Homemade Ginger-Infused Cooking Wine
How to Easily Make Ginger-Infused Cooking Wine with Seasonal Fresh Ginger
Cooking wine is an essential ingredient for meat dishes, and now is the perfect season to make your own ginger wine! With fresh, seasonal ginger available, it’s time to stock up on Korean ginger and prepare it for year-round use in various recipes. Today, I’ll start by introducing how to make ginger-infused cooking wine. It’s incredibly simple and yields a far superior flavor compared to store-bought options.
Ingredients
- 8 pieces of fresh ginger
- 1.5 liters of soju for infusion (1.5L cooking soju)
Cooking Instructions
Step 1
Let me guide you on how to select the best fresh ginger. Unlike ginger from other seasons, fresh ginger has a lighter, whiter skin that is softer to the touch. Look for ginger that is plump, has a shiny appearance, and feels firm. It’s crucial to inspect ginger carefully, as even a small damaged spot can mean the entire piece is compromised. The ginger I bought today is incredibly fresh, as if just harvested from the field, with thin, milky-white skin and absolutely no signs of damage. I picked a winner!
Step 2
The skin peels off so easily, and once removed, the flesh is just as pale and vibrant. It looks so fresh, almost like a baby’s bottom – it feels wonderfully fresh and appealing!
Step 3
To remove any dirt or debris that might be clinging to the surface, rinse the ginger thoroughly under cold running water. Even after rinsing, its beautifully pale color remains striking.
Step 4
After drying the ginger completely, slice it thinly into rounds or julienne it. Thinly slicing it into matchsticks works best. There are various methods for making ginger-infused wine. You can blend the ginger, slice it thinly as we’re doing now, or even make ginger syrup and use the remaining pulp. Since I often use onion syrup, I prefer to directly make ginger wine by slicing the ginger thinly. Feel free to choose the method that best suits you!
Step 5
Now, let’s prepare the container for our infusion. We’ll be using 1.5 liters of soju intended for infusions. I’ve already sterilized and thoroughly dried some small glass jars. The size of the jar doesn’t really matter.
Step 6
We’ll add the ginger directly into the soju bottle. If your large infusion jar is completely full, pour out a small amount of soju into a smaller jar first. Then, fill this smaller jar generously with the sliced ginger. You should aim to use enough ginger to fill about 300ml of the larger jar’s volume. Make sure to pack the smaller jar tightly with ginger. (If you are using the large jar directly, add the ginger first, then pour in the soju.) Let this mixture steep for about a week. Afterward, you can use this homemade ginger-infused wine in your meat and fish dishes. It will impart a superior flavor and effectively remove any gamey odors, proving much more effective than any store-bought cooking wine. Enjoy your delicious, homemade ginger wine!
