Shiso

[Kiem Hwa]

Shiso is my favorite Japanese herb. I started growing it in pots in my yard, and now I have a few plants with huge beautiful purple leaves.

Im trying to think of the many things I can make using these shiso leaves.

One thing Im interested in is preserving the leaves (since I cant use them as fast as they grow), maybe in a similar way as Sakura leaves are preserved - in salt?, or in such ways as ume is made, except without the plums. Any ideas about how to do this?

[torakris]

what can't you do with shiso? I love this stuff too.

I can't believe at one time I couldn't touch it, actually I couldn't eat anything IT had touched....

I love shiso in gyoza, I put one whole leaf on the wrapper and then place the filling on op and fold it.

I shred the leaves and add them to salads

It goes wonderful with tofu prepared in ayway

roll it up inside pork or chicken with some umeboshi meat and deep fry

shiso pesto?

[Hiroyuki]

I provided a link to this webpage, shiso juice, somewhere else:

http://www.nsknet.or.jp/~chrkaji/yasuko/recipe/098_e.html

I found this webpage, which briefly describes how to pickle aka-jiso:

http://www.maff.go.jp/soshiki/syokuhin/hey...altqa010713.htm

塩漬けは、塩水であく抜きをした後、塩を振りかけながら漬け込みます

Translation: First, remove aku (harshness) with salt water, then sprinkle salt to pickle.

I can't find a good webpage that describes a recipe for preserving aka-jiso.

This webpage may be of some help:

http://www.nsknet.or.jp/~chrkaji/yasuko/recipe/090_e.html

Read under "Preparations of perilla (around the middle or last ten days of June)".

[helenjp]

I have pickled perilla leaves...it's best to wait till you have a big plant, then just uproot the whole plant, strip the leaves, wash them in a lot of cold water (it's amazing how much dust those frilly leaves trap), and then massage some salt into them.

You really do need to do this step twice - the first time round, you will get a harsh, blackish, foamy liquid when you squeeze the salted leaves, and even sometimes a bit of gritty dust, despite washing.

Repeat the step, as the last link Hiroyuki gave says, and you will get a more bluish liquid. It won't turn bright red until you add acid - plum brine for preference, but you could try it with rice vinegar.

This stuff does go moldy fairly easily in hot, humid weather, so if you are in that kind of climate, it might be worth freezing some. Not sure how the flavor/aroma would stand up to freezing, though.

[Kiem Hwa]

Wow, there are at least 4 varieties of Shiso, Im not sure which one I have (except its not the green one).

http://www.kitazawaseed.com/seeds_perilla.html

Does the age of the leaves have any effect on its flavor?

[SuzySushi]

Hard to tell from the photos, but you most likely have the red shiso (or red & green -- I don't think they're much different). The "Korean shiso" is actually a related plant, also called Sesame plant, whose leaves are much larger.

Several other ways to use shiso leaves are:

wrap cubes of meat or poultry (one leaf per cube), skewer, and broil or grill

shred and add to hot cooked rice

shred and add to seasoned sushi rice (especially for musubi)

I just bought some seeds for green shiso & will plant them whenever the rain clears up. I didn't have any luck growing shiso on my lanai last year maybe the seeds were bad. These come from a different supplier.

[Always Hungry]

Ooooh...shiso! I have major love for that leaf, especially with Korean food. Kim-bap rolled with shiso is unbelieveably good.

And as Torakris mentioned, it goes great with pork. I can't eat sam-gyup-ssal without it.

Man, is there anything better than a shiso leaf stuffed with rice, thinly sliced grilled pork bellies with a dollop of ssam? Chased down with a shot of soju and I'm in heaven.

[Mooshmouse]

One of the most delicious things I've ever tasted is shiso leaf rolled into a piece of hotate sashimi.

[JasonTrue]

Koreans pickle shiso with salt and Korean dried chilies (which are less spicy than most Japanese varieties, and therefore used in copious quanitities). It's a slightly different variety but very similar. My favorite thing is to take some parboiled (20 minutes or so instead of 30) rice and barley, mix with pine nuts and a bit of salt, and wrap the rice in small bundles of these pickles, like dolmas. I put them in a baking dish and add soup stock (vegetable, in my case, or whatever you like); bake until most of the soup is absorbed in the rice. My Korean teacher was all over this, even though the dish was clearly fusion.

Shiso is also a good accompaniment for a nontraditional hiya-yakko: Cold oborodoufu or other good fresh soft tofu, a seeded chopped umeboshi, and a bit of fresh shiso chiffonade; add a modest drizzle of Japanese soy sauce.

I have used it in place of basil for a harumaki caprese: good tomatoes and passable mozzarella wrapped inside a shiso leaf; wrap inside small harumaki-no-kawa or gyouza-no-kawa, a la spring rolls. Fry until golden.

To use a bunch of it fast, puree shiso with pine nuts, garlic and olive oil. If you can make pesto with basil or arugula, there's nothing wrong with a shiso pesto. With a very mild cheese it works on pizza; you can use it in a wa-fu spaghetti dish, perhaps, or any dish where a little green mintiness would dress it up a bit.

A local bar in Seattle makes a cocktail called "moshiso", which starts with shiso leaves bruised against a healthy spoonful of sugar; add a hefty shot of rum and sufficient lime juice (or yuzu juice, but they don't have it available to them). A smart interpretation of a mojito.

I think a few Japanese and Korean companies have been making a shiso "juice" syrup using red shiso. I am not sure of the exact formulation, but I would bet it is a healthy amount of shiso leaves boiled with a 1:1 simple syrup, strained or filtered, and perhaps blended with citric acid. It works nicely as a base for drinks and salad dressings.

If you have a way of using basil, mint, or other similar herbs, you might use it as a jumping off point.

Shiso is my favorite Japanese herb.  I started growing it in pots in my yard, and now I have a few plants with huge beautiful purple leaves. 

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[Kiem Hwa]

My green shiso (compare with how red it was a month ago in the above pictures):

Though some are still slightly red, and the bottoms of the leaves may still be red even though the tops are green, I dont think this change is age related, as no matter how old or young my plants are (rather big or small, as they are all pretty much the same age, just some are more stunted then others cause I took a long time to transplant them), they all turned green at the same time. I think this is becasue of the hot weather.

I did make Gyoza with them!

I made Gyoza stuffed with a ground pork-shrimp-cabbage-etc. mixture, and either added a shiso leave or put cheese.

Also, I made Shiso-kabocha-mochi gyoza, using grated kabocha, and pieces of chopped up of mochi blocks wrapped in a shiso leaf!

(You cant see the mochi piece in this picture, it buried in the kabocha)

Our stuffing came out good, especially the kabocha ones cause I could really taste the shiso flavor, and it had creamy mochi inside, but for some reason our wrappers ended up being kind of stiff. We bought them, and cooked them by frying it in a little bit of oil for awhile, and them adding water and steaming it with the lid on, but maybe we over cooked them? (we were paranoid about the ground pork getting cooked well)

[Ben Hong]

Shiso, or in Cantonese "du ssu" is indispensible when I am cooking bivalves such as clams, mussels, oysters and even periwinkles in black bean sauce., etc.

Just don't make the mistake that I committed a few years ago when I sowed some seeds in a patch of earth. What came up was a plant from hell, as it literally spread everywhere. They are perennial so they come up every year in the most unlikely places.

[Kiem Hwa]

A healthy? Shiso, Oolong(烏龍茶), and another leaf (甜茶) drink i got in Japan:

This drink was pretty yummy - I actually bought it a few times.

Can anyone tell me what these other leaf (甜茶) is, and what this drink is supposed to be for (sorry its too small to read the hiragana).

Website:

http://www.itoen.co.jp/products/kobetsu.php?id=47

Edited April 28, 2005 by Kiem Hwa (log)

[torakris]

甜茶　is tencha. Tencha is the base tea for some of the best matcha, it is also high in poliphenole which is supposedly good for a variety of things. more here about poliphenole

The name of the tea is:

mitsu no sukkiri sozai de kaiteki kouka

roughly translated it is something like pleasant results with 3 materials/ingredients

It is sort an antioxidant drink

[Kiem Hwa]

Here is a nice article about many ways Shiso is being used in various dishes by chefs in the US:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_..._34/ai_67547987

[torakris]

Here is a nice article about many ways Shiso is being used  in various dishes by chefs in the US:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_..._34/ai_67547987

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interesting article!

and wow:

For what shiso costs, it should add something that mint and basil don't. Jody Denton, chef of Azie in San Francisco, estimates that he pays up to 25 cents a leaf. Rocco Dispirito at Union Pacific in New York pays even more: $3.80 for a pack of 10 leaves.

and I thought it could be expensive in Japan sometimes...

[torakris]

Shiso, or in Cantonese "du ssu" is indispensible when I am cooking bivalves such as clams, mussels, oysters and even periwinkles in black bean sauce., etc.

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Ben,

I had no idea it was used in China....

I just started a new thread in the China forum discussing it.

shiso in China thread

[SuzySushi]

interesting article!

and wow:

For what shiso costs, it should add something that mint and basil don't. Jody Denton, chef of Azie in San Francisco, estimates that he pays up to 25 cents a leaf. Rocco Dispirito at Union Pacific in New York pays even more: $3.80 for a pack of 10 leaves.

and I thought it could be expensive in Japan sometimes...

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Shiso sells for about $1.29 for a 10-leaf pack here.

I hope this weekend to finally plant the shiso seeds I bought last month.

[JasonTrue]

That's quite surprising... I would expect it to be cheaper in New York where there would be many different suppliers. I think I usually pay $1.20-1.60 for a 10-pack of Japanese-style aojiso, sometimes a bit more for akajiso. Korean gaennip is a little bit cheaper (at Korean markets anyway). I guess they may be just doing their part to pump up the leaf so that people will think it's an exclusive thing.

I think it does add something that mint and basil don't, but I find it quite refreshing to swap them; insalata caprese with shiso, for example. (I learned this from a Japanese friend who made harumaki with mozzarella, shiso and tomato... I still steal this idea).

Here is a nice article about many ways Shiso is being used  in various dishes by chefs in the US:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_..._34/ai_67547987

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interesting article!

and wow:

For what shiso costs, it should add something that mint and basil don't. Jody Denton, chef of Azie in San Francisco, estimates that he pays up to 25 cents a leaf. Rocco Dispirito at Union Pacific in New York pays even more: $3.80 for a pack of 10 leaves.

and I thought it could be expensive in Japan sometimes...

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[Kiem Hwa]

The other night I tried out making a Shiso pesto - I added garlic, olive oil, a bunch of shiso, a spoonful of sugar, then some mirin and lemon juice - those last three ingredients because I was trying to bringout the Shiso flavor.

It looked just like pesto, since my Shiso is now pretty much green, but the taste was unique. While it was good, I couldnt tell it was Shiso, but it was definately not basil or mint.

I wonder if there is a way to enhance the Shiso flavor, or if i need to use the younger leaves, or if my Shiso plant's flavor is lacking for some reason.

[JasonTrue]

It might seem counter-intuitive, but I'd recommend keeping it simpler. The mirin and lemon juice might be distracting... if you're using real mirin, it's a pretty strong, complex flavor including the alcohol; if you're using "hon-teri" or "mirin-fuu" mirin which is most dominantly sugar or corn syrup, might double your sugar and obscure the sharpness of the shiso. I recommend using some pine nuts though.

One Seattle pesto-obsessed cook likes to blanch his basil leaves briefly and ice them to make the leaves more dramatically green. I've done this technique once or twice and it definitely makes for a prettier , more durable pesto, without much damage to flavor caused by the heat (I only dunk the leaves in boiling water for a few seconds).

Another question is what did you use it with. I have used Korean shiso (gaennip) for a pesto and the only difference between the standard basil/garlic/pine nut/olive oil puree was that I used shiso. (I always wait to add the parmesan until I'm ready to incorporate it in the dish). I think it was very obvious that I was using shiso, but I was doing something very simple; it was just a base for a pizza with mozzarella and one or two vegetables. If the dish you used it in was more complex than being combined with a starch (pasta or pizza or rice or something) or mild-tasting protein (mozzarella, cream, chicken, fish), you might have too much flavor competition going on. If the pesto gets cooked it might also hide the brighter flavor notes of shiso.

Eric Gower's book has a recipe for a shiso pesto kind of thing (shiso, ginger, zest of orange, juice of orange citrus, juice, olive oil, vinegar, a little salt and pepper. He was using it as a topping for oborodoufu-based hiyayakko.

When thinking about Italian or Japanese cooking, usually the secret to getting great flavors is keeping it simple and fresh. The more you add the less "sappari" the food will usually be.

When I am cooking some European, Chinese or Thai foods, if I'm not happy with the results I tend to wonder what's missing. But for Japanese, Korean, or Italian foods I usually need to remind myself that I should step back and see if I've obscured something rather than awakened the basic flavors.

I wonder if there is a way to enhance the Shiso flavor, or if  i need to use the younger leaves, or if my Shiso plant's flavor is lacking for some reason.

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[Kiem Hwa]

Thanks for all the tips Jasontrue!

Ive never made pesto before, so really I was just adding whatever. I added the mirin and lemon juice later because I couldnt yet find/bring out the shiso flavor in the pesto (still in the sauce phase), so I was hoping to bring it out (I was thinking about how helenjp metioned that acid brings out the shiso's red color, so I was thinking.....maybe the flavor?). Well, all I did after making the pesto was mix it into some spagetti noodles, and add parmesan.

i think the real problem may be that I was using the oldest leaves on my bush...maybe they have lost flavor by then?

tonight though, I made a version of meat jun with my shiso - I marinated really thin slices of beef in a shoyu/sugar/garlic/oil, or for a experiment in a yuzu-ponzu sauce. Then I rolled up the beef with a shiso leaf inside, dipped the rolls in flour, then in egg and fried it. It was pretty good! i could taste the Shiso much better this time (but maybe I have also moved up my bush to the younger leaves).

[smallworld]

Does anyone ever get shiso with a sharp, strange flavour?

This has happened to me a few times. It's sold as regular ao-jiso, looks totally normal, and it's not until you start to eat it that you notice. The flavour is unpleasantly strong and is similar to mint. Some leaves even have lemony flavours.

Why does this happen? Is there anyway to remove the odd flavours (I tried soaking it cold water for 10 minutes but it didn't help)?

[torakris]

Does anyone ever get shiso with a sharp, strange flavour?

This has happened to me a few times. It's sold as regular ao-jiso, looks totally normal, and it's not until you start to eat it that you notice. The flavour is unpleasantly strong and is similar to mint. Some leaves even have lemony flavours.

Why does this happen? Is there anyway to remove the odd flavours (I tried soaking it cold water for 10 minutes but it didn't help)?

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that is interesting I have never had shiso that didn't taste like shiso....

Ocassionally when I was using the oldest leaves of my own shiso plant, they would almost be tasteless (Kiem Hwa also mentioned this), but I have never had a taste like you are describing.

[smallworld]

Well I wouldn't say it doesn't taste like shiso, in fact the shiso flavour is really strong and sharp. The minty lemony flavour is in addition to that.

[SuzySushi]

Smallworld,

Just so you know you're not crazy, I know exactly what you mean. I had a package of shiso like that the other day. It had a sharpness and you could really taste its relationship to mint. I have no idea as to why -- maybe it's the individual plant, or something in the soil where it grew.