Palate Cleanser: Shiso Sushi and Giveaway Reminder

Japanese  use the word shiso to refer to perilla. The green variety with ruffled edges (aojiso) is used in sashimi and salads and the purple kind (akashiso) is used to dye pickle plum (umeboshi). It belongs to the mint family and tastes of mint and fennel combined.  
I found some perilla/ beefsteak plant leaves with a purple underside and a deep green topside in the Asian store.   I love wrapping sushi rice in it ---so pretty but it is also fantastic over steamed rice when finely shredded and mixed with salt.  
My son loves shiso tempura ---it doesn't look stunning but the flavor is incomparable.  They dry out quicky so I grow it in my container garden. It is a great palate cleanser.  

Palate Cleanser: Shiso Sushi

fresh Japanese/ Korean shiso leaves

seasoned rice vinegar or sushi vinegar*

steamed rice
Season rice with sushi vinegar. You only need about 1 T sushi vinegar for  1-1/2 cup of steamed rice. Wrap in shiso leaves. Cover with plastic wrap since the leaves easily dry out.



*You can buy sushi vinegar but it's easy to make your own.  In the Just Bento Cookbook, Makiko recommends mixing 4 c rice vinegar with 7 oz sugar and 6 T sea salt to make 6 cups of sushi vinegar. This is will last a long time and can be used in salads, dips etc.  

Giveaway reminder:

Most of the recipes I used for the Hanami bento are from The Just Bento Cookbook so I am also doing a giveaway of this must have Japanese cookbook by Makiko Itoh. The sushi vinegar is from the same book. Please comment to enter the giveaway.  To have get 4 additional entries, please blog about the giveaway and let me know in the comments.  Random.org will be used to choose a winner and this will be announced on April 22, 2011.