Leaves of the Perilla plant, what the some ill-define as “Japanese mint,” is a taste universe all its own. Shiso in Japanese these versatile Perilla leaves, aka the Beefsteak plant, with a flavor so much more distinct than mere mint, tend to do godly things when combined with fish.

Take some sashimi quality raw whitefish like fugu (blowfish), hamachi (young yellowtail), hirame (halibut), tai (sea bream/snapper), mabiki, and/or ika (squid) and, chopping into smallish wabisabi chunks, and place into an earthenware bowl.

Roast serrano, jalapeno, anaheim, poblano or habanero peppers with skin on until steamed through. Remove from oven/broiler/grill and place in another earthenware bowl covered with a wet towel until skin is basically falling off. Remove the skin, seeds & stem and chop small, maknig sure not to do like I inevitably do and touch your eyes, which will make you, like me, cry like a little girl.

Now mince a good-sized red onion, hand tear some Cilantro, chop a ripe tomato and using the juice of 2 big limes, add in the roasted peppers and the fish bits along with a good measure of seasalt and milled pepper.

Take 20-30 fresh shiso leaves and rough chop up with salt & pepper, adding in just a bit of oil (grape seed’s good, light) to aerate the mixture. More or less S&P/oil depends upon your taste.

Remove Ceviche from the fridge. The fish should by now be partially denatured from the citric acid in the limes. Add a fat dollop of shiso mixture to the bowl and stir well.

Enjoy on anything from toasted pieces of the lazy bread you made last week, to sesame-soba crackers itching for a good topping to dumbass white bread if you”ve got nothing else but your hand for pleasing yourself (though I personally would just use my hand). Or toss it up a bit, altering your style according to what South American country with which you identify most. Which could mean using corn, peas, carrots, popcorn, nuts, shrimp or any other variety of seafood.

It is also said that the leftover juice (Leche del Tigre) is good for hangovers or mixers for drinks, so let’s practice that ecological conservatism so popular these days, yeah? Good.

*Warning: Like with the cutting of Cilantro with a knife as opposed to tearing it by hand, use as little metal, or plastic (as can be helped) during the making of this Ceviche as the natural fish and especially the shiso flavors can be quite tempermental when coming in prolonged contact with these substances. Although subtle, significant chemical alterations do occur, making for a less than thrilling culinary orgasm. Wood (especially bamboo) and ceramics are the best.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 10th, 2008 at 12:31. It is filed under Fish and tagged with Ceviche, Chiles, Fish, Jalapeños, Lime, Perilla, Picante, Shiso. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.