Shiso

[torakris]

It sounds like you have the red variety, here is a picture that shows both

I can't recall ever seeing anyone eat red shiso raw or in the same way the green ones are eaten. It's most common use is as a coloring/flavoring agent for umeboshi (pickled plums) You will also see recipes for boiling it down with some sugar and then being made into a drink. It is quite refreshing in the summer.

boiling down umeboshi or just plain red shiso?

interesting....!

←

the red shiso

[helenjp]

even impressed my MIL

Funny thing is, I first heard of it from another foreigner in Japan! She got it from her kids kindergarten, which was heavily into natural foods for children.

Red shiso around yakitori, yes! Even green shiso is good, but the red stands up better to heat, maybe???

Also red shiso-wrapped rakkyou pickles...love 'em!

[smallworld]

helenjp posted a divine recipe that even impressed my MIL! (thanks helen  )

click here

i really cant keep the stuff in the fridge. everyone loves it! and the colour....luscious fuchsia. simple, gorgeous and tasty. a fine summer beverage.

Some of my older students have been raving about that red shiso drink for a few months now (did Mino Monta mention it on TV or something?). I haven't been impressed with most of their faddish health foods/drinks so far (like that horrid black soybean cocoa drink), so I didn't give this one much thought. But now I'm tempted to try it!

One question, Helen- by "sweetner", do you mean artificial sweetner? Do you think Palsweet would work? Because I packed on a few more kilos during a trip home this summer, and I don't need any extra sugar.

Speaking of shiso, I came back from my trip to discover all of the basil and parsley I'd planted this year, both of which had been thriving for once, had died. And a few metres away was a big healthy batch of (green) shiso plants. Funny thing is, I gave up planting shiso a few years ago, becuase they never lasted long. Wonder why they chose to spring up this year?

Edited August 19, 2005 by smallworld (log)

[cdh]

hmmm... tried the boiled shiso drink, and found that the apple cider vinegar flavor ran all over the shiso flavor, nearly obscuring it. Must try with rice vinegar instead... or maybe just more lemon juice.

This shiso techique would be a great way of making pink lemonade!

[Gifted Gourmet]

nice article on shiso from the San Jose Mercury (lots of links!)

The purple-red variety boasts an anise-cinnamon flavor and is prized as a natural coloring agent. Traditionally, it is used to tint umeboshi (dried, salted, pickled plums) and pickled ginger. Masa's adds the red leaves to a salad of fennel, figs and balsamic vinegar.  My favorite is the green, with a fragrance that evokes a relaxing afternoon at a spa. When I spy it on a sashimi plate, I purposely leave it for last because it's an especially clean and refreshing way to end the last bite. As executive chef David Kinch of Manresa says, ``It's aromatherapy in a leaf.''

cool!

[greenpointmary]

I received a green shiso plant in New York just a month before I moved away to the Virgin Islands, a tropical climate. I left the plant in care of my friend, so that he could harvest the buds when the time came. Now, he tells me that the stalks are flowering like crazy and have buds. Is this the time to cut the stalks? I really would like to dry the buds over pickling them. Ever since I had the instant ume chazuke with the dried shiso buds inside, I've been looking for them alone. How would I go about drying these? Also, has anyone had any luck growing shiso in a tropical environment?

Thanks and I'm glad I found this forum!

[torakris]

greenpointmary,

welcome to eGullet and the Japan forum!

I have never dried the buds so I am not sure how to do that, but Kiem Hwa has had pretty good luck growing shiso in Hawaii so I don't see why you shouldn't be able to grow it.

[Paul Bacino]

I got my first shiso plant growing..I live in Nebraska.

 

Its just starting to grow,  I have this in a 12" pot. 

 

cant wait to play with this stuff.. 

 

last post in 05...

[milgwimper]

My Perilla is just starting to grow. I love them, but the last few years I have had not enough and let them get tough before I used them. Hopefully this time around I will harvest the leaves earlier to eat with my Korean BBQ, kimchi making, seasoning,salad making etc.

[blue_dolphin]

NOTE: what I'm sharing here isn't Japanese cooking so I'm a little reluctant to post in this topic but it has the single best discussion of shiso that I could find on eG, already spans into fusion sorts of dishes and is certainly worth a look if anyone else is looking to cook with this ingredient. 

 

Thanks to a friend, I've got lots of red shiso to play around with after last week's brush with tropical storm Hillary did a number on one of her plants. 

She grows it in big pots with shishito peppers.  

That's my friend cutting back one of the shiso plants last year when it was shading the shishitos too much.  Gotta love that alliteration! 

 

Last year, prompted by mentions from @cdh and @haresfur, I tried a couple of recipes for shrub-ish like things:  shiso vinegar from Andrea Nguyen's blog and Aka Shiso Juice from Just One Cookbook.  The former uses somewhat more shiso and a good bit more vinegar.  

My friend used the vinegar to pickle ginger and I used both of them mostly as shrubs, adding a splash to sparkling water

or a G&T to subbing it into a various cocktails that use both tart and sweet ingredients like this Shiso-rita version of a margarita

 

A shiso-Champagne cocktail:

 

And who knows what this was but it certainly looked pretty:

 

From this years shiso harvest, I made about 5 liters of Andrea Nguyen's shiso vinegar and plan to bottle it up for holiday gifts. Last year, I used Trader Joe's Rice Vinegar, which is currently unavailable while they look for a new supplier so I subbed in another brand and this years tastes a more vinegar-y.  I'll let it mellow a bit and decide if I want to make adjustments. 

I haven't tried the recipe that @helenjp shared here, Red Shiso Drink but will try a batch of that to compare as it uses less vinegar. 

 

I still have quite a bit to play with.  This little arrangement of small stems is decorative and convenient for garnishes or adding to salads:

I've got more big stems in a tub out in the carport, plus my own, much smaller plant growing in a pot.  And my friend will have another harvest later in the year. 

 

 

[heidih]

Wow nice harvest to play with and great color. I usually get the bigger green leaves at Korean mrket to use as wrappers

[Alex]

I love shiso. I wish we had it in abundance around here. I'll have to start growing it next year.

[blue_dolphin]

Last night, I made a batch of shiso leaf pesto.  I considered a number of recipes.  There's one in Modernist Pizza that uses black garlic, which I liked the sound of, and firm tofu instead of cheese, which seemed boring.  I decided on this one that uses miso, pistachios and toasted sesame oil and am quite pleased with the result.  It's got that zing I expect in a fresh herb pesto.  The other ingredients help with that but the shiso is still the star of the show.  Here's the pesto:

 

For its maiden voyage, I tried it on some pasta with steamed sugar snaps, red bell pepper and a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds:

This was good.  Unfortunately, the vibrant color gets sort of lost.  I'd like to try a cold noodle version of this with raw veg and I think it will be quite nice on fish.

 

 

 

Edited August 26, 2023 by blue_dolphin
added words (log)

[haresfur]

That is an impressive plant. I think I have some coming up in a small pot where I shook out the seeds from a volunteer in my lawn. I'll have to figure out where to plant it. Tends to get pretty cooked in the summer here but didn't do well under the shade cloth in my cat enclosure. The drinks look delicious. I found red shiso syrup goes moldy in the fridge so vinegar seems like a good way to go. Thanks for the idea.

 

I made green shiso pesto one time but the partner wasn't impressed. Maybe I'll try red if I get enough plants.

[liuzhou]

4 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

what I'm sharing here isn't Japanese cooking so I'm a little reluctant to post in this topic

 

I wouldn't worry. Shiso isn't particularly Japanese. In fact, it is native to China and even the Japanese name shiso ( シソ ) is derived from the Chinese name, 紫苏 (zǐ sū). Here it is most commonly just stir-fried with garlic and ginger or used in hotpots. Every supermarket or wet market has it.

 

I love the half purple/half green variety. Must try thr pesto.

 

 

Two sides of the same leaf.

 

[KennethT]

@blue_dolphin Shiso (the green/red kind @liuzhou mentioned) is commonly used in Vietnamese food as well.  In Vietnamese, it's called Tiá Tô.  In Southern Vietnam, like Saigon, it's a common part of the bush of herbs served in every pho shop and with things like banh xeo.

[blue_dolphin]

Set up a batch of pickled shiso leaves today.  It's a fairly common Korean preparation, though I believe it's more commonly made with green leaves.  I chose this recipe in part because it uses red shiso and also because it makes a reasonable amount.  The ingredients are pretty standard, although some use salt sprinkled between the leaves, others use fish sauce. This one and many others use soy sauce.  Should be ready to try tomorrow.  

 

Shiso leaves in the salad spinner.  These are from my plant. 

 

And with the brine spread in between the leaves.

These went into the fridge and I'll see how they are tomorrow. 

[cdh]

Purple shiso is ideal for pickling... the brine should go from muddy green to bright magenta as the pH lowers as the lactic bacteria do their thing... take pics of the journey!

[blue_dolphin]

33 minutes ago, cdh said:

Purple shiso is ideal for pickling... the brine should go from muddy green to bright magenta as the pH lowers as the lactic bacteria do their thing... take pics of the journey!

It started out quite a dark brown from the soy sauce so not sure I’ll see a change but I’ll watch for it!

[heidih]

I have not had it pickled. Is it used like a panchan side with rice and meat?

[blue_dolphin]

1 hour ago, heidih said:

I have not had it pickled. Is it used like a panchan side with rice and meat?

I haven’t had it either but yes, that is my understanding. 

[blue_dolphin]

Raspberry-shiso sorbet from Nik Sharma's Season. 

The recipe calls for green shiso leaves, which get steeped in the sugar syrup used to sweeten this.  I used the red shiso I have and subbed shiso vinegar for the lemon juice in the recipe.  The shiso flavor comes through nicely. 

[KennethT]

52 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

Raspberry-shiso sorbet from Nik Sharma's Season. 

The recipe calls for green shiso leaves, which get steeped in the sugar syrup used to sweeten this.  I used the red shiso I have and subbed shiso vinegar for the lemon juice in the recipe.  The shiso flavor comes through nicely. 

do you ship to NY?

[liuzhou]

3 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

Raspberry-shiso sorbet

 

I've never even thought of using it in a dessert. Interesting. Thanks.

[blue_dolphin]

2 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

I've never even thought of using it in a dessert. Interesting. Thanks.

Last year, I made a shiso and grapefruit ice cream, based on a recipe using basil and grapefruit. The flavors came through but the cream muted them. This is much more vibrant. I saw a recipe for lychee and shiso sorbet and may give that a try next.