Cook's Guild Meet Up at GNEW: Sekanjabin and Ginger Vinegar

For this meet up- we set the theme as "sekanjabins". It was suggested by Aesa, an exceptional food enthusiast who is also the deputy autocrat of the event. The idea of refreshing beverages at a mid July event made a lot of sense, so we ran with it!

Sekanjabin is a very old beverage, with roots in Persia. It is mentioned by a physician to treat imbalances in the body. The base recipe combines vinegar and honey. Most modern recipes use sugar and add mint. It's an excellent concentrate that you can dilute using flat or carbonated water and often is referred to as medieval gatorade.

My first sekanjabin was mint and ginger. I made a simple syrup, brought it to near boil and added tea bags to steep. Once it was cool, I added white wine vinegar. Next time I swapped in apple cider vinegar. That was my preference and I have made it for years! Exact recipe below. 

Let's talk pronunciation for a minute. When I first saw this word - I swapped in a ya sound for the j. So it came out like this: see kin YA bin . I've since been corrected that it should be closer to si Kahn ja bin. Take that as you will. It still makes me chuckle. 

This year I got a little extra becuase during one of my random rabbit holes, I read about making vinegar out of pineapples. This opened a whole world of possibilities and I landed on ginger. Turns out making ginger vinegar is as simple as making sauerkraut - the critical component is time. It turned out delightfully spicy and bright. It isn't nearly as sharp as many other vinegars. I think it's most similar to rice wine vinegar in intensity. I used it to make a peach ginger sekajabin syrup and absolutely love it. It's the first one my husband has enjoyed because vinegar isn't the overpowering flavor. 

Anyways - here are the recipes!

Mint Ginger Sekanjabin

2 cups water
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup vinegar

10 peppermint teabags

5 ginger teabags

Combine sugar and water and heat to dissolve. Bring to near boil, then add teabags and remove from heat. I like this steep until it cools to room temp and remove teabags. Then add the vinegar. That's it! This is a concentrated syrup that needs to be diluted for drinking, or you can use it as is to dip lettuce and cucumbers in for a cooling snack.

Ginger Vinegar

100g ginger root - DO NOT PEEL

100g sugar

Put ginger root in food processor with steel blade. Process to fine mince. Transfer to non-reactive vessel. I used a BPA free iced tea pitcher that holds about 1/2 a gallon. Dissolve sugar in warm water and add to ginger. Add room temperature water to top of pitcher and cover. Let it sit. My ginger separated with the bits that still had peel floating on top. Every few days poke them down to make sure they are staying wet. After about 2 weeks, it should start bubbling. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 weeks it was definitely a good place to start making ginger beer, but I let mine ferment for 2 months to get past the alcohol stage. 

Peach Ginger Sekanjabin

1 cups water

1 cups sugar

3/4 cup ginger vinegar

10 bigelow perfect peach teabags

Combine sugar and water and heat to dissolve. Bring to near boil, then add teabags and remove from heat. Steep until it cools to room temp and remove teabags. Then add the vinegar. Dilute to your preferred strength!