How to turn unripe stone fruit into a brilliant Japanese condiment – recipe

Tough love: Tom Hunt's umeboshi makes use of unripe plums, apricots or peaches. Photograph: Tom Hunt/The Guardian

Umeboshi is a puckeringly sour and umami-rich Japanese condiment made with ume, an Asian plum that’s closely related to the apricot. It’s usually made with ripe but firm fruit, which aren’t all that dissimilar to the under-ripe and slightly flavourless apricots and plums found in most UK supermarkets and which make a great British stand-in for ume.

Umeboshi (Japanese-style fermented dried plums, apricots and peaches)