hiroko

  (photo from the internet)

Remember I told you about Hiroshi? Well, apparently Hiroshi "married" Umeko and had a “baby” named Hiroko...

Mishima blended the two furikake together and came out with this Hiroko furikake. (I love how all their furikake have “people” names!)

The mustard greens of the Hiroshi, plus the kari kari (crunchy) ume of Umeko.

Apparently this is blended version is only sold at Daiso.

I couldn't find this blended version (photo above), but was lucky to find Umeko, so I just bought them separately….

And mixed a teaspoon of Umeko and a teaspoon of Hiroshi with 300 grams of cooked rice.

So ono!

The ume is still quite crunchy even after it soaks up the moisture from the hot rice.

I'll still be on the lookout for the blended version, but at least I could try this combination.

omoriya ajitsukenori furikake

We've been enjoying this furikake that is made by Omoriya.

It has bits of ajitsukenori (flavored nori), bubuzuke (rice cracker balls), tiny dried shrimp, aosa (green kelp), konbu and sesame seeds.

I like the sweet-salty flavor it has, plus the crunch from the bubuzuke.

We got it from MIL's stash when we were cleaning back in March...hope to find this again in the stores.

big island bee & la tour bakehouse

As I was trying to figure out what to bring back as omiyage, I came across these cute packages of honey.

There are 8 sticks in each package and are sold for about $3 (plus tax, prices vary at different stores) each.

8 = hachi (ha-chee) in Japanese which is also the same pronunciation for bee...I'm not sure they intended to make that connection but I thought it was cute...

another item I picked up for friends is the Furikake Puffs by La Tour Bakehouse, which are sold at all La Tour Cafes.

These are $3.50 (plus tax) and would recommend picking these up at the main location in Iwilei--they have the most inventory, though the parking lot is kind of a pain to get in and out of.

I hope the friends I give these to will enjoy them.

baked furikake sweet potatoes

I bought some sweet potatoes recently and wondered how I should cook them.

My "normal" way would be to steam them, but I wanted to try something different.

Bring in an easy recipe from the Peko Peko Charity Cookbook... (Have you bought your copy yet?! I hope so.)

The recipe comes from Barbara Kiebel, who has a beautiful blog (apparently, the blog is no longer online).

I didn't cut the potato into the "strips" like she instructed, my sweet potato was kind of small and skinny, so I just did relatively thin slices.

Here is her recipe: serves 2-3

2 large sweet potatoes
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 tablespoons nori komi furikake

1. Preheat the oven to 425F (220C)

2. Peel the sweet potatoes and slice into 1/4 inch wide slices then 1/4 inch wide strips. Cut the strips in half if they are longer than 3 inches. Transfer to a large bowl, add the oil and mix to coat evenly. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the furikake seasoning on the potato strips and mix carefully.

3. Lay the potato strips in a single layer on a baking sheet, do not over-crowd or they will steam and not crisp. Bake for 20-25 minutes, turning once to brown both sides.

4. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons of furikake seasoning. Serve warm.

NOTES: Since my oven is small and everything has to fit on the turntable to bake evenly, I used one sweet potato which I didn't peel.

For the furikake, I used one of those small packets and divided it in half, sprinkling half before baking and the rest afterwards. Also, the furikake I used was an okaka gobo (bonito & burdock).

Instead of vegetable oil, I used olive and used 1 tablespoon, I think I could have used 1/2 a tablespoon.

They didn't crisp up too much, but they were tasty, and easy. I'm making this again, maybe with some curry furikake next time.

UPDATE: curry furikake on these potatoes are awesome!

recycle

I've been recycling this Oil of Olay wash cloth box for some time now.

I use it for packets of furikake.

It fits one package of assorted furikake perfectly (which is 20 packets).

furikake

The photo in my book looked so good that I decided to give this recipe a try. This recipe is really easy and doesn't take too many ingredients. Although, if you cannot find aonori, I would sprinkle some parsley.

Making furikake does take some time, but it is worth it because I know what I am putting into it and there are no extra additives or preservatives.

This recipe comes from a book that I have talked about in the past. I adapted the recipe because I didn't have one of the ingredients.

It was great on rice.

Tako, potato and tomato furikake
Adapted from "Furikake 101" by Hideo Makuuchi

200g tako (octopus), boiled
3/4 potato, peeled
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 teaspoons oil
1/2 teaspoon aonori (green laver)

Cut tako into bite sized pieces.
Cut potato into the same size as the tako.
Put tako into a frying pan and on medium heat "cook" the tako until all the water disappears.
Take tako out and put oil and potato into frying pan.
When potato has changed to an opaque color, turn the heat down and add the ketchup and the tako.
Be careful not to burn.
After the potato and tako are well coated, add the aonori and turn off the heat.
Put over hot rice and enjoy!

NOTES: I think this furikake is more of a wet type and would be good in a musubi.

If you missed the previous posts on furikake, you can see them here and here.

furikake

Last year, I posted about making your own furikake. Well, I made this one last year also, but never got around to posting about it.

Here is another easy recipe by Hideo Makuuchi.

Wakame to Almond furikake (kelp and almond furikake) translated from "Furikake 101"
70g fresh wakame (kelp)
10g diced almonds
5g sakura ebi (sergia lucens)
3g katsuo bushi (flaked bonito)
2 teaspoons shoyu (soy sauce)
2 teaspoons mirin (sweet rice wine)
a little salt

Cut wakame up into bite sized pieces.
On low heat, put the wakame in and roast.
When it is halfway dried, add the shrimp, almonds and katsuo bushi and roast some more.
Add the shoyu, mirin and salt and roast until completely dry.

Enjoy!

leftovers

This post is a bit old, as old as the leftovers I used?...Anyway, I had some leftover curry furikake, so I made fried rice. I scrambled an egg, and added some green onions. When the egg was cooked, I added in some rice that had been in the refrigerator.

When the rice was warmed up, I added a dash of tonkatsu sauce (a thick sauce similar to worcestershire, used on tonkatsu (pork cutlet)). Then I added the curry furikake.

The only mistake was that I left this in the pan too long, so everything dried out. It was tasty, but dry.

Another dish I did was with leftover pasta sauce and it is called doria. I'm not too sure of the origin of this dish. Usually when you eat it, there is seafood or chicken in it, rice and lots of white sauce, not tomato sauce.

If you order this when eating out be prepared to wait, it takes some time to bake. When it comes to your table, it is bubbly and usually is so hot that I burn the roof of my mouth and tongue and can't taste anything for the rest of the meal.

The other casserole type dish they have in Japan is called gratin, this is usually made with macaroni, seafood or chicken and lots of white sauce, this also takes a while to bake and I usually burn the roof of my mouth and tongue also....

What are you having for dinner?

furikake

Do you like to put furikake on your rice? I do.

Furikake is a combination of seasoned dried ingredients which you sprinkle onto your rice. I've had this book for awhile and with all the weird label switching on food items and betrayal of trust going on around here by some food companies and restaurants, I've gotten to the point where if I can make it, I'll try to instead of buying it pre-made.

Here are two furikake recipes I tried...

Matsu no mi to okaka furikake (pine nuts and bonito furikake) translated from "Furikake 101" by Hideo Makuuchi

100g pine nuts
1 pinch of katsuo bushi (shaved bonito)
2 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 sheet of yakinori (toasted laver)

1. Toast the laver slightly, then with your hands crumble it. Set aside.
2. In a pot, toast the pine nuts on low heat.
3. Add the pinch of katsuo bushi and toast until the katsuo is dry.
4. When the katsuo dries, add the shoyu and sugar, cook until everything is dried.
5. Add the laver, stir and turn off the heat.
6. Serve over rice.

NOTES: this furikake, turned out to be kind of sticky and didn't dry well. But, the saltiness and sweetness went really nicely with the toasted pine nuts.

Kare-ko to Almond slice furikake (Curry powder and Almond slice furikake) adapted from "Furikake 101"

15g sliced almonds
12g saki ika (cuttlefish)
5g sakura ebi (sergia lucens)
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon kinako (soy bean flour)
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon shoyu (soy sauce)
1/2 tablespoon chopped parsley

1. Cut the cuttlefish to 5mm (about 0.19 inches/ 0.5 cm).
2. In a pan, roast the sakura ebi then grind with a mortar and pestle.
3. Roast the almonds, set aside.
4. In a small pot, add the shoyu, water and honey--heat on low.
5. Add the cuttlefish and sakura ebi.
6. When the cuttlefish and sakura ebi get dry, add the curry and kinako. Mixing well and making sure it doesn't burn.
7. Add the parsley and almonds, mix well and turn off the heat.
8. Serve over rice.

NOTES: this one was drier, I thought it would be a bit fishy-er, but it wasn't. The combination was delicious.

I hope to try more recipes in this book soon, they are quite easy and fast to make!

furikake

In Japan and Hawaii, we sometimes eat our rice with furikake. Traditionally, furikake are seasoned, dried condiments such as goma (sesame seeds), katsuo bushi (dried shaved bonito), nori (dried seaweed), aonori (dried green seaweed). Recently though, there have been flavored furikake such as kimchee (korean pickles), tamago (egg) and ebi-mayo (shrimp with mayonnaise).

Today, I saw this katsuo furikake in the supermarket and it looked so fresh and kind of fluffy! I had to get it.

It was so good on rice.