I bought green plums from Korean market yesterday. Every year, according to my mom, plum comes out to market on the same day in Japan, which is sometime around May or June. Last year I made my first plum wine. I got a bunch and made one jar full (600ml). Since it was so easy to make (just need to wait for at least three months), I went back to the market a week after, wanting to make more, and all the plums were already gone.
We finished most of it since last year. We shared it with some friends and families and there are still a cup left a year later. So I figured that one jar full is a good size for us. Yesterday when I saw the plum at the market, I made sure to buy enough to make the same amount of sweet Japanese style plum wine, and this year, I will try to make one jar full of pickled plums. Oh it will be so good.
Here is the recipe for the Japanese style sweet plum wine:
300g of green plums, 300g of kori sato sugar (It’s a crystal looking sugar specifically made for making fruits wine), 600-750ml of Japanese shochu of your choice (I used Yokaichi Kome Shochu 25%)
You need to have a plastic or glass jar big enough to hold all the plums, sugar and liquor. They sometimes sell jars specifically designed for this purpose, usually with a red rid with a handle, but any container with a tight lid should work fine. I used big mason jar that I got from Michaels for our wedding to hold guests’ notes. It is better to have a big openings, so you can put/take out all the plums easily.
“Inspect the plums and pick the ones that do not have any scars on the skin.” That’s what most recipes tell you. But I had some plums that were not perfect, and my wine turned out just fine. I saw some people cut off the bad portion of the plum and still use them. The liquor in the end will not be clear amber. It becomes bit muddy with imperfect plums. However, as long as there is no mold, it’s fine.
I rinsed the plum gently, very well and used tooth pick to remove the tiny stem-leftovers from each plum, one by one. 300g of plum is not a lot of plums, so take your time and inspect them well. After rinsing and removing the stem, leave them out and dry completely.
In the meantime, boil or use liquor to sanitize the jar and lid very, very, very well.
Place plums, sugar and liquor all in the jar, label with date and store in the cool place. Leave them for about 3 months.
After 3 months, some recipe says that you should remove the plums, but I left them in for a year and they were fine, as long as they are covered with liquid completely. Enjoy as dessert wines, or whenever you feel like it.
For the plum wine, we use the hard green plums, but for pickled plums, I need them to ripen a bit more. So right now I am waiting for them to become slightly yellow. Pickling needs little more work than making this wine, so I will see how this works out, soon.
