Perilla seed ✦

Graine de périlla

What it is

Korea grows perilla for the seed where Japan grows the same species for the leaf: deulkkae is pressed for a green oil or roasted and milled into deulkkae-garu, the powder that thickens namul and gamjatang. The oil oxidises within months rather than years, which is why it is sold in small dark bottles and kept in the fridge, and why sesame oil cannot stand in for it.

In the kitchen

Stir the powder in off the heat, at the very end: held at a boil it goes grainy and the aroma flattens within a minute. A heaped tablespoon thickens and perfumes a single bowl of soup, a far heavier hand than sesame ever asks for.

Goes with

Doenjang Toasted sesame oil Garlic Spinach Napa cabbage Soy sauce Pork

Same species

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

Something wrong here, or missing? Tell us