Umeboshi Food

UMEBOSHI (JAPANESE SOUR SALTED PLUMS) RECIPE

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Place ume in a container and fill with cold water. Soak overnight in a cool spot.
• Discard water and transfer ume to a large wooden, ceramic, or food-grade plastic tub.
• Measure salt over ume. Distribute salt with your hands, making sure not to make cuts on the fruit.
• Place a clean muslin (or food-grade plastic) sheet across the surface of salted ume and drape it down the sides of tub.
• Lay a drop lid on top of the sheet and weight with rocks or similar heavy items equaling weight of ume. (Alternatively, you could line the tub with a thick food-grade plastic bag, squeezing out the air, and cinch it up before laying the drop lid.)
• Store salt-weighted ume in a cool dark spot, but check after 2 or 3 days to make sure the brine has surfaced. If it has not, you should massage any residual bottom salt up to the top fruit. The ume should remain in the brine for several weeks, but check periodically to make sure no mold is forming (if it has, pick the mold off carefully).
• After brining for at least 3 weeks (2 weeks for small ume), dry ume for 3 days in the bright sunlight (they do not have to be consecutive days) on rattan mats (or the equivalent) stretched across a wooden frame for good air circulation. At night, return the ume to the pickling pot.
• On last day of drying, strain brine left over in bottom of salting-tub through a fine-mesh strainer and store in a clean jar or bottle. This is called plum "vinegar" (umesu).
• Pack dried ume (umeboshi) in resealable gallon-sized freezer bags (fill bags only half full). A syrupy liquid will pool at the bottom of the bags which aids in the long-term preservation of umeboshi. Umeboshi keep indefinitely at room temperature packed in airtight resealable bags. This recipe is reprinted with permission from Preserving the Japanese Way: Traditions of Salting, Fermenting, and Pickling for the Modern Kitchen by Nancy Singleton Hachisu , ©2016 Andrews McMeel Publishing. In the book, Hachisu tells not only of the traditional methods of preserving in Japanese culture but of her journey to learn and conquer these traditions as an American-born wife to a Japanese farmer. These umeboshi , salted plums, are a traditional delicacy, often eaten with rice.

UMEBOSHI VINAIGRETTE

Steps:

• Place all ingredients in blender and puree.

RICE WITH UMEBOSHI

Steps:

• Wash the rice thoroughly in several changes of water, then put it in the saucepan in which you intend to cook it with water to cover by about an inch, along with the salt. If time allows, let soak for 20 to 40 minutes.
• Bring to a boil on top of the stove over medium heat. Cook, uncovered, until most of the water is absorbed, 8 to 12 minutes; small craters will appear on top of the rice. Turn the heat down to a minimum and cover. Cook for another 10 minutes or so, then turn off the heat.
• Stir in the umeboshi and shiso, sprinkle with the sesame seeds, and serve immediately or let sit for up to 30 minutes.