Korean Perilla Japanese Perilla Potato Pothato? 한국의 깻잎과 일본의 시소

Aloha,

Today, I would like to talk about something that only Korean knows.

The thing that is so common in Korea but hardly ever found outside of Korea.

It's about a type of Korean herb, perilla. In Korean, 깻잎(katnip)

Japanese Perilla, Shiso

If you enjoy eating Asian food, especially Japanese food, you might have had this green leaf(it could be purple) that has very strong aroma almost like bitter citrus. They use it as a garnish on seafood or for a better presentation. The  purple one can also used when they make purple pickle. It's called shiso, in English, it's perilla(Perilla frutescens).

Korean Perilla, Katnip

However, the Korean perilla is nothing like Japanese shiso. The shape looks similar but the texture, aroma, even the taste is completely different. We not only use it for garnish or decoration purpose, we eat it with almost everything. When I eat sam gyup sal (pork belly) I wrap every bite of pork belly with it and add some ssam jang(spicy bean paste)! Heaven!

Katnip Pork belly wrap

Korean traditional cuisine do not generally use strong aromatic herbs such as cilantro or shiso (Japanese perilla) but we've been eating katnip(Korean perilla) for ages. I love it so much even from my childhood that I couldn't understand why katnip is almost impossible to find outside of Korea. It was quite rare in both Honolulu and London as well that I have been growing them on my own. When you like something so much, you wonder why other people do not care about it.

I had to put me in their shoes. Not only it's aroma is unique and strong, but also the texture is...well...very very tough. It's softer than kale but has short, very short fur on the leaves that it feels like a soft(yes, I am being positive) sand paper. After I became conscious of the unusual texture of my beloved herb, I could easily sense why people might hesitated to eat it. Since Japanese perilla is softer on the texture, it could be more approachable.

Korean secretly carry Katnip Kimchi while they travel

Then you might ask me why do I, does Korean go crazy about katnip? As I have mentioned earlier, this tough sand paper like leaves go great with any greasy food. Grilled pork belly, grilled eel taste wonderful with katnip wrap. It also tastes great with fishy seafood such as squid, octopus...etc. We even make katnip kimchi, deep fried katnip, kanip jun, katnip pickle, katnip wrapped rice...

So now what? If you like Korean food, or if you are an adventurous foodie, visit local Korean BBQ place and ask if they have katnip :) And tell me how did you enjoy it. But don't forget our foodie ground rule,

"Do not judge things after try them only once!"

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Mahalo!

Coco Ichibanya Curry Recipe 코코 이찌방야 카레

Aloha!

I just started Instagram and that means a shy come back to my blog.

Please search Krecipe or Alohagirl in London on Instagram.

A lot of things happened to me last year including international moving.

Although I don't live in Hawaii anymore, it is always proper to say Aloha to my value readers<3

There will be some changes on my blog.

As I already have a huge Korean blog, it has been quite difficult to maintain this blog although I would love to connect with some global readers.

So I decided to cut down some photos but will try to describe better with the text.

In addition to that, I will not hesitate to post non-Korean recipes if I think it's well worth to try for you.

Are you ready for a brand new, more exciting Krecipe?

Let's start with a well known Japanese curry chain, Coco Ichibanya recipe.

Did you happen to try Coco Ichibanya curry?

When I first tried CoCo ich, I felt it's strange that the curry was only used like gravy on top of all different sort of deep fried stuff.

However, it didn't take long time for me to fell in love with it.

Not like Hawaii, you can barely find any of these great Japanese food in London.(besides ramen)

Which led me to make on my own.

This recipe is depending on my taste bud memory so some of you might disagree.

But I am confident that a lot of you will love this simple, versatile recipe.

<Ingredient 4-6 people>

oil 1Tbsp (vegetable or butter)

minced garlic 1/2 Tbsp

onion 1/2

carrot 1/2

water 600ml

100 gram of S&B Golden curry blocks (Hot)

HP sauce or A1 original sauce 1Tbsp

organic raw sugar 1Tbsp

salad onion for topping

Your choice of topping which can be,

deep fried pork cutlet,

sausages,

hamburgers,

grilled vegetables,

shabu shabu meat ...

And of course, our beloved rice.

I used white and sweet brown rice mix.

<Directions> 

1. Add oil in the pot on medium low heat, add minced garlic, carrot, onion and cook until onion shows light brown color.

2. Add 600ml water, lid on, cook for 15min.

3. Turn off the heat, use hand blender or mixer to blend "2"

4. Bring "3" back to  low heat, add 100g of curry block. Stir well until the block completely melt in the soup.

5. Add HP sauce and sugar, stir well.

6. Add rice and desired topping on the plate, pour curry sauce and sprinkle salad onion on top.

Enjoy!!!