Umeboshi — salty, sour pickled plum — is one of the oldest ways Japan keeps rice interesting without cooking anything new. Minced fine with shiso and sesame and folded through warm rice, it turns a plain bowl into something bright enough to wake you up. Made in a full pot, it's also the easiest onigiri filling there is.
Serves 1, or scales up for a full pot · 10 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 bowl warm cooked rice (about 1 cup)
- 1 umeboshi (pickled plum)
- 2 shiso leaves, thinly sliced
- 1 tsp toasted white sesame seeds
How to make it
- Remove the pit from the umeboshi and mince the flesh fine.
- Gently fold the minced umeboshi, shiso, and sesame seeds into the warm rice.
- Serve as is, or shape into onigiri.
Tip
For a full pot at once: cook 2 rice-cooker cups (360 ml) of rice with 2 umeboshi and 1 Tbsp shiro-dashi added to the cooking water, then stir in the sesame seeds once it's done. Shape the extra rice into onigiri, wrap them individually, and freeze — a quick microwave reheat brings breakfast back on a weekday morning, the same trick as our soy-marinated shiso.
Part of The Sunday Batch — small things made ahead, for easier weekday mornings.
