Ume plum and Japanese anchovy risotto

I went to Sunday brunch with my friend last weekend.  We tried to order a pancake or something like that but the waiter said he highly recommended a mushroom risotto which was the most popular menu at the restaurant.  We changed our mind and ordered it.  Surprisingly it was so good and it became the most delicious risotto for us.

We couldn't forget the experience and today we tried to make risotto by our self.  Unfortunately we were too busy to go grocery shopping  so decided to make risotto with the ingredients already we had.  There wrier just cheese, ume plum, shiso leaf and Japanese anchovy (called shirasu)...no mushroom... ;(

This is shiso which is a kind of Japanese herb.  It has strong and good flavor so it makes food more tasty.  I was surprised that some perfume has shiso as a secret ingredient!!

This is Japanese anchovy.  It a so small fish.  Usually we can buy boiled one in Japan at any grocery store but for just short season we can eat fresh one near ocean in Japan!  (I have never tried thought...)

We were sure that the ingredients we had were enough to make nice Japanese flavor risotto!!

Ume plum and Japanese anchovy  risotto

• 180 cc of white rice
• 2 Tbs of olive oil
• 3〜4 pieces ume plum
• 10 leaves of shiso leave
• 4 Tbs of Japanese anchovy
• 3 Tbs of cheese
• soy sauce

Dashi soup

• 600cc of water
• 1 Tbs of Japanese dashi powder

1,  Remove a core from shiso leaves and cut into tin slices. (It's easy to cut if after roll like this picture)

2,  Remove seeds from ume plum and chop into a paste 

3,  Put dashi powder and water in a pot and heat until quite hot then keep it warm

4,  Heat olive oil and a pan until hot and add white rice (don't wash!!) then stir-fry for 5 minutes with low fire

5,  Add 1/3 of  dashi soup and boil until dry

6,  Add another 1/3 of dashi soup and boil until dry and do same thing again.  It takes 15 minutes since you add dashi soup first time.

7,  Take a pan off a fire and add chopped ume plum and cut shiso leaves then mix well

8,  Add cheese and mix then add Japanese anchovy and mix well

I didn't make risotto recently but realized how easy to do that is!  Actually it took less time than wait for cooked rice.  We are addicted to risotto already so will make other flavor sometime soon!!!