Why I love Wagashi
桜餅 🌸 Sakuramochi - A lesson in patience spanning the seasons. Sakura-mochi are deceptively simple, a sweet rice based dumpling surrounding some bean paste and adorned in homemade salted sakura leaf and blossom. However I think the meticulous process of making preserved sakura flowers and salted leaves for this spring treat is the very reason I have so much respect for this craft. Salted sakura are used to adorn spring related food like this sakura-mochi and served as a savoury floral tea for auspicious occasions like weddings traditionally take over a year to make… The preparation process for making preserved sakura actually starts in June, 2 years prior with uméboshi making as the reserved brine from uméboshi (called umézu) is the key ingredient in preserving the blossoms. The flavour of preserved sakura flowers are salty as the blossoms are technically brine-preserved but with a sweet aromatic fragrance, with notes of tonka vanilla and apricot kernel from the flower and red shiso notes from this umézu. When making uméboshi the immature plums are salted and weights are slowly added on top to coax the liquid to come out without rupturing the skin.
Adding red shiso I grew, steeping the shiso flavour and a beautiful pink colouring before plucking the plums out of the brine to sun-dry to complete the uméboshi.
The resulting umézu bine from the pressing stage is absolute magic. No water is added, the liquid is extracted from only the plums. It’s aromatic, tart and full of flavour and is the secret ingredient to preserving the sakura blossoms.
The umézu I make in the summer is reserved until the next spring when the late blooming yae-sakura flowers can be picked and preserved. They await another year to be used in the following spring, timed to be eaten viewing the early blooms.
The fragrant salted sakura leaves also are made the previous year and preserved for the next spring as the leaves don’t come out until much later far after the flowers have all gone.
When I make sakura-mochi it’s like a little love letter from all the seasons from the past and it makes my heart feel fluttery when I assemble this little treat.
-Stay sweet, Sen-