Umeboshi

Umeboshi are preserved plums made from ripe ume fruits (Japanese plums), which are harvested around June. They are often cooked with fish, used as a filling in onigiri (Japanese rice balls), or cut into small bits for salad dressing.

There are various ways of preparing umeboshi, and the this is the traditional method used by my mother and other family members: Pack ume fruits with salt in a jar, then add a weight on top. The ume fruits should start to ooze liquid in a few days. Remove weight and add red shiso leaves. Return weight to the jar, cover and set aside. If red shiso leaves are not in season yet, keep ume fruits preserved in salt until shiso leaves are available. After the raining season (in Japan, this would be around end-July), take them out and dry them in the sun. Reserve the liquid and shiso leaves if you want more of the red colouring. You can choose to pack the dried ume fruits back in the jar together with the liquid and red shiso leaves, or store them as they are in their dried state. This traditional method yields very salty and sour preserved plums that can be kept for a long time in the refrigerator. It is said that these preserved plums taste better with age.