Kyuri Bainikuae (cucumber with plum sauce)

Kyuri Bainikuae is cucumber with Umeboshi sour plum sauce.  This is a refreshing side dish/salad with a distinctive sour flavor, without being vinegary, and will go well with any Japanese meal.

Umeboshi, pickled sour plum, is a very basic ingredient in Japanese cuisine.  The sour plum is salted and sun-drided, and it is either eaten by itself with Steamed Rice or used as a seasoning to give salty and sour flavors to dishes.  Bainikuae (meaning “mixed with plum”) is the most notable method to season various meats and vegetables using Umeboshi.  In Bainikuae, Umeboshi is chopped to form a paste and mixed in with other seasonings like Soy Sauce and sometimes a sweetener.  There are not much of those flavorings needed for the sauce because Umeboshi already has its own strong taste.  We simply used the sauce for sliced cucumber here, but steamed and shredded chicken or mild tasting vegetables such as cooked Daikon radish or broccoli would work very well with the sauce.

If you already like Umeboshi, you will like this dish. If you’ve never had Umeboshi before, try it, and you will discover another very authentic Japanese flavor that you may not bump into often outside Japan.