I was able to get some pesticide-free red shiso leaves, so I added them to the ume I had already started pickling.
For 2 kg of ume, I used 300 g of red shiso.
Here are the red shiso leaves after washing them with water ↓
I sprinkled salt equal to 20% of the weight of the red shiso, divided into two batches. After each addition, I rubbed the leaves thoroughly and squeezed out the liquid.
This time, I had 300 g of red shiso, so I sprinkled 30 g of salt over the leaves, rubbed and squeezed them, then added the remaining 30 g of salt and repeated the process.
Look how much they shrink!
The salted and rubbed red shiso (momishiso) is now ready!
Next, I’ll pickle it together with the ume that I started pickling earlier.
Here’s what the ume looked like after the first stage of pickling ↓
There was plenty of ume vinegar (umezu) by this point.
I took out about 1 cup of the ume vinegar and mixed it into the rubbed red shiso. This brings out a beautiful deep red color.
Then, I added the red shiso to the ume and let everything pickle together.
Now I just have to wait until we get several consecutive sunny days from late July to early August, when I’ll dry the ume for three days and three nights in the traditional doyōboshi process.
Until then, I’ll put the weight back on and keep the container in a place away from direct sunlight.
To be continued 😊