Quick Pickled Ginger

Hello.
My name is Lauren.
And I'm a ginger-aholic.

It all started with Canada Dry ginger ale -- my father's antidote to the belly ache.  One glass, and somehow all that carbonation and a bit of real ginger did the trick, despite all the sugar that I gulped down along with it.  Then, when I was a teenager working in a little health food store, I got hooked on Reed's real Jamaican Ginger Beer and crystallized ginger.  I'd use my discount to get a small package of crystallized ginger with a bottle of the ginger beer, eating one bite of ginger while taking a swig of the soda.  It was bliss in my mouth.

Then, I sort of forgot about ginger.  I had a passionate affair with cinnamon, and then one day, realized something was missing in my life.  I needed more ginger.  So I pushed cinnamon to the wayside, and while I flirt with it once in a while, ginger is now back to being my main squeeze.

It turns out ginger is pretty awesome.  Not only is it good for belly aches, morning sickness, and motion sickness, but it's also shown to help ease arthritis pain and reduce a risk for heart disease.  You can read more about ginger in my Spice Spotlight post from February.

I've been back to thinking about sushi lately.  Andrew and I swung by our favorite little health food store here in Maine (Lois' Naturals in Scarborough) and shared a bit of their Ginger Brown Rice Sushi by Macro Vegetarian.  I was flipping out over the ginger, it was so good.  My mouth filled with warmness, and it hit me:  a craving for pickled ginger.  I was tempted to buy some then and there, and devour the whole jar (I've done it before).  But then I looked at the sugar content and thought, hey, I could make that on my own, with less sugar.

So I did.  And it might be a new habit of mine.

Quick Pickled Ginger

*while I used the back of the pickled ginger jar for inspiration for ingredients, I double checked with the New York Times to make sure I was doing things right

• 1 piece of ginger root, as fresh as possible.  I was experimenting here, so I only used a 4 inch knob of the root. However, it would work with as much ginger as you had.
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar, or enough to submerge the ginger root in your small jar
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 pinch of sugar (add more to your taste--you might want a teaspoon), or 1 teaspoon pure stevia

So, ginger satisfaction awaits in just three easy steps:  1.  Combine ingredients in a small clean glass jar.  2.  Wait for 2 hours, or overnight if you're patient enough  3.  Eat it with everything.  This should keep in the refrigerator for a week or so.

I've also read that if you want to get the pink coloring that some pickled ginger has, to add a small slice of beet root in with your ginger.

This would make a great gift for any ginger lover for the holiday season!

How do you feel about ginger?  Besides sushi, what would you eat pickled ginger with?