The Ume-shu (plum liqueur), we made last year turned 1 year old and finally become ready to drink, so I hosted Ume-shu dinner party the other day. It was such a lovely celebration with the wonderful Team TOIRO and friends.

We tried our 2018 Ume-shu and Kinkan-shu (kumquat liqueur), plus my 2012 vintage Ume-shu (2 kinds: one of them was made with Okinawa black sugar).

Everybody tried different kinds in different ways. The basic way of enjoying Ume-shu is on the rocks. It’s also nice with sparkling water and ice.

I also made different dishes to enjoy with Ume-shu.

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Miso-Marinated Cream Cheese on Watermelon Radish

Market Crudités with Firefly Squid Dipping Sauce and Kanzuri Shuto

Time for the donabe main courses. I made Sesame Miso Hot Pot with Tasmanian Ocean Trout and Hokkaido Scallops. To finish, a couple of slices of butter was dropped to the broth.

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Octopus and Corn Rice was made in Kamado-san.

Dessert was Matcha Almond Milk Kuzu-Mochi (kudzu jelly) with Okinawa Black Sugar Syrup, Kinako (roasted soy powder) and Anko (sweet azuki paste).

We also drank a lot of wine and had so much fun!

Happy Donabe Life.

by Naoko