In Japanese kitchens there are pickles that take months — and then there is this one, which asks for a single night. Shiso leaves, layered in soy sauce and sesame oil, come out the next morning glossy and fragrant, somewhere between a pickle and a condiment but more vivid than either. You lay one over warm rice, fold it around a bite, and breakfast is suddenly interesting.
Makes 20–30 leaves · 10 minutes + 1 hour to overnight in the fridge
Ingredients
- 20–30 shiso leaves (also sold as perilla at Asian grocers — or grow a pot on the windowsill; it's an easy, generous plant)
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 1 Tbsp toasted white sesame seeds
- Optional: a little grated ginger or garlic
How to make it
- Trim the tough ends of the stems and rinse the leaves briefly.
- Pat each leaf completely dry with paper towels — this is the step that keeps the marinade clean.
- In a container, stir together the soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds, and the ginger or garlic if using.
- Coat the leaves one at a time in the marinade, stacking them as you go.
- Press plastic wrap directly onto the surface and refrigerate for 1 hour, or better, overnight.
Tip
Serve a leaf at a time over warm rice. When the stack runs low, chop the last leaves fine, stir them into rice with a spoonful of the marinade, and shape it into onigiri — they freeze beautifully. Make a few extra on Sunday, and a weekday breakfast is just a microwave and one green leaf away.
If you have fresh shiso left over before it gets marinated, it keeps much longer with a damp paper towel tucked above and below the leaves in the storage container.
Part of The Sunday Batch — small things made ahead, for easier weekday mornings.
