Two shades of ‘ume’. Plums from the rains.

The rainy season we have now in Japan (mid-June ~ mid-July in Kansai) is married with the plums. It’s called the “plum rains”. So these ume are the “rain plums”.
You make think they are not ripe on this photo. It’s true they are very sour and hard. But that’s at this stage of maturation that they are picked and used to make umeboshi (pickled plum).

When they reach this color they are too mature for the salted pickle. When they become soft…they are not sweet, still as sour and less fragrant. Well, mines are yellow and still hard.

Good to make jam !

With kurozato black sugar.

I’ve just put the whole plums, blocks of sugar and water in the home-bakery. Lazy… but I was punished : that splashed and then cleaning the machine was a hell !

On the little plate, ume pesto (see here).

Dekopon, the citrus with a nose

デコポン dekopon is a fruit I am enjoying these days. deko is means something that pops out, that is convex. The reason is obvious.

It has that pear shape… or like a snout at the point where the stalk is attached. The size is like a big orange.

It can be opened by hand, the rind is thick, the inner skin is thick too, like a pomelo. Inside the fruit is perfectly round, the “nose” is empty.
Taste is between pomelo and mikan (mandarin orange), on the sour side. It has a nice flavor.

Did you know citrus trees had spears ? Apparently not all of them, so I had not noticed so far.

Pressed tofu from beans, the Okinawan way (day 1)

That’s a tutorial to make VERY firm tofu. (read about tofu texture, types, recipe of soft tofu, click here)

In Osaka, this tofu from Okinawa is quite expensive as it seems it travels by plane in first class, or just because it is uncommon so there is a rarity tax. I wanted to make mine. It’s not complicate, that takes 5 minutes to soak the beans and 15 minutes to make it later. I wonder why I have not done it years ago.

This is not a personal recipe, I have taken it here and even if it’s in Japanese you should go to see the photos. The author is the owner of a store selling Okinawan products.

Shopping list :

-Dry soy beans
–Nigari, the curding product
-Cotton gauze or cheese cloth

-Pressing box (optional)

You will also need a simple blender (or a very good hand-cranked vegetable mill).

I use medical cotton gauze (sterile, pure cotton, no added product) because they sell it cheaply in any pharmacy. Cheese clothes, well tofu clothes or similar pieces of fabric work too.

The box is optional. You can squeeze the tofu in the gauze and press it in any spring form mold for cake or whatever box you have. And if you have no box, squeeze the cloth strongly, and you will get a ball of tofu.
Mine is not a specific tofu press, it’s a box to make oshizushi (pressed sushi) and I already had it. It’s very similar to a wooden tofu press :

tofu box shop

These days makers also use metal boxes.
This, below, is a vegetable press, to make tsukemono (Japanese pickles), Sauerkraut, etc.
tsukemono-ki shop
I don’t think that would be the most convenient in this case as you can’t close it with the cloth. I’d buy it for the pickles. Confidence: I own one that I have never used in years as I squeeze them with my hands and then I remember the existence of the gadget.

Ingredients :

You need soy beans, of course. They are called 大豆 daizu in Japanese. Here GMO plants are totally forbidden, and unless they are cheating us, all those we buy are non-GMO.

Soaking :

The night before, rinse some, and place them in a bowl with 4 or 5 volumes of clean water. The time depends on the weather and age of the beans. They double of volume and take a longer bean shape.

にがり Nigari is made traditionally from sea water. We buy it in bottles. It mostly contains magnesium chloride. From wikipedia :

Magnesium chloride is an important coagulant used in the preparation of tofu from soy milk. In Japan it is sold as nigari (にがり, derived from the Japanese word for “bitter”), a white powder produced from seawater after the sodium chloride has been removed, and the water evaporated. In China, it is called lushui (卤水). Nigari or lushui consists mostly of magnesium chloride, with some magnesium sulfate and other trace elements. It is also an ingredient in baby formula milk.

Convenient set-up :

That’s to make the soy milk : I place a cloth in a metallic sieve, an prepare a salad bowl.

That’s to shape the tofu : I wash my box (or whatever) and a cloth, and I install them in a dish-washing basin.

So put the beans to soak and come back tomorrow (or jump here if you are reading from the future).

Champignon de luxe

Matsutake mushrooms. That’s the king of Japanese mushroom. One of the few really strongly flavored.

With pine branches*.Matsu is the Japanese pine. The mushroom comes from the forest. It’s rare. Very expensive.
Imports from China (like here) or South Korea are cheaper. From North Korea… well, they don’t deliver, but I was told they made you a real bargain price.
But really, the nice and huge Japanese wild matsutake reach high prices.

*these branches are NOT matsu pine at all. LOL. Any green branch does the trick as decoration.