【Cutting pickled plums with kitchen shears is super useful】Cooking anecdotes

When using pickled plums in cooking,
if you snip them with kitchen shears,
you won't dirty your cutting board, and it's super easy.

To begin with, why did I ever think of such a thing?

It started with a scene I saw in South Korea over 30 years ago.

Back then, my brother was living in South Korea for work,
so I would visit him there.

At that time,
I saw raw meat marinated in sauce being cut with kitchen shears at a yakiniku restaurant,
and I was absolutely shocked.

Cutting raw meat with kitchen shears!?
Is that even a thing!?

I see, I should just cut it with kitchen shears.
Something awakened inside me.

Since my children were still very small at the time,
I thought of using kitchen shears to cut their food into bite-sized pieces.
It might be a common sight now,
but back then, doing that in Japan would often surprise people.

From there, I became obsessed with kitchen shears,
and I started trying to cut everything with them.
That's how I ended up doing it,
and pickled plums were among those things.

When you use a knife on a cutting board to scrape off just the plum flesh
and mince it into a paste,
it tends to stick quite a bit to the cutting board.

That was something I found a bit annoying, or perhaps just a hassle,
but when you snip it with kitchen shears,
it becomes incredibly easy.

It doesn't become a smooth paste like it does with a knife,
but that actually adds to the deliciousness characteristic of pickled plums,
and it looks cute, too.

Since then, cutting pickled plums with kitchen shears
has become my way of doing things.

I've summarized this Okuzono-style way of using pickled plums.
I hope you find it helpful.

1. Pickled plums or the tube version?

My refrigerator also has
a tube of plum paste, just in case.

I think it's convenient for adding a hidden flavor to soups,
or adding a hidden flavor to sauces,
or when you only need a little bit.

But,
fundamentally, the reason I cut pickled plums with kitchen shears is

because the saltiness, color, and flavor are better when you cut the actual pickled plums.

It's a bit like choosing between using fresh ginger
or using ginger from a tube.

Once you try cutting pickled plums with shears and using them in your cooking,
I think you'll understand how delicious it is.

2. Snip-snip with kitchen shears

Cutting plum flesh with kitchen shears is
far easier and more convenient
than cutting and mincing it with a kitchen knife.

After all,
you just put the pickled plums in a container and snip them right inside.

When I say cut, you can't cut the pit.
Just the plum flesh around the pit, just to be clear.

If possible, I recommend buying
soft, plump pickled plums, as they are easier to work with.

Check out the video to see how to cut pickled plums.

3. Removing the pit is the very last step

When mixing pickled plums that have had only the flesh minced,
an important point is to mix them in with the pits still attached.

By mixing them in with the pits,
the plum flesh attached around the pits will come off cleanly while you mix.
See, there's no waste.

4. When to add the pickled plums

The pickled plums should be added at the very end.

You might think
that adding them from the beginning would bring out more flavor,
but that's not the case.

Heating them makes the color look bad,
and the aroma will fly away, so

I recommend adding them at the very end whenever possible.

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That was the Okuzono-style way of using pickled plums.

Please, definitely give it a try.

<Recipes using pickled plums>

★All-purpose plum enoki mushrooms

＊All-purpose chicken breast plum teriyaki

Mackerel can plum shiso rice ← Please wait a little for the recipe

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■　Kitchen shears can also be used for spicy cod roe!