Perilla oil ✦

Huile de périlla

What it is

Pressed from the toasted seed of the plant whose leaves are kkaennip, perilla oil runs about sixty percent alpha-linolenic acid, more than any other common kitchen oil. That is also its weakness: it oxidises within months, which is why a Korean kitchen keeps deulgireum in the fridge and sesame oil in the cupboard.

In the kitchen

Use it raw. Brush it over laver sheets before toasting them, or fold it into blanched greens off the heat; if the bottle smells of fish or wet paint, it has turned and nothing rescues it.

Goes with

Kkaennip (Korean perilla leaf) Nori Spinach Soy sauce Garlic Rice Gochugaru

Same species

Perilla seed powder Hojiso (shiso flower spikes) Kkaennip (Korean perilla leaf) Kkaennip-jangajji Perilla seed Red shiso

Also used with

Gondre Maneul-jangajji

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