Yukari

Yukari

What it is

Yukari is what becomes of the red shiso once it has done its work: the leaves that coloured and preserved a batch of umeboshi are pressed, dried and milled. A Hiroshima company put it on the market as a rice seasoning in 1970 and registered the name, which is why every other maker has to call theirs something else.

In the kitchen

It is as much salt as herb — treat it as seasoning and leave the salt out of whatever you dust with it. Add it at the very end, off the heat; in a hot pan the purple browns and the perfume is gone within seconds.

Goes with

Rice Cucumber Potato Butter Gilt-head bream Olive oil

Same species

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

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