not purple shibazuke

Shibazuke (literally purple pickle) is made with red shiso (perilla) which gives the pickles a "purple/red" color.

I tried a simple recipe I found on sirogohan.com, but because I didn't buy the right vinegar, my shibazuke didn't turn purple/red.

If you can get your hands on red shiso, then your pickles will definitely be the right color.

I wanted to try this recipe because they also suggest you to use green shiso, which is more readily available at our markets.

For us, red shiso is only available during the time (summer-ish) when you find fresh ume (apricots) in the markets usually when people make umeboshi (pickled apricots).

I only made half the recipe because I wasn't sure how it would turn out.

Adapted from sirogohan.com

250 grams total of eggplant, peeled ginger, cucumber, myoga...sliced rather thin
5 leaves green shiso, washed, stems removed
2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons red ume vinegar
1/2 tablespoon mirin (sweet rice wine)

Put all the veggies and shiso into a ziploc and massage in the salt.
Put the ziploc bag into a flat container and put it in the refrigerator with something heavy on top and leave for a couple of hours.
After a couple of hours, squeeze out of the water from all the veggies and shiso.
Put all the veggies and shiso back into the ziploc bag, throw out the squeezed liquid.
Add the vinegar and mirin.
Put the ziploc bag back into the refrig with something heavy on top and leave for 2 days.
After the 2 days, mince the pickles before serving.
Put pickles into an airtight container and enjoy!

NOTES: I bought regular ume vinegar by mistake, this is why my pickles did not turn red/purple.

If you can get your hands on red shiso, use regular vinegar to pickle your veggies.

If you cannot get your hands on red shiso, use green shiso and use red ume vinegar.

This got the thumbs up from Satoshi, it does take some time, but I'm making this again!