Total Perilla Domination (of My Deck)

when life gives you shiso...

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Hello Comrades!

I am nurturing in many ways, but house plants hate to see me coming. I can kill anything with leaves, at any time, for no reason. One of my goals for 2025 was to keep my one single plant alive before buying more. Indoors, I now have four that aren’t dead—it’s been a huge year for me.

Outside, I only have perilla. Last year, I planted some red perilla on my deck (also known by its Japanese name, shiso.) I also planted thyme, basil, oregano, rosemary, lemon verbena, and chives.

This year, in a writing-induced fugue state from December to May, I planted nothing. That ended up being fine, because giant healthy bushes of red perilla are exploding from every single one of my pots. (If you’ve ever grown mint, you’ve probably experienced a similar takeover—they’re in the same family.)

One of many planters in the perilla takeover.

I feel like if the perilla is exuberant and plentiful enough to dominate my deck, it’s my duty to honor that enthusiasm by finding ways to use it. The reason I planted perilla in the first place is because I love using it as a lettuce wrapper (ssam) for grilled foods specifically. The flavor is a little sharp and slightly bitter; like radicchio and lime zest mixed together. (Shiso, with its spiky-edged leaves, is different than Korean perilla leaves, but the taste is comparable.) If you slice it into strips, it’s a perfect way to add dimension to any leafy salad. You can also chop it and add to a chicken or tuna salad. These are reasons alone to look for it at any Asian grocery store, where it’s usually sold in bundles or stacks. (I’ve also seen it at the farmers market.)

But if you really have a lot a lot, you should make this shrub. First you boil the leaves to extract their flavor, which mellows considerably when cooked. Then you turn the resulting purple liquid into a simple syrup. By combining the syrup with vinegar, you create a neon-red shrub—sweet, floral, juicy, sour. The recipe calls for cider vinegar, but you can mess around with rice vinegar, champagne vinegar, or even white distilled.

Red Perilla Shrub is lemonade for people with stiff spines. Cranberry spritzers for people who drink the cloudy unsweetened stuff from the food co-op. A drinkable vinaigrette for folks who do equal parts oil and lemon juice.

If you like sour beers, you’ll love this shrub. If you want to make it alcoholic, I’d suggest gin, bourbon, or tequila. Whatever you do, just make it. The color alone is an antidote for all the other plant-killers out there, like me!

xoxCLM

The recipe for Red Perilla Shrub is posted below for paid subscribers. Thank you for supporting my work! This newsletter would not exist without you.