With this year's homemade "Ume" (plum) products...I made two super simple and delicious dishes.
The "Ume Syrup" (plum, Okinawa black sugar, and rum) is a huge hit this year, and this time I used it for a savory dish. I picked up a super-fresh Atlantic salmon filet from a fish market (they got a 20-pound whole salmon, and I got half of it filleted in the morning). It was for a dinner party, so I just trimmed off end pieces and marinated them in my homemade shio-koji for half day.
I took the shio-koji marinated salmon out of the fridge and just brushed some homemade Ume Syrup on the surface and roasted in the oven for 12 minutes at 450F. The salmon came out really gorgeous! The rich juicy salmon with the umami-packed shio-koji and plum syrup created a real upgraded flavor.
With the homemade natural "Ume-zu" (plum vinegar), I made yakitori. I simply marinated cut chicken thigh meat in just enough amount of ume-zu for a few hours. Jason skewered the meat with some yellow peppers and sweet onions.
He started the fire on our Santa Maria BBQ grill, and cooked until done. This dish was another home-run! Chicken was extremely tender and flavorful. I can't believe that the meat was marinated only in the "Ume-zu" and nothing else.
Both are the real keeper recipes (if you call them recipes...so simple!). We had a wonderful simple dinner...both the salmon and yakitori were great with the donabe rice.
