Red Shiso Three Ways

At my farmers market last weekend I picked up a little bunch of red shiso. The ruffly herb is commonly used in Japanese cooking as garnish and coloring agent. It is served alongside sashimi, rolled up in nori maki, used in sweet confections and in umeboshi. I believe as modernity is coming into this plant, it’s being used more as an herb, which is great because it really tastes wonderful. It is in the mint family, Lamiaceae, and is sometimes called perilla. The flavor is quite unique and is reminiscent of some other plants in it's family. It is a bit spicy and slightly astringent. There are two types of shiso, red and green. The red leaves turn everything they touch pink.

Out of my shiso I made three things, a beverage, a sauce and a sorbet. They were all pink and varied from light to almost red. The dishes all had other flavor components as I meant to use the shiso as a flavoring rather than the main element and they were all enormously tasty.

The beverage was written in my notebook under the heading “beverage”. I’m not a namer of things most definitely. It is a muddled cocktail with a gin base. The sauce is a lime butter sauce that I usually make with whatever herbs I have on hand, this time it was shiso. The sorbet is in my notebook under the heading “red sorbet.” And that’s about as creative as I get with names. *Campari, used in the sorbet, is a delicious Italian bitter.

Beverage
8 red shiso leaves
1 slice lime
1 ½ ounces gin (I used Bombay Sapphire)
½ ounce simple syrup
2 dashes angostura bitters
1 ounce club soda

Muddle the shiso leaves with the lime in a shaker. Add ice, gin, simple syrup and bitters. Shake. Strain into an old fashion glass with ice and pour the soda over. Garnish with a slice of lime and a shiso leaf.

Lime Butter Sauce with Shiso
½ cup dry vermouth
1 shallot, chopped fine
2 garlic cloves, chopped fine
1 lime, juiced and zested
½ cup whole milk
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature and cut up
½ cup loosely packed shiso leaves, roughly chopped or torn

Put the vermouth in a sauce pan and reduce by half over low heat. Add shallot, garlic, lime juice and zest and milk and reduce by half again. It should take about ten minutes to reduce and thicken. Add butter slowly, whisking until smooth. Add shiso and stir over very low heat for about a minute. Strain. Serve with roasted artichokes or fava beans or something that looks good with pink.

Red Sorbet
1 pound strawberries
3 tablespoons water
7 tablespoons Campari
8 tablespoons sugar
½ cup loosely packed shiso leaves, roughly chopped or torn

Place half the strawberries in a saucepan with the water. Try to use the lightest colored strawberries here. Place the lid on the pan and cook over low heat for about two minutes until the strawberries are quite well softened. Pour the cooked strawberries along with their juices into a food processor. Add the raw strawberries and sugar. Process until smooth. Add the Campari and process again to combine. Taste now and adjust sugar if desired. Transfer to a bowl, stir in shiso and cover. Refrigerate for at least an hour. Strain out the leaves and process in an ice cream machine. Or freeze it granita style.