Century Egg with Homemade Pickled Ginger and Tomato . 自家醃酸子薑、番茄伴皮蛋

 Century Egg with Homemade Pickled Ginger and Tomato

自家醃酸子薑、番茄伴皮蛋

Eat century egg in an elegant way. What? That's true. The presentation and taste of food are interlinked and this is important as it stimulates our appetite.  I believe, we all have 

an inborn instinct of loving beauty.

Century egg as a dish, it always goes with pickled ginger, but I do like to add a small piece of lettuce and two thinly sliced tomatoes to go with it, and most of time, I sprinkle a pinch of quinoa and some sugary vinegar sauce onto it to bring out the flavor of the dish. The sweet and sour taste of the pickled ginger, the freshness of the lettuce and tomato and the fluffiness, crunchiness of quinoa as well as the pungent and creamy flavor of the century egg, all flavors rolled into one, it is just perfect.

Pickled Ginger, I prefer to make my own, to my taste, so I control its sweetness and sourness. I use only natural ingredients, it could keep fresh up to two years and the best of all, it is easy to prepare.  In Hong Kong, young gingers are only available by end of May to Mid-June, so get ready if you want to prepare your own like I do.

吃皮蛋都要吃得美？對呀，任何食物擺放得美，我覺得，吃起來都特別好味道。愛美是人的天性吧！

平常吃皮蛋，一般都愛伴酸子薑，我卻喜歡再加片生菜葉，兩片薄切番茄片，再灑上點糖醋汁和少許藜麥，這樣整道菜都活起來，更有生氣；有漬物的酸甜、果菜的鮮、藜麥的彈牙和溏心皮蛋香糯，真的好吃。

酸子薑我用自家醃的，酸甜合度，純天然醃製，保鮮期可上兩年，最重要是做法簡易。香港每年五月尾六月，才買到嫩子薑，要醃的話，要快啦！

Homemade Pickled Ginger

Ingredients: 

Young Ginger   650 g (trimmed from a total of 1.36 kg)

Rice Vinegar   650 ml
Rock Sugar, thinly grinded   310 g
Sea Salt, thinly grinded   3 g
Sichuan Peppercorn   2 pc

Coarse Sea Salt  30g 

Method:

1. Scrap off the peels of the young gingers and trim away those fibrous, just keep the plump and tender pieces. Add some coarse salt to the ginger and let stand for 3 hours, rinse off the salt and let dry for another hour, rinse again and pat dry.

2. In a medium cooking pot, heat up rice vinegar, sugar and salt till hot, turn off fire, and put the ginger inside for two minutes, and take all the gingers out, then reheat the vinegar again till hot, turn off fire, and put the ginger inside for a minute and take all the ginger out and let cool. 

3. Reheat the vinegar till boiled, turn off fire and add in the peppercorn, let cool.

4. Put the ginger into a glass jar, and pass the vinegar through a strainer into the jar to cover the gingers, add the peppercorn back to the jar, seal and keep the jar into fridge.

5. Ready to serve in a week

Cooking Tips:

1. It is good to choose young gingers which are not fibrous
2. Rinsing twice the gingers in the boiled vinegar to extract the remaining water

2. Adding Peppercorn to enrich the ginger flavor, so 2 small pieces are fine and DO NOT COOK them.
3. No water is added. Use only Rice Vinegar, Sugar, a little salt and 2 pieces of peppercorn.
4. Peeling ginger with a spoon is easier,  use the edge of the spoon and scrape away the ginger's papery skin using firm and downward strokes.

自家醃子薑

材料：

子薑  650g（總重買了1.36kg，去皮及切去帶筋及粗糙部份）
純米醋  650ml
冰糖，打碎 310g
海鹽，磨幼  3g
川椒粒  2 顆

粗海鹽約 30g

做法：
1. 子薑刮皮，切去帶筋及粗纖維部份，保持圓潤幼嫩的段。加入粗鹽，用手擦勻，靜置3小時待出水；之後用飲用水沖掉鹽份，再晾乾1小時，會有少量水滲出，再沖乾淨，用乾淨布抹乾
2. 在中型煮鍋中，加熱米醋，糖和鹽至熱，熄火，把子薑放入裡面兩分鐘，取出所有薑，然後再加熱醋，熄火，把薑再放入醋內一分鐘，把薑都拿出，放涼
3. 將醋加熱煮沸，熄火，加入川椒粒，放涼。
4. 將子薑放入玻璃瓶中，把醋過篩入罐瓶，放回川椒粒，密封並放冰箱保存
5. 醃一周後可吃

提示：
1. 買子薑盡挑幼嫩圓潤的
2. 在熱醋中浸薑兩次去水氣
3. 加入川椒粒為子薑添香氣，2小顆已足夠，不用煮
4. 這食譜沒加水。只用米醋，糖，少許鹽和2顆川椒粒
5. 刮子薑皮用金屬湯匙最方便，手提薑，用湯匙邊向下直刮即可