In these days starts the first Ohme made experimental batch of a very common japanese food ingredient: it's umeboshi, the salty plums that are added as a side dish or inserted in the classic rice-balls.
These plums are organic wild-crafted heirloom plums, that in the north-east of Italy are called "emuli" or "emui". When they are ripe, they get fully sweet and soft but now they are very firm and definitely not-sweet.
5th June 7th June
9th June 15th June
Time passes... and after about a month the plums are strained and set aside to dry. The liquid it's an amazing sort of flavorful concentrated salty vinegar. A table spoon of this, mixed with any oil, does a really good dressing but... some of it needs to be saved for later use.
6th July
The plums are resting in a well ventilated area, sheltered from direct sun: they stay like this for about two weeks. Then after quickly drying some organic red shizo leaves (it takes just a couple of days or so) the plums are taken out and mixed with the leaves as the leftover salty plum vinegar gets added to fill up all the gaps in the jar.
18th July
Easy and very rewarding. Here they are, ready to go. Next year we'll surely harvest much more in the same area and make good treasure of this year's little experiment.
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