More than a year ago, out of fun, I started making Ume-shu at home. If I remember correctly, my Ume-shu is about 18-months old now. This jar of goodness has been sitting quietly in a deep corner of my fridge, so deep that I usually forgot about its existence.
But I still remember the excitement I had when I first made it. I was thinking of making something different from the usual Ume-shu, so I not only invested a whole-kilo of plump Ume air-flown from Japan and a whole bottle of rather pricey shochu, I added Japanese organic brown sugar and expensive chunks of honey-combs to it. The total cost is estimated at 3.5 times the retail price of a regular bottle of CHOYA.
Last week, I finally decided to make use of my home-made Ume-shu for the first time. I decided to use it for my favorite Ume Jelly (one dessert that I will never fail to order if I come across it at any Japanese restaurants). Instead of using the usual gelatin or Kanten (a type of seaweed like agar-agar), I made mine with Konnyaku powder instead. The result is sweet, chewy and so good.
18 months? confirm still edible?=)
i think only the plum wine is aged not the food. lol
[...] have read about people using it to make kanten desserts. It went on sale the other week, so I pounced on it! It’s [...]