By far the strangest gift we received for Christmas this year was a hydroponic garden from Grandpa T. To be honest, I was both horrified and intrigued. Its like an appliance sized green house that's meant to sit on your countertop. I say horrified because of the look of it, its a cross between ET and a microwave, and its just way too big to go unnoticed in our undersized apartment. But having fresh herbs always just a snip away, in a neighborhood where the produce is consistently wilted and bruised, had me more than a little excited. And the opportunity for Uta to grow something from seed to harvest would be well worth the challenge of rearranging the kitchen to find space for it.
And now we have Shiso. Enormous Shiso! Shiso is like Japanese basil. In Japan it is often used as a wrapper for sushi and manju (a sweet steamed cake). At Yakitori Totto (an organic chicken BBQ place on 55th Street) they use it to make the most delicious salad dressing. But my favorite thing to do with it is to make tea. Steeped gently in hot water, Shiso produces a wonderfully warming tonic, especially good for soothing any digestive trouble. I don't know how to describe the taste, the flavors are slow to develop. Its slightly spicy, grassy and soft. And the fragrance! I could truly subsist on that alone. Itadakimasu.
No comments:
Post a Comment