Umeboshi

Unripe plums salted under a weight for a month, then dried in the sun for three days.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 1 kg ume, firm and unripe
• 180 g salt
• 200 g red shiso leaves
• 2 tablespoons salt, for the shiso

Method

1. SALT IS 18% OF THE FRUIT WEIGHT AND IS NOT NEGOTIABLE. These sit at room temperature for a month under their own liquid, and the salt is the only thing protecting them. Recipes using 8% exist and need refrigeration and vigilance; at 18% it simply works.
2. USE UNRIPE UME, hard and green-yellow. A ripe soft plum collapses in the first week and there is nothing to dry.
3. Remove the small stem nub from each one with a cocktail stick. Left in, it rots and spoils the crock around it.
4. Soak the fruit in water overnight, then dry each one.
5. Layer fruit and salt in a sterilised crock, finishing with salt. Weight them with about twice the fruit's weight.
6. WITHIN THREE DAYS THE LIQUID MUST COVER THE FRUIT. That brine is called umezu and it is the whole protection. If it has not risen, the weight is too light -- add more at once.
7. Leave three to four weeks in a cool dark place.
8. Rub the shiso leaves hard with the 2 tablespoons of salt, squeeze out the dark bitter liquid and throw it away, and repeat. Then add them to the crock, where they turn everything red.
9. THEN THREE DAYS IN THE SUN. Lay the plums out on racks in daylight and bring them in at night, returning them to the brine overnight on the first two nights. They wrinkle and soften.
10. Pack into jars with a little umezu. They keep for years and improve for the first one.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Japan · All recipes