Traditional Irish soda bread 伝統的アイルランドソーダブレッド

 Just a few days before St. Patrick’s day, I happened to see  a  “real Irish soda bread” recipe on the “Serious Eats” website. I showed my wife the recipe and in passing mentioned that St. Patrick’s day was coming up. Next thing I knew she has found 2 other Irish soda bread recipes and for 3 days in a row when I came home a new loaf was cooling on the rack. What a treat!  This is the first loaf she made. It was baked in an enameled cast iron Dutch oven like “no-knead bread” and produced a nice brown crust and center was moist.

She cut the traditional cross on the top but the dough was very wet and just filled in. Nonetheless you can still a light impression of the cross.

The below recipe is from “Serious eats”

Ingredients
15 ounces all-purpose flour (3 cups; 425g)
1 3/4 teaspoons (7g) kosher salt; for table salt, use the same weight or half as much by volume
1 1/8 teaspoons (6g) baking soda
18 ounces low-fat cultured buttermilk (2 1/4 cups; 510g), well shaken

Directions
1.Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat to 450°F (230°C) at least 15 minutes in advance. Roughly cover the bottom of a deep 10-inch cast iron or enameled Dutch oven with a sheet of parchment paper; no need to trim.
2.Combine flour, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl and whisk a full minute to combine. Stir in buttermilk with a flexible spatula until dough is fully moistened and no pockets of flour remain. For extra-fluffy results, stop folding as soon as dough comes together. For extra-chewy results, fold dough about 20 seconds more. Scrape sticky dough into prepared Dutch oven and smooth with a spatula into a rough boule-like shape. Score deeply into quarters with a sharp knife or razor, cleaning the blade between each slice.
3.Cover and bake until well risen and golden, 45 minutes. Remove lid and continue baking until chestnut brown, with an internal temperature of 210°F (99°C), 12 to 15 minutes longer. Invert onto a wire rack, discard parchment, turn right side up, and cool until crumb has set, about 30 minutes. Cut thick slices to accompany hearty soups and stews, or slice thinly for sandwiches. (This will be easier if bread is allowed to cool 2 hours more.) Store up to 24 hours in an airtight container and toast to freshen bread before serving.

The bread had a nice crunchy crust and the interior was moist with a nice crumb. The buttermilk gave it a subtle tang. The flavor was a bit salty. We had this with a lamb stew I made. (What else would you have for St. Patrick’s day?) This was the perfect bread to accompany the stew. 

Our plum tree was in full bloom and our backyard was filled with the nice sweet smell of plum blossom. This is the plum tree we got many many years ago. We wanted the type of plum that produced the fruit used to make Japanese salted plum and umeshu.  After some search, we finally found one at an Oregon nursery. It arrived as a twig in a small envelope but it miraculously grew into a good sized tree and provided lots of plum fruit over the years. We used the fruit to make “umeshu” plum wine. Then, a few years ago all the plum trees in the area got a fungal disease. Our poor tree was no exception. We thought it was a “goner” especially after we had to transplant it during a landscaping project. Although the tree is much smaller than it was at its peak, it appears that this plum tree is surviving. Spring is almost here.

No knead rye bread 捏ねないライ麦パン

This is another "No knead" bread. This time it was rye bread. The below is how this one came out. Looks pretty rustic and nice.

After it was completely cooled, I sliced it. The hole-yness is just right as was the thickness of the crust.

Ingredients

300gram bread flour

100gram rye flour

>8gram salt

2gram instant yeast

300gram cold (55-65F) water

Directions

Same was other no knead bread. I baked at 450 F instead of 475 F. 

Since I made instant gravlax from sashimi-grade salmon the day before and there was still some left over, I made a small canapé with the rye bread thinly sliced and lightly toasted, topped with this gravlax (this one was made with 23 year old home made umeshu 梅酒 instead of straight vodka). I topped the salmon with sour cream and cucumber slices.

Although rye flavor is not really pronounced, this is a good rustic bread with nice flavor and texture and perfect for this canapé/open sandwich.

Salmon sashimi 4 ways 鮭の刺身４種類

This was made with frozen sashimi salmon from Catalina. We got it for New Year but we did not eat it since we had so much other good food. We decided it wasn't getting any better with age and the ice crystals forming inside the package was probably not an improvement. So, we defrosted and enjoyed it. Since frozen sashimi salmon from Catalina usually comes in 1 lb. packages, I always have to come up with several variations rather than straight salmon sashimi.

The picture below shows what I came up with this time. From the left, straight sashimi with Meyer lemon juice squeezed on it. The next item (moving to the right) is salted and scorched on one side with a kitchen torch and then briefly marinated in concentrated Japanese noodle sauce. The rose shaped item is instant gravlax made from Umeshu 梅酒, and on the right most is several hour (instead of usual 3 days) marinated "Russian" salmon 鮭のロシア漬け. I could shorten the marination time since this salmon was sashimi grade.

The following pictures are close-ups of the individual preparations. Since I had Meyer lemons, I squeezed juice over the sashimi just before serving. In only a few minutes, the surface became slightly opaque and had a nice Meyer lemon flavor. This was so tender it was almost like eating salmon belly.

The below is salmon with one side salted and seared with a kitchen  torch and then marinated in concentrated Japanese "mentsuyu" 麺つゆ noodle sauce and garnished with the thinly sliced green part of scallion. The seared portion added an almost smokey flavor and a slightly denser texture which contrasted nicely with the soft un-seared portion. 

The below is the instant gravlax, probably the best I ever made.  The marinade is composed of 1 tbs each of brown sugar (I used regular sugar and drops of dark molasses) and Kosher salt, finely chopped dill, 1 tsp each zest of lemon and orange. I also added about 50 ml of vintage umeshu which I made in 1997, from the plums grown on the tree in our back yard, using 40% alcohol vodka. I mixed and coated the small block of salmon and covered it with plastic wrap and marinated in the refrigerator for 4-5 hours. Just before serving, I removed it from the marinade, removed the excess marinade from the surface by blotting with a paper towel and sliced it. This instant gravlax had nice complex flavors. Compared to regular gravlax, it was very moist since the it is mostly raw. We really liked it.

This is the classic Russian marinated salmon which I make every New Year using a recipe I got from my mother many years ago. (This used to be a regular in her line-up of NewYear dishes). I used the belly portion of the salmon and marinated for only several hours. So, the inside was raw. This was quite a contrast with the gravlax. It was lemony and slightly vinegary but not sweet at all. I garnished it with chiffonade of perilla.

Although this is a lot of salmon, because of the different flavors and textures, each preparation was uniquely varied so the entire dish was not monotonous as would have been the case if we ate everything as just salmon sashimi. (Believe me we tried it that way one time before and it was overwhelmingly too much of a good thing). This was infinitely better approach. There was a small amount of leftover Russian marinated salmon and gravlax. Since these preparations were particularly good we were glad to enjoy it again the next day.

Small salted plums カリカリ小梅

We planted a ume fruit 梅 bearing plum tree (prunus mume) about 30 years ago. While ornamental plum trees are quite common, we had to spend some time and effort to find one that bore the plum known in Japanese as ume. (We subsequently found out it is actually an apricot tree and the Japanese green ume is basically an unripe apricot from which plum wine or "umeshu"梅 is made. Standard "Umeboshi" pickled plum 梅干し is made from yellow ripe "ume".) It arrived in the spring in an envelop as a mere twig mailed from a nursery in Oregon. It spent the summer in a flower pot on the deck but in the fall we didn't know what to do with it so in the absence of any other plan we toed it into our vegetable garden never expecting it to survive the winter. To our surprise it not only survived but thrived producing bumper crops and providing us with the basic ingredient to make some mighty fine plum wine. The last bumper crop was in 2008.  Around that time, a fungal disease (black knot galls) started spreading among plum trees in our neighborhood. Many of the beautiful ornamental plum trees lining the street leading to our house became diseased and many subsequently succumbed. Unfortunately, our plum tree did not escape this fungal disease. The branches became deformed, coated in black cankers. It stopped producing fruit. Many of the branches died. In 2012 we had a Japanese master landscaper redo our backyard. As a result, the tree was moved to a different location and the diseased branches were severely pruned back.  It struggled for several years and I had to further prune out the affected branches several times. Frankly, there was not much of it left. We thought this tree was basically lost and even discussed whether we should have it removed. Surprisingly, although it still shows residual signs of the disease, it seems to have overcome the worst of it. It miraculously survived and even started putting out new growth. This year, for the first time since getting sick and since being transplanted, it bore a large number of fruit. One of the branches had so much fruit on it that it broke during a thunderstorm and fell to the ground. The branch is pictured below. 

Although the fruit was still rather small and unripe, we decided to harvest it since the branch was already off the tree. In total, the fruit was over 1kg (Below picture on the left). I knew immediately how I could use the fruit because we happened to watch (for the second time) one of the episodes of "Midnight diner" 深夜食堂 on Netflix. This episode was about "Karikari-koume" カリカリ小梅 which is crunchy small salted plums.

Ingredients:
1kg small green plums (left in the picture below).
100g salt (10% of the plum)
2tbs white liquor (I used vodka instead).

Directions
Cull plums with any blemishes, wash, and soak it in cold water for a few hours (right in the picture below).

Remove the remnant of flower (#1) using a bamboo skewers and dry the plum. 

Put the plums in a Ziploc bag,  add the salt and vodka. 

Remove as much of the air as you can and close the bag. Distribute the salt so that all the plums are coated and make a single layer of the plums (#2 in he picture below) 

I sandwiched the plums in the Ziploc bag between two sheet pans then placed weight (about 1kg, water filled jars) (#3, in the picture below) 

Leave it for 3 days. The color of the plum will change from green to light brown and water will come out (#4 in the picture below).

I moved it to the refrigerator and  after several days, placed the liquid and plums in the glass jar with air-tight lid (I used a small amount of Vodka to "sterilized" the jar before adding the plums)  (left in the picture below). The liquid (called "Umesu" 梅酢) came 2/3 of the jar (right in the picture below).

The recipe I am following said keep it in the refrigerator 3-4 weeks before eating. I had a taste when I moved the plum to the jar. It was salty and "karikari" meaning crunchy in texture but had a slight bitter aftertaste. Hope this will disappear in a few weeks. We will let you how it goes.

Umeshu Highball 梅酒ハイボール

I usually make plum wine or plum liquor 梅酒 every year from the harvest of our plum tree in the backyard. Because we had to transplant our Japanese plum tree last year (which required some severe pruning), I did not make plum wine in 2011. Then I found some batches of plum wines which I started 2010 tucked away in a cabinet. They were still in the jars with the plums. There were three jars; one made with brandy, two with vodka. The plums had been submerged for 2 years instead of the usual one year. Even the ones with Vodka looked rather dark. I tasted them and they all tasted just fine and looked nice and clear. So I quickly bottled it. I used empty sake bottles with screw tops.


After filling quite few empty sake bottles, a small amount of the Vodka plum wine remained and I put it in a small carafe for immediate consumption (on the right in the picture below).


Since it has been hot and muggy, I decide to serve this as a “High ball” (or Umeshu and soda). The alcoholic content of this Vodka and Brandy umeshu is rather high (40%), this is a perfect way to enjoy it.


This is the first time I left alcohol and plums together for 2 years but it appears the oxidation was accelerated judging from the dark color. The taste is also much mellower than I would expect from just bottled umeshu. This is perfect for summer days. This is a Japanese answer to Campari and soda. Within a few days, the umeshu in the carafe was gone...it has been rather hot summer.

Plum wine, Supplement 梅酒、追加

We harvested "aoume" 青梅 or unripe green plum last weekend for 2010 umeshu.

Although I posted umeshu when I bottled the 08 vintage, I decided to add a few more images and a description of how to make umeshu. We usually use 1 lb of plums, 1/2 lb of sugar and 1.75 liter of liquor (either Vodka or brandy), but we started using 2 lb of plums with the 2008 vintage since our tree produces so much fruit. Traditionally, rock sugar or "koorizatou" 氷砂糖 is used but it is difficult to find rock sugar here in the U.S. and we cannot detect the difference in the end product, so we use regular granulated sugar. I think the reason for using rock sugar is that it will slowly melt producing a saturated sugar containing liquid layer. Since this layer has a high specific gravity (as compare to the remaining liquid) the saturated layer will remain in the bottom for some time extracting plum juice. I try to achieve the same effect by coating the fruit with sugar and leaving it over night to extract the plum juice before adding the liquor as described below.

The image below left is of washed and dried plums (2 lb) in a container with (1/2 lb) of sugar added. I just gently rotate the container several times so that each plum is coated with sugar. The picture on the right is after the plums have been in the sugar over night. You can see the plum juice came out and the sugar is wet.

I use brandy for one batch and Vodka for two other batches as you can see below. For brandy, I use Christian Brothers, not Remy Martin XO, but that is up to you. I also use the cheapest Vodka I can find.

I gently pour in the liquor so as not to disturb the sugar in the bottom. As you can see below, undissolved sugar can be seen in the bottom. My hope is that the sugar will melt gradually and produce a concentrated sugar layer in the bottom of the jar.

I just place the containers on a shelf in the basement or where ever they will not be in your way and wait for one year before bottling and drinking. Just don't forget about it.  (I forgot to bottle the '08 vintage for 2 years but the result was still good. So if you do forget, a few extra years don't seem to hurt.) Several years of bottle aging will make umeshu better.

Sushi Taro, Dupont Circle, Washington DC 寿司太郎

The Dupont Circle area has undergone significant change over the years and is now a very vibrant neighborhood with numerous good restaurants. It also was my wife's old stomping grounds. This Japanese restaurant, Sushi Taro, used to be your usual run-of-the mill sushi bar/ tempura place. It occupies the second floor of an unassuming brown square building at the corner of 17th and P, with a CVS Drug store on the ground level. Last year it went though a major renovation, when the old owner's son, Nobu Yamazaki (pictured below), took over. He transformed the place into a high-end Kaiseki and Omakase Japanese restaurant. We went to the old Sushi Taro a few times and were not particularly impressed. It was a very ordinary sushi bar. After this drastic transformation, however, we have been back three times; twice for sushi omakase and once for regular Kaiseki omakase.

Sushi omakase takes place in a room, separated from the main dining area, with a light-colored wood counter which only seats 6, Nobu himself and Chef de cuisin Masa Kitayama are behind the counter, where the cooking area is rather large with a charcoal burning Konro grill (exactly the same as the one we have) in the back counter in front of a picture window overlooking a stand of bamboo. The setting is very similar to a high-end sushi bar in Japan as described by Jon. The atmosphere is very intimate and quiet. With capacity for only six customers, the customers have the complete attention of the chefs. The night we were there only 4 customers, including ourselves, were in attendance. This time we feasted for over 3 hours with 12 courses--and this is not counting each individual piece of sashimi and sushi. This feast was much more than sushi and sashimi omakase as you will see.  

(From Washington post)

This time we started off with home-made umeshu 梅酒 aperitif with green plum simmered  in syrup or "kanroni" 青梅の甘露煮, a very nice refreshing start, which was followed by their signature appetizer Gomadofu 胡麻豆腐 topped with Maine sea urchin, real wasabi (every time wasabi was served, our chef grated a wasabi daikon root with a traditional sharkskin grater--the difference between this wasabi and the usual fake one from the tube was remarkable). Since it was in season, the next was Junsai ジュンサイ in sweet vinegar and yuzu 柚子. Junsai was very fresh with thick gelatinous layers. It matched perfectly with gentle sweet vinegar sauce highlighted with a bright yuzu flavor. (Masa showed us the fresh yuzu they had just received--the very small green kind). We then moved to a simmered dish; Hiryouzu 飛龍頭 and shrimp shinjou 海老しんじょう in yuba 湯葉 sauce. This was a nice comforting dish and well-prepared, if not spectacular. Next came a huge and fresh Pacific oyster (cut into three pieces) from Washington State, Japanese call it Iwagaki oyster 岩牡蛎, on the half shell with a lemon wedge and okinawan salt. This was so good (you may have noticed we are partial to raw oysters). It went so well with the sake we were drinking; a nice fresh ocean taste and, without any special sauce or seasoning, it  lingered pleasantly in the mouth for a while. Again seasonality is important here. "Ayu" 鮎 is in season. Japanese, especially Kyotoites, are very fond of this small fresh water river fish and we had this fish quite a few times in Kyoto. The Ayu which had been marinated very delicately in soy sauce and sake 祐庵地 was served butterflied and grilled 鮎の開き祐庵焼き. I like this rendition much better than the customary "shioyaki"塩焼き or salt grilled, which is usually served on a bed of salt and pine needles. Somewhere between these dishes, we had assorted "Hassun" appetizers 八寸 with 8 small tasty morsels; kinome-miso dengaku 木の芽味噌田楽, "aburana" with yuzu-miso アブラナの柚子味噌和え, lightly marinated firefly squid 蛍イカの沖漬け, "tamago-dofu" 卵豆腐, a small savory egg custard square with edamame paste, salt-cured shirako 白子 with vinegard daikon strips, garlic sprouts 芽ニンニク with miso-marinated Manila clams. All were fantastic. The only slight disappointment being the dengaku due to the quality of the tofu which could have been better. The salt cured "Shirako" or cod sperm sac (which does not sound appetizing) was delicate and tasty.

At this point, we were presented with two choices; one was "Lobster" shabushabu and the other was a Japanese style snapping turtle soup スッポンのお吸い物. Without hesitation, we took the snapping turtle. This was quite a soup; mine had one of the legs and my wife's had nice meaty parts. The broth was very savory. Yet the shimmering liquid in the bowl did not completely cover up the underlying primordial reptilian taste suggestive of mysteriously lurking depths of the pond. This does not taste like a chicken for sure. Since I got the leg, I had to spit out the "nails" as I chowed down. 

Since I made the reservation directly with Chef Masa and mentioned that the last time we were there we liked his home-made "Karasumi" からすみ, he gave us a small slice of that dreaded "Funazushi" フナ寿司 which was marinated with sake lee. Marinating in sake lee or "Sake kasu" 酒粕 made it very palatable (actually good). It had a similar texture and taste to "Karasumi". What a personal service! 

Then, we were presented with several square lacquer boxes of today's sashimi items. One box was all "hikarimonoayu" offered as sashimi. We started with a series of sashimi, very small but carefully prepared pieces; tuna around this time of year was less fatty and firm but very tasty. Again, freshly grated wasabi was just so nice. We can not remember every pieces we had but other stand-outs are "sayori" or needle fish, "Ayu" served two ways (one as is-just salt cured, and the other mixed with salted and preserved ayu innards called "Uruka" うるか. Ayu innards are cherished for their slightly bitter taste. Uruka definitely added a salty and slight bitter taste but it was a nice combination of tastes. I can not forget the wild white salmon from Alaska. Very tasty. Oh, one more item worth mentioning is, again in season, bonito "katsuo" 鰹 which was lightly grilled on a charcoal fire (Tataki) and served in a separate bowl with grated garlic and ginger; nice meaty slices and very flavourful. I have eaten a great deal of sashimi in my day but somehow this was especially good. Between the sashimi and sushi course we were offered a small delicately done "Sayori tempura" with perilla leaves さよりの天ぷら. At this point we were so full it was an effort to finish the sushi. Masa responded by making the rice ball very small for us and we had 4-5 pieces of yummy sushi. 

Finally, we were presented with the desert menu. We picked a Japanese "purin" custard, "kurosatou" or dark sugar (from Okinawa) ice cream. Both were very good but we particularly liked the very delicate Japanese custard.

I just want to mention sakes we tasted at Sushi Taro on three occasions. The sake list is not extremely long but quite decent covering from the high-end to moderate. Among the ones we tasted; Muromachi Jidai 室町時代 (Junmai Supreme-Daigijo or Kiwami-daiginjo), Hakkaisan 八海山 (Ginjou), Kubota Hekiju 久保田　蒼寿 (Junmai Daiginjou), Dassai23 獺祭 (Junmai Daiginjo) and Hakuryu 白龍 (Daiginjo). By far, "Muromachi Jidai" is our favorite. Complex yet clean tasting and it is just cut above. Next will be Dassai23. Not as complex but very pleasant and clean. Hakkaisan is a bit too yeasty to our taste. Kubota has some muddy note and Hakuryu is rather simplistic.

In summary, we really like this place. This is one of the best restaurants we have eaten at both here and in Japan. They serve very traditional carefully created food with a keen sense of seasonality ("Shun" 旬) and the sake selection is quite decent. The only problem for us (if you can even call it a problem for most people) is that we get so full by the end of the feast in both Sushi omakase and regular Kaiseki. It is a bit expensive but a similar class restaurant in Japan will certainly cost much more.

Stewed chicken wing with plum 手羽と梅の煮付け

This in on the theme of using plums from making plum wine. I read that you could use plums from plum wine in any stewed meat like chicken wings or pork spare ribs but no "recipe" was provided. I decided just to stew chicken wings (wings and drummets separated with wing tips discarded) with plums and soy sauce flavor.

I placed wings and drummets (6 each) in a colander and poured boiling water over them and then placed them in a saute pan. I filled the remaining space in the pan with the plums which were used to make plum wine. I added enough water (400 to 500 ml or 2-3 cups) to barely cover the chicken. I also put in one scallion (white part) and 3 thin slivers of ginger. I let it simmer for 10-15 minutes with the lid on. I added soy sauce (3 tbs), mirin (2 tbs) and sake (2tbs) and turned up the flame to cook another 10-15 minutes or until the liquid reduces by half or more.

My wife made baked cauliflower with garbanzo beans, black olive, and hot pepper the night before. So I used that as an accompaniment.  The plum was soft and tasted plummy with sour and sweet flavor. Chicken is OK but not outstanding. The texture of skin is not the best. We like chicken wings cooked other ways.

Our Japanese plum tree which produced the plums used in the above dish as well as umeshu is in full bloom. Possibly due to the harsh winter, it is flowering late. It often blooms at the end of January or February. We have pictures, taken in previous years, of the blossoms covered in snow. It has a lovely subtle perfume that fills the air. During the day the flowers are covered in a cloud of bees. Where they come from, especially in January we don't know. One thing is for sure this lovely tree beats crocuses as a harbinger of spring.

Stewed plums from plums used in making of plum wine 梅酒の梅の甘露煮

After bottling the umeshu, we always have to decide what to do with the remaining plums. My wife aksed me to share this story. When we first started making umeshu, my mother suggested that we take the plums used to make plum wine, bake them in a "musui-nabe" 無水鍋, which is a Japanese invention, somewhat like a cast iron Dutch oven, for several hours to make them soft and then eat them as a kind-of jam. Following her advice but since we do not have a "musui-nabe", we put the alchohol soaked plums left over from making umeshu into a pyrex baking dish, covered the baking dish with a glass lid and put it into a 350 degree oven to bake for several hours.

We were sitting in the other room watching television when there was a massive explosion in the kitchen. We rushed in expecting to find shards of glass and plums all over everything. Instead we saw the pyrex baking dish sitting quietly on the wire rack of the open oven. Apparently the alchohol fumes seeped out of the dish as it heated up and built up in the oven with enough force to blow open the oven door but didn't affect the baking dish. Word of advice that this method of making plum jam is not recommended.  

Instead, I make "Kanro-ni" 甘露煮. I just make a simple syrup (equal amounts of sugar and water heated to dissolve the sugar) and just simmer the plums on a very low flame for 30 minutes or until the plum is soft. This is rather sweet and can be used as a sort-of snack when you are having Japanese green tea or you can serve this in-between dishes as a palate cleanser as shown above.

I store this in a glass container with a tight lid in a refrigerator. As long as you use a simple syrup (very sweet), this will keep a long time. Actually, this one is two years old. Other usages of the Umeshu plums is to make it into jam. I see that you can use the Umeshu plums in stewing meat such as pork or chikcen, which I have not tried.

Plum wine 梅酒

I promised to post "Umeshu" 梅酒 previously. After all, I named my blog "on wine and food" so it is appropriate to talk about plum wines, although it is actually a fruit liquor and not really a wine. Many years ago (probably 25 years or so), while we were visiting Sapporo, we went to a get-together dinner at my late brother's in-laws' place. At the end of wonderful feast, they served us a plum wine which grandma mother-in-law had made many years ago. It was nicely aged and tasted like fine port or sherry--so good. There was no comparison to anything made commercially. Later, when we mentioned this to my mother, she immediately dove into the cabinet under the sink and produced an old bottle of umeshu that she had made and served it to us. Again, it was excellent. These episodes prompted us to make our own umeshu in the U.S. At that time, we were living in California and it was relatively easy to get green unripe Japanese plums or "Aoume" 青梅 at a Japanese market. We started making umeshu at home. The traditional recipe uses rock sugar and shouchu 焼酎 (usually 50 or 40 proof) or Japanese distilled potato liquor. After we moved to DC, it is still possible to get Japanse plums but it was hit or miss. Some years, we got some green plums from our Japanese grocery store. The owner was kind enough to set aside some for us whenever she got them but, some years, we did not get any plums. Thus, our quest to find a Japanese plum tree which will produce good fruit began.

Japanse plum 梅 or prunus mume is more closely related to apricot rather than plum or some cultivars are believed to be a hybrid such as cultivar "Bungo" 豊後梅. Their fruit reportedly is the best for umeshu and umeboshi 梅干し, a Japanese salted plum. We looked high and low but most of Japanese plum trees in the U.S. are stricktly ornamental and all of the tree catalogues we looked at only described how pretty the flower was but did not mention the fruit. After sending many emails to many tree nurseries, one from Washington state responded saying that this one (I do not remember exactly what was the name or cultivar) would produce decent fruit. So we ordered it. It came in the mail in a small brown envelope and the bare root tree was about 5 inches tall. It came in late summer so we put the small "twig" in a little pot on the deck. But winter was fast approaching and we wondered what to do with the little guy. It was not looking particularly happy and we did not think it would survive the winter sitting inside the house next to the window--for that matter we didn't think it would survive the winter no matter what we did. As a desperate measure, we plunked it down into the small raised vegetable patch we have in the backyard (we used to grow tomatoes until it got too shady for that). This was meant to be the plum tree I.C.U. and lo-and-behold, it revived itself and started growing. Now it is about 20 foot tall (see picture above) in the same vegitable patch since we lost a chance to transplant it elsewhere. It started producing fruit in the past 4-5 years. It was a first bumper crop in 2008. Vintage 2008 is our second vintage of umeshu made with estate (?) grown plums.

Recipe: Our recipes for umeshu have evolved a little but are based on the traditional Japanese recipes. We use regular sugar instead of rock sugar (since we did not see a big difference in quality of the resulting umeshu and it is rather difficult to get rock sugar) and use either 80 proof vodka and brandy (not VSOP or XO, just cheap Christian brothers). Our regular recipe uses 1lb of plums, 1/2 lb of sugar and 1.75 liters of brandy or vodka. We use to prick the fruit as suggested in a Japanse recipe (supposedly to encourage the flow of juices from the fruit) but this produces a murky wine with lots of precipitate. So, we do not prick the plums but, instead, coat the fruit with sugar and let it stand for one day in a jar so that the moisture is being extrated from the fruit before adding the alcohol. For Vintage 2008, I used 2 lbs of fruit since we had so much. The above picture was the Vodka version. Not intentionally but I left this batch with the fruit for one and half years (I usually bottle it after one year). The brandy version became darker and the fruit is all shriveled up (see picture below, right) as compared to the vodka version in which the fruit looks plump (picture below, left). I am not sure what made this difference. Since the sugar amount is the same, it must be something to do with the brandy (This difference was not apparent when I made brandy and vodka plum wines in previous years).

Tasting notes: The taste test was done while bottling. As a reference, we also tasted the old vintage brandy plum wine (I think it is 2000 or 1999 vintage but the label has fallen off). The picture below, from the left to right, are 1) Old vintage brandy plum wine, 2) 2008 Brandy plum wine and 3) 2008 Vodka plum wine. You can clearly see the diference in color. Nose is best in the old vintage with nice strong plum nose with a nutty sherry character. Palate is also the best in 1) with nice mellow plummy taste without any harsh edges despite a high alcohol content. 2) is not bad for young plum wine but 3) definitely has a raw, harsh edges.

We have accumulated quite a few bottles in the past 20 some years. One of these days, we may be able to do the vertical tasting but it is a bit like Scotch tasting, your have to be very careful, otherwise you will be totally soused after a few tasting.

P.S. Please see here for additional information on Umeshu.

Clam chowder クラムチャウダー

Small soup is nice to have as a course in a meal while you are having a drink but it is not easy to pair it with wines or other drinks. Dry sherry or some other aperitif may be called for. Umeshu 梅酒 or plum wine, as long as it is not too sweet. Or making a type of kir by adding umeshu to dry crisp white wines such as savignon blanc or even to sake may also work. We make Umeshu at home with much less sugar than commercial ones. Some bottles of our Umeshu have aged quite a long time since we started making it 20 some years ago and it is getting nicely mellow. We also made Umeshu using brandy which is also nice. (I may post our Umeshu some time in the future). All these could be a nice choice for the clam chowder (Boston style) that I made on one cold snowy day of which we have had way too many in Washington this winter. I, however, added Fino sherry in the bottom of the soup cup when I served this instead of having it as an aperitif.

This is, again, a quick simple recipe I came up with using a canned baby clams. I chop a strip of bacon into small pieces and slowly cook in a small sauce pan until crisp and the fat is rendered. An authentic recipe may call for salt pork or recommend blanching the bacon to remove the strong smoky taste but I like the smokiness that bacon imparts. I remove the bacon bits and set aside (to be used as garnish). I saute coarsely chopped onion (1 medium) for 4-5 minutes until soft and add potatoes (one large white potato cut into small cubes) and carrots (2 small cut into small rounds). I add the juice from a can of baby clams (10 oz) and chicken broth (No fat, low salt Swanson brand in a box) to just cover the vegetables. If you so prefer you could use the same amount of clam juice from a bottle. I then add two bay leaves, a very small pinch of dried thyme, and simmer for 15 minutes or until the vegetables are soft. I then add the baby clams and 1/2 cup of cream or milk (I used milk this time). When it comes back to a boil turn down the heat and add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

I served the chowder in a cup with a small amount of Fino sherry in the bottom and top it with the bacon bits and chopped parsley. Coming in from shoveling snow, this is a good one to have.   

The images below are taken the night of February 5 and morning of Feb 6 (after we rescued the pine tree and shoveled for several hours). I am originally from Sapporo but this is too much snow. If I wanted this kind of snow I could have stayed in Sapporo. As I am writing this, we are expecting another big snow storm with an expected snow accumulation of 8-16 inches or more. Where is spring!