Vaimomatskuu ruokablogi

Ruokahullun päiväkirja - kaikenlaista nälkään ja janoon

Cucumber & shiso shrub

By Leave a Comment

shiso shrub

Shiso shrub

Monday. Perfect time for a little mocktail! …or cocktail! 😉 Recently my glass has been filled with lots of shiso shrub! After having made a new batch of shiso infused vinegar, I realized I could use it in not only cooking, but in cocktails too. And here we are, many a shiso shrubs later. Writing up a recipe for you!

I found out about shrubs on our trip to Portland Maine a few years ago. I fell in love with them, but so far I’ve only made a rhubarb shrub (link to my post in Finnish) at home. Although it was delicious, this concoction with shiso, cucumber and vinegar is even better! Could be because I grew up eating fresh quick pickled cucumbers every summer…?

Jump to Recipe 

shiso shrub

shiso shrub

Shiso infused vinegar

The American shrubs are usually made with sweetened vinegar that is infused with fruits or berries. Add in alcohol – or not – and top the drink off with something fizzy! Since I have a huge batch of shiso infused vinegar at hand, I’ve simply sweetened the vinegar with a simple shiso syrup. I do realize most people likely don’t have shiso infused vinegar around. I mean, I’d be surprised if you did! So, I’m including instructions on how to make this without it too. It’s actually super simple! You can just use an unseasoned rice vinegar, white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar as the sour ingredient. You get plenty of flavor from the shiso syrup and to further boost it, try muddling the cocktail with a few shiso leaves.

Shiso syrup

Shiso syrup is easy to make: just boil equal parts of water and sugar and add in a handful of shiso leaves (and stems!) to infuse. Once the syrup is cooled off you can strain the shiso away. Ta da – shiso syrup is ready to use! I love to use it in more than cocktails, so I usually make 1-2 desiliters at a time. If I’m being honest, when I have shiso around, I want to add it to everything! It’s such a rare herb here in Finland… and I love it so much!

I don’t know how easy it is to get a hold of shiso where you live, but I would recommend searching for it in grocery stores that specialize in Asian cooking. Or maybe there’s a local smaller farmer who grows it, like Ahlbergin puutarha here, or a bigger one like Järvikylä (they grow perilla)? Or who knows, maybe some of you are lucky enough to grow it yourself!

shiso shrub

I hope you enjoy this cucumber shiso shrub as much as I do!

Cucumber shiso shrub

Shiso shrub with cucumber is a fresh and sour summery cocktail - or mocktail!
Course Drinks
Servings 1 people
Author Juulia
Prep Time 10 mins
Cook Time 10 mins
Total Time 20 mins
Pin Recipe Share on Facebook

Equipment

  • Cocktail shaker / a glass jar with a tight fitting lid
  • cocktail strainer / small sieve

Ingredients
 

  • 1 cl shiso syrup
  • 1 cl shiso infused vinegar (or plain white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar)
  • 5 cm piece of cucumber
  • 4 cl gin (or vodka)
  • ice
  • 2-3 shiso leaves
  • 1-2 dl soda water (or tonic)

Shiso syrup:

  • 1 part sugar
  • 1 part water
  • shiso leaves
Notes:
Shiso syrup can be stored air tighlty in the fridge for about a week.
This cocktail has a lovely combination of sweet and sour in my opinion, but if you have more of a sweet tooth than I do, please use a bit more syrup to adjust the taste to your liking!

Instructions

Shiso syrup:

  • Bring equal parts of sugar and water to a boil. Add in a handful of shiso, mix and leave to infuse. Strain off the shiso, making sure to push out all flavor once cooled. (I usually make this with 1 dl of both water and sugar + about 3-4 big shiso leaves and stems)

Shiso shrub:

  • Cut a slice of cucumber to use as garnish and muddle the rest of the cucumber in your cocktail shaker (or jar). You can use a designated cocktail muddler, the other end of a cocktail spoon or any blunt long utensil that does the job 🙂
  • Measure the shiso syrup and the (shiso infused) vinegar in to the shaker. You can find the recipe for shiso infused vinegar here. If you are using unseasoned vinegar, add in a few shiso leaves and muddle with the cucumber for a bit of extra shiso flavor!
  • Measure in the gin/vodka, unless you're making a mocktail. Add a handful of ice and close the shaker/jar and shake vigorously until the shaker turns frosty, or the jar feels icy cold in your hand. Strain the shiso shrub to a highball glass filled with ice.
  • Fill the glass with soda water or tonic and gently mix. Garnish with a slice of cucumber and/or a shiso leaf!

shiso shrub

Ps. At our house shiso shrub has been mainly made with gin, and with this Pink Gin by Kyrö Distilleryn in particular. Since this gin has been infused with rhubarb and lingonberries among other things, it brings another level of flavor to the mix. If you want a more “pure” shiso & cucumber experience, I recommend using a more classic dry gin, or vodka.

Pps. After learning about the American shrubs, I found out drinking vinegars are also used widely in at least Japan and Korea! If you have a good recipe for Asian vinegar based drinks, I’d love to try them 🙂

Loaded cornbread two ways

By Leave a Comment

vegetarian loaded cornbread

Loaded cornbread

I’m a huge lover of fresh sweet corn so whatever the cornbread, it’s delicious in my books! But when you load the cornbread with wonderful things such as ceps and vegetarian chorizo or organic bacon and jalapenos, it’s even better. I’m not sure if there ever was a more delicious savory bread made!

I love to eat loaded cornbread as it is, but turns out, it’s also wonderful as a savory cake! I whipped up one for the 8th anniversary of this blog and was extremely happy with the result. I filled my savory cornbread cake with soft goat cheese and the end result was everything I could have dreamt of: umami filled, savory, hearty, delicious. To put it simply, it was perfect for me!

Jump to Recipe

savory cake fresh corn bread

Corn season

This is the season for fresh local corn and as a huge corn lover, I’m eating an ear per day. At least! I love corn in all it’s forms and have made countless recipes (in Finnish) over the course of the 8 years of this food blog. I even eat frozen corn as a snack 😀 a habit I picked up as a kid… Since my blogiversary is always overlapping the season of corn, most of my anniversary posts have actually been about corn. So shall it be this year too!

I made this delicious savory cornbread cake for the special day, using a recipe by Claire Saffitz as a base. Her recipe happened to pop on my feed at the perfect moment, since I realized on Monday that the anniversary is on Tuesday. Aaaand after a hastily created anniversary post on my Instagram, I realized the correct date was actually Thursday. D’oh! So here I am, typing away the recipe finally on the last hours of Saturday… Things have not gone as planned. Maybe because there was no plan… But, I suppose birthdays are rarely ever celebrated on the exact day! And now I got to celebrate my blog anniversary many times instead of just one 😉

loaded cornbread cornbread recipe

Loaded cornbread

Claire’s cornbread was loaded with jalapenos, bacon and cilantro and it indeed made the best birthday cake I’ve ever eaten although I didn’t follow the recipe to the T. The result was actually so delicious, that I ended up making it also on Thursday, as a vegetarian version. And low and behold, loaded cornbread with browned butter, porcini and vegetarian chorizo turned out to be even more delicious. Though come to think of it, if there’s fungi porcini involved, how could it ever rate lower than something without?

Note! As Claire mentions in her recipe video, her loaded cornbread is NOT a traditional Southern cornbread. Her recipe is based on what they ate in her family as she was growing up. And now that I’ve added my mix of vegetarian sausage and ceps I suppose the result is even farther away from a traditional cornbread… As a Finn who’s traveled to America twice, I have no experience of the different styles of cornbread at all to be honest. I’d love to try each version some day exactly where it’s traditionally made! But as things currently are, my vegetarian cornbread honestly reminds me most of a savory quiche or pie of a kind, I really don’t know how cornbread should be! In any case, both of my own variations (as well as Claire’s original recipe no doubt) are TO DIE FOR. At least if you’re a corn lover like me!

Loaded cornbread two ways

This loaded cornbread is delicious, whether you load it with ceps and vegetarian chorizo, or organic bacon and jalapenos!
Course Side Dish, Snack
Cuisine Fusion
Servings 4 people
Author Juulia
Prep Time 20 mins
Cook Time 30 mins
Total Time 50 mins
Pin Recipe Share on Facebook

Equipment

  • Ø 25 cm cast iron pan

Ingredients
 

  • 100 g butter
  • 300 g corn (OR substitute 100-150g of the corn with boletus edulis or other mushrooms)
  • 100 g vegetarian chorizo OR organic bacon
  • 2-3 scallions
  • 2 jalapenos
  • 6 cloves garlic
  • 1½ dl wheat flour (OR substitute ½ dl with (whole wheat) spelt or emmer flour!)
  • 1½ dl yellow cornmeal (preferably coarse)
  • 1½ tsp baking powder
  • ¼ tsp baking soda
  • 1-1½ tsp salt (OR herbal salt / lovage salt)
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 2 tsp freshly cracked black pepper (OR app. ½ tsp ground white pepper)
  • 2 eggs
  • 300 g creme fraîche
  • 1 bunch cilantro (OR sage when using mushrooms)

Optional:

  • 150 g strong aged cheese, grated (f.ex. extra mature cheddar, mature emmenthal, aged hard goat cheese...)
  • 1 medium boletus edulis
Notes:
If your cast iron pan is a bit smaller/bigger, the cooking time will be a bit more or less.
I baked the batter in a sandwich loaf pan when I made my savory cornbread cake! The filling was soft goat cheese, but now I'm thinking some whipped feta or ricotta would have been amazing, along with some caramelized jammy onions perhaps... uh, oh, I think I need to make another cake very, very, soon.

Instructions

  • Start warming the oven to 220 °C. Melt the butter in the cast iron pan and let it foam up. Stir the butter and keep browning it until it's smelling toasty. Pour the butter in to a heat proof bowl.
  • Return a few spoonfuls of butter back in the pan. Chop up the vegetarian chorizo or bacon into small pieces and brown the pieces in the butter. Lower the heat. Finely slice your garlic cloves and jalapenos (keep a few slices to top the bread with, remove seeds if you want).
  • Remove the corn kernels from the cobbs (you need about 2) or defrost frozen corn. If you are replacing part of the corn with mushrooms, clean them and cube them to about ½ cm pieces. Add everything to the pan and keep cooking until corn (and mushrooms) are done. Scrape everything to a bowl to cool off while you prepare the batter!
  • Mix the flours, baking powder and -soda and spices in a large bowl. Chop up the herb you are using (if using cilantro, add in stems and all!). Mix the eggs, creme fraiche and the herbs in another bowl. Pour the egg mixture to the flour mixture and gently fold until even. If you want to add in cheese, add about ⅘ of it.
  • Spoon a few tbsp of butter back in to the cast iron pan and start heating the pan. Add the remaining butter and all the caramelized milk solids to the batter, as well as the corn mixture. Mix only until homogeneous, and once the butter is sizzling away, pour the batter to the pan. Top the batter off with some cheese (if using), one porcini slices thinly lengthwise (if using) and/or some jalapeno.
  • Bake the cornbread on the middle rack for about 25-30 min, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the bread comes out clean.
  • Allow the bread to cool off a bit before serving! Store the cornbread in the fridge.

savory cornbread cake cornbread cake

Fresh stuffed zucchini flowers

By Leave a Comment

raw zucchini flower recipe

Zucchini flowers

Zucchini flowers have been on my dream cooking list for a loooooong time. Since I don’t have a garden and here in Finland these delicacies aren’t really sold anywhere, it’s taken me this long to get a hold of them! But as you can see from the title and the pictures, my dream has finally been fulfilled. And it was SO worth the wait!

I have a feeling every foodie knows, that zucchini flowers are usually stuffed with something cheesy, battered and fried. And I have to admit, that was my plan with the flowers too! What I hadn’t thought of however was time … or more the lack of it. See, zucchini flowers are one of those ingredients that really needs to be used instantly. And if you happen to bring home 8 zucchini flowers because you wanted to treat yourself and then realize you have an hour before you need be somewhere, deep frying is really NOT an option.

Jump to Recipe

fresh stuffed zucchini flowersFresh stuffed zucchini flowers

a Fleeting Joy

Indeed, when you bring home a bunch of zucchini flowers, you need time to cook them preferably on the same day. And if cooking zucchini flowers has been a longtime dream of yours, it might be nice to have someone around to share the joy with! So what to do when there’s neither time nor companion, and you have 8 zucchini flowers in your hands for the first time in your life?

First things first: take a bunch of pictures. And then whip up something super quick and eat as many as you can! Luckily I had read that zucchini flowers are also lovely served raw. And I had some mozzarella di bufala around… So my plan of stuffed zucchini flowers didn’t really change that much, I just skipped the frying part 🙂 The resulting simple and quick snack turned out to be so delicious! Raw zucchini flowers have a wonderful mildly peppery aroma reminiscent of watercress and they taste like zucchini (duh). The bufala turned out to be a perfect companion: creamy and mild, serving textural contrast without overpowering the delicate taste of the zucchini flowers.

Girls and boys

By the way, there are two kinds of zucchini flowers: male and female. The female flowers continue to develop into zucchini, while the male flowers will just shrivel away unless you eat them. So why not eat them! According to this story by Spruce Eats, you want to pick zucchini flowers that are looking perky and fresh. And before you eat them, have a look inside to see if there are any passangers tagging along… If you absolutely need to store them for a few days, try to make sure they are patted dry. I ended up storing a few of the flowers for three days, individually wrapped in paper towels and kept in a zip lock bag in my fridge. Although there were small signs of wilting on day three, the situation wasn’t nearly as bad as I feared!

zucchini flowers

mozzarella stuffed zucchini flowers

Fresh Stuffed zucchini flowers

I never got around to deep frying and battering any of the flowers. After eating my first ever stuffed zucchini flowers raw, I wanted to eat the rest of them the same way! The combination of the raw zucchini flowers, creamy mozzarella di bufala, extra virgin olive oil, garlic and honey was just so good.

I served the fresh stuffed zucchini flowers on pieces of sourdough ciabatta that I had liberally slathered with confit garlic. A sprinkle of flaky salt, some freshly cracked black pepper, chili flakes and grated lemon zest was all that it took to finish the dish! A dream of a meal, and ready in just a few minutes! I guess time turned out to be on my side after all with this one 🙂

Fresh mozzarella stuffed zucchini flowers

Fresh zucchini flowers stuffed with mozzarella di bufala are a beautiful, easy and quick appetizer or snack for the zucchini season!
Course Appetizer, first course, Side Dish, Snack
Diet Vegetarian
Author Juulia
Prep Time 15 mins
Total Time 15 mins
Pin Recipe Share on Facebook

Ingredients
 

  • 4 zucchini flowers
  • 1-2 balls mozzarella di bufala
  • 2-3 tsp honey
  • 2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • flakey salt, black pepper, chili flakes, lemon zest (to taste)

To serve:

  • 4 slices sourdough bread or ciabatta etc
  • garlic and olive oil (or confit garlic)
Notes:
I used garlic honey since I happened to have it on hand! Same thing with the confit garlic -  I used it since I had it. However, I wouldn't make it on purpose just fort this, so I wrote in the instructions a few options for you. You could of course also try topping the bread with some pesto, hummus, baba ganoush, aioli, toum... what ever you have on hand and are craving for!
Since this is such a simple dish, I highly recommend using the best quality of mozzarella di bufala and extra virgin olive oil you can get. At least for me this is such a rare treat, I can't imagine serving it with anything but the best!

Instructions

Preparations:

  • A quick way to go is to toast slices of bread in olive oil and rub them with a garlic clove cut in half. But, if you happen to have confit garlic around, you can mush it on the bread like I did. Or simply fry some garlic in olive oil until soft and slightly golden, and add that on the bread.
  • When you want to serve the zucchini flowers, gently open the petals and check there's no insects hiding inside. Remove the stamen/stigma if you want, it can be bitter. Divide the mozzarella in four and stuff each flower with cheese.
  • Add the stuffed flowers on the pieces of bread, and drizzle with honey and extra virgin olive oil. Season with flaky salt, freshly cracked black pepper and some chili flakes. Grate some lemon zest on top and serve immediately!

raw zucchini flower

raw stuffed zucchini flowers

Miso marinated corn ribs (vegan)

By Leave a Comment

vegan corn ribs

Corn ribs

Somewhere around mid summer I was scrolling through Instagram and corn ribs popped on my feed. What’s that? I say, and as a huge lover of corn knew instantly, that I’ll be trying this thing out very soon. I love corn in all it’s forms, so why would this be any different? At that point I had no idea that the experiment wouldn’t be so much about the looks, but all about the flavor.

See, cutting corn to strips resembling ribs is far from easy. In fact, it’s dangerous. At least with the equipment and knife skills I have! So instead of loving this particular shape of serving corn I ended up loving my experiment for it’s flavor! Inspired by my recent endeavours with miso fermented garlic, I marinated the corn in miso paste. And before cooking it, I slathered it in vegan aioli! If you are as big of a fan of miso, corn and aioli, you already know this flavor combination turned out to be the real winner of this experiment 🙂

corn ribs

Tik Tok-trend

Corn ribs cooked in an Air Fryer are apparently massively trending in TikTok, but I’m not quite sure where the trend got its start. Countless international food sites have now published corn ribs recipes, so crediting someone for the original idea has proven to be rather difficult. If you know who came up with this idea first please let me know. Unfortunately I also don’t remember who’s corn ribs I initially spotted on IG the inspiration to make these myself… sorry! I usually save inspiring posts in a folder but this time I hadn’t done so. Booo Jella, boo!

In any case, the idea is that you cut corn into strips vertically. When cooked, the strips curl up to ressemble “ribs”. Serving corn like this is not only fun to look at, but maybe also makes less of a mess on your fingers as you eat? For me however, the best thing is that cut like this all you get is the “top side” of a corn on the cobb.

So in theory, I’m all for these trending “corn ribs”! Especially if you want to sprinkle your corn with things! And yes they look like such fun snacks… but in practice, they are anything but fun to make. Cutting corn lengthwise is difficult AF and not to mention dangerous. The whole process took me way longer than I’d care for and countless heart palpitations. And since I didn’t cut my strips thin enough on the core side, my ribs didn’t curl up in the oven at all. What a flop! 😀

miso marinated corn

Miso marinated aioli corn

So, to put it short, my corn ribs recipe today is all about how I seasoned the corn, not so much about the trending shape.  I can’t recommend anyone trying the shape out, unless you’re up for a challenge… But I can definitely recommend marinating corn in miso and seasoning it with aioli before roasting!

Miso pickiling (misozuke) is a Japanese method of making pickles, which I learned about as I was making miso fermented garlic earlier this summer. Since corn and miso are such a delicious combo, I knew I’d be trying the miso pickling method somehow out with corn too! Obviously my miso marinated corn isn’t quite a misozuke, but it’s definitely inspired by the whole concept of misozuke. I mixed the marinade out of white miso and mirin and smeared in on my corn ribs for a few hours. Before cooking I wiped away some of the marinade, and proceeded to coat the corn with vegan aioli.

Mayo roasted corn?

You read that right! I’ve actually been roasting all of my corn slathered with mayo this summer. Mayo is mainly fat, and it stick super well to corn. It also allows for all the different spices to stick to the surface and not fall of while cooking. And mayo assists in developing a wonderful roasty surface in the corn! I chose to sprinkle my corn ribs with some togarashi or this “mango masala” I found from Tesco’s selection. However since miso is salty and I used vegan aioli, these corn ribs don’t necessarily need any added seasonings at all. I mean, at least if miso-aioli corn sounds like a dream to you too!

miso marinated corn

Miso & aioli corn ribs

Thses miso marinated corn ribs are slathered in vegan aioli before roasting or grilling them golden!
Course Appetizer, Side Dish, Snack
Diet Vegan, Vegetarian
Servings 2 people
Author Juulia
Prep Time 2 hrs 30 mins
Cook Time 30 mins
Total Time 3 hrs
Pin Recipe Share on Facebook

Ingredients
 

  • 2 cobbs of corn
  • 2 tbsp white miso paste
  • 1 tbsp mirin
  • 3 tbsp vegan aioli
  • togarashi, black pepper, chili flakes... (to taste, as you wish!)
Notes:
If you're busy to get your miso flavored corn to the table, you can skip the marinating part and simply thinly coat the corn with the mixture prior to slathering the aioli on.
If cutting up corn to "ribs" feels daunting and dangerous to you, don't bother. You can totally use this recipe with whole corn on the cobb too 😉 In that case I'd simply flip the corn a few times in the oven to get all surfaces nice and toasty!

Instructions

  • Cut the corn in four segments vertically. This is likely easier to do if you first cut the corn in half to shorter pieces. I usually use my knife to get it started and the proceed to snap the corn in half with my hands. As you are cutting the corn be very very careful pleeeease! If you want to make your corn ribs more curly than mine (LOL) try to "shave off" some of the hard inner core from each segment.
  • Mix the miso and mirin. Slather the corn with the mixture and leave to marinate refridgerated for a few hours.
  • When it's time to cook the corn, set your oven to heat up to 225 Celcius. Wipe away some of the miso marinade and slather each piece with vegan aioli.
  • Arrange your pieces of corn on a baking sheet with the corn kernels facing upwards. Roast the corn in the upper part of your oven for about 20 minutes or until cooked through and golden. You may want to turn on the grill setting in the end to get perfectly golden surface on your corn. You can of course also grill the corn outdoors!
  • Serve the corn with your dip of choice! I mixed up one part oat fraiche with one part vegan aioli and served my corn ribs with lime wedges, jalapeno and cilantro.

aioli corn

Shiso infused vinegar

By 1 Comment

shiso recipe

Shiso, oh shiso!

If I had to name just one herb out of all the herbs in the world, it would be shiso. Shiso in all its forms is simply divine to me. There’s something irresistible about the aromatic and peppery flavor with its notes of mint, basil and citrus that I just can’t resist! Whenever I see shiso – be it on the menu of a restaurant, cocktail bar or at the grocery store – I simply must have it. No exceptions made!

Since shiso has been difficult to get a hold of in Finland, whenever I get my hands on it I usually just eat it. It’s delicious in so many dishes! But, if I have more than I can eat, I love to make some shiso infused vinegar. Shiso vinegar is easy to prepare and apart from cooking purposes, it also makes a lovely cocktail!

Jump to Recipe

shiso vinegar

shiso infused vinegar

Shiso, perilla, zǐsū, ggaetnip, beefstake plant…

Shiso (Perilla frutescens var. crispa) is a cultivar of Perilla frutescens aka (Korean) perilla. This wonderful herb has become familiar to me mainly during my travels in Asia. I’ve eaten shiso especially in Japan, but also in Laos, China and Thailand! This mint related herb comes in many varities. There’s green, red and bicolor shiso, as well as flat or ruffled… Depending where you’re located, it’s called by many different names too! For instance, shiso is sometimes knows as “beefstake plant” because of the bloody color of the red leaved variety. What a name… Shiso is what it’s called in Japan and I just read that the name derives from chinese: zǐsū (紫蘇)!

Let me get sidetrack here for just a minute: zǐsū reminds me of the Finnish word “sisu“. Sisu is a complex and beloved (or hated, depending who you ask) concept here. To put it simply, sisu means “resilience or tenacity”. Aaaaand that’s exactly what I used to need if I wanted to get my hands on shiso! Here in Finland shiso has been difficult to get a hold of until recent years. Järvikylä (Finnish salad and herb brand) has been growing perilla for a few years, and although that isn’t availble in many of the stores around me, this used to be my only option. At some point I was so desperate for shiso I even thought of growing it myself. Regardless of my lack of green thumbs, and garden… LOL. So imagine my excitement, when I got a hold of large green shiso leaves via my local foodhub last year!

shiso infused vinegar

shiso overdose!!!

Last summer I ordered a huge amount of shiso leaves grown by Ahlberg from Uudenmaan Ruoka. This foodhub connects local farmers with customers and I love all the special things one can find through them. A big bunch of huge green shiso leaves cost just a few euros, so I went a bit nuts and ordered lots. For a few weeks, I put shiso in everything. I added shiso to poke-bowls, to corn fries, to chirashizushi and to onigirazu (links to my posts in Finnish). And finally I realized, I must find a way to preserve some of my shiso treasure.

After some online research, I tested out soy marinated shiso leaves in the style of korean banchan. I also preserved some in salt! The marinated and salted shiso leaves ended up mostly consumed with rice, as they are supposed to 🙂 They were very nice that way, but I don’t think I’ll be making them again (just because I don’t eat rice all that much). Shiso infused vinegar on the other hand turned out to be an instant keeper!

Making shiso infused vinegar is super easy and the resulting mildly salty shiso vinegar was lovingly used up throughout winter. Shiso vinegar is especially lovely as a seasoning for rice (think sushi rice with a subtle shiso aroma…) but I also love it in salad dressings, quick pickles and sprinkled on crispy potatoes among other things. In fact, I put it in all kinds of dishes to substitute white/rice wine vinegar. And guess what? Now that it’s time to make some more, I will definitely make a triple batch.

shiso infused vinegar

shiso vinegar

Shiso infused vinegar

What I’ve gathered so far is that shiso infused vinegar can be made at least two ways. Either rubbing the shiso first with salt (to lower it’s moisture content I presume?), or simply bruising the shiso between your palms before soaking in vinegar. Whatever the method, the measures seem to always bee a bit so-so… But, I’d imagine the general idea is more shiso = more shiso aroma! My main sources include this recipe by With a Glass -blog and this one by The Japanese Kitchen. They aren’t too precise in their measures either, and I think it makes total sense. The taste will differ in any case depending on what type and how much shiso you use, as well as how long will you let it infuse.

I made the salted version last year and really enjoyed it’s slightly salty flavor. Since I’m making a huge batch this year, I did half with salt, half without. The one without is maybe better suited to be used as an Asian style drinking vinegar… but more on that later! I’ll be sharing my cocktail recipe very soon! For now I just want to say, that if you have a lot of shiso on hand, try making shiso infused vinegar! If you love shiso as much as I do, I’m sure you won’t regret it.

Shiso infused vinegar

Shiso vinegar preserves summer's shiso bounty in a jar! Shiso vinegar is lovely used as an all around vinegar, but sweetened with simple syrup it works wonderfully as a drinking vinegar too!
Course preserve
Author Juulia
resting 30 d
Total Time 30 d
Pin Recipe Share on Facebook

Equipment

  • glass jar with glass lid, avoid metal parts
  • coffee filter and a fine mesh strainer

Ingredients
 

  • shiso (as much as you like!)
  • vinegar (you can use rice vinegar, white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar)
  • fine salt (optional!)
Notes:
To make a refreshingly sour shiso shurb, mix 1 part of shiso vinegar with 1 part of simple syrup. Add your liquor of choice (if you want) and top the shiso shrub off with soda! My go to ratio is 2cl vinegar, 2cl syrup, 4cl gin/vodka. I pour these over lots of ice in highball glass and add sparkling water on top. Garnished with a shiso leaf this coctail is a stunner!

Instructions

  • Wash the shiso leaves well. If you're making the salted version, sprinkle the leaves with fine salt (a teaspoons is all you need) and rub them in between your hands. Squeeze out as much liquid as you can. Repeat the process again.
    If you're not using salt, simply bruise the shiso leaves in your palms and drop them in your jar.
  • Put the shiso leaves in a glass jar and top it off with vinegar to cover the shiso. Put the lid on and store in the fridge for up to 30 days, shaking every now and then.
  • Sample the vinegar every now and then and when you're happy with the taste, strain out the shiso. Press the leaves against the strainer to extract all flavor before discarding. I recommend straining the shiso vinegar through a coffee filter before bottling, to get rid of all little particles of the leaves.
  • Bottle the filtered shiso vinegar in glass bottle/jar with a glass lid (metal parts might start rusting). Keep the shiso vinegar in the fridge.

shiso vinegar