palate cleanser between pieces of sushi rather than a topping. The process involves slicing, lightly blanching, and marinating the ginger in a vinegar-sugar solution.
Welcome to Taiji's Kitchen. Today I'm going to show you how to make, in Japanese they're called
gari, or also known as sushi ginger. So whenever you go to a Japanese restaurant and order sushi,
many places serve sushi with this pickled ginger. They're sometimes a little bit pinkish,
sometimes kind of original ginger color, white yellow, and I've seen some people putting this
ginger on top of sushi and eating them, but that is not how you eat it. It's just a typical thing
that we eat to wash out the palate. And these are usually made with fresh ginger. In many Asian
supermarkets, you can buy this as a package, but in a farmer's market nearby, I was able to find
this fresh ginger, and so I decided to make this video. You could make it with old ginger,
but the flavor is not as fresh, so if you want to make it yourself, I suggest you try to find these,
and making it yourself is really flavorful, so I really do hope you can give this a try yourself.
Then, let's get started. Here are the ingredients for pickled ginger for sushi. So for the main
ingredients, you really want to try to find these fresh ginger. If you have a garden, you can
actually grow this yourself pretty easily. You just need to plant some ginger, you don't really
need to take care of it too much, you can harvest quite easily yourself. But luckily, I was able to
find this in a farmer's market nearby, so we're going to make with this fresh ginger. You could
make it with old ginger, but the flavor is much better with these fresh ginger. And these typical
pink color, originally it came from this bottom part, because this is originally kind of pinkish
color, but nowadays I think mostly they're made with food coloring, but today I'm going to make
these. And then for the seasoning, I have some sugar, and also here, apple vinegar. Authentically
and preferably, you want to make it with rice wine vinegar, but today I didn't have it, so I'm going
to make a substitute with apple vinegar, which is good enough for my opinion. So I'm going to make
this. Now let's get into it. So the first thing, let's prepare the ginger. So for this, you want
to peel off the skin, and also cut the top part. So to make it easier, I'm just going to break it
into pieces, and cut off the top part, just around here, leaving a little bit of the pink part right
here. If it's getting darker, then take that off. And then I'm going to try to peel off the skin. If you
scrape it just like this, if it's fresh, peels off quite easily. If there's a little bit dry part, then
take that off. So just like that. And then I'm going to do the same thing for the rest of them.
So just like that, these are finished prepared. Then is the next thing, we want to slice these.
You can of course slice them using a knife, but of course it's much easier using a slicer like this.
Whatever slicer you have is fine, but try to set the thinnest setting. With this slicer, I'm able to
set it one millimeter. I'm going to slice it in this direction. And just like that, these are finished
sliced. So the next thing, we're going to very lightly cook this sliced ginger. So in a boiling water,
I have here about three cups of water. I forgot to put this in the ingredients, but I'm going to put
in here about one teaspoon of salt. Then this, I'm going to put in the ginger. I'm going to wait until
this comes to boil. Then once this comes to boil and turn heat to medium, I'm going to keep cooking
like this for about two minutes or so. So then once two minutes has passed, I'm going to take this out.
I'm going to spread a little bit like this, and then let the water drain, and also let it cool
for a little bit. So before we go further, let's make the vinegar mixture. For that, I'm going to
mix the sugar and the vinegar with one to two ratio. So first, I'm going to put in three tablespoons
of sugar. Then here, six tablespoons of vinegar. And then put the lid on, and just kind of mix it
like this, and let the sugar dissolve. Then this is all for that. So as last thing, I'm going to put
this in vinegar mixture. So this is perfect. I'm going to put the lid on. So you want to kind of
mix it a little bit, and make sure this is tightly sealed. And then once this gets cooled, you want
to put it in the fridge for at least a couple days or so, and let it marinate. So about three days
has passed. Then this is finished. As you can see, it's gotten a little bit pinkish color from the top
part of the ginger. Let's take this out. And just like that, this is finished. Then let's eat.
Okay, now let's eat. Itadakimasu. Okay, itadakimasu.
This is quite spicy. It's definitely not something that you eat alone as it is like this.
You definitely want to eat it as a side for sushi, or with different dishes, but definitely not alone
like this. It's quite spicy, especially if you make it yourself. I don't think I can finish this
as it is like this. Gochisosamadeshita. This was spicy. So as you just saw in the video, it's really
not difficult at all to make this yourself, especially if you can get a hold of this fresh
ginger. So I really do hope you give this a try yourself. If you did enjoy this video, I'd love it
if you hit the like button for me. And if you have any questions, requests, any feedbacks, please feel
free to write anything in the comments below. And if you want to see more of these videos, please subscribe.
Otherwise, I look forward to seeing you in the next video. Bye!
