ふりかけ

Japanese for FURIKAKE!

Michelle at Nom Nom Paleo is one of my top three paleo bloggers I love (even though she doesn't know it). She's always got these amazing Asian dishes paleo-fied and has such great ideas for recipes. And her little kiddies are gorgeous too! Not to mention her extraordinary photography that makes everything look scrumptious... I think the photography definitely adds to the awesome dishes she makes.

As I said, she makes Asian food a lot (I would guess it's because of her background), and one of the way she adds flavour to her dishes is with furikake. She seems to like it a lot. But she didn't actually make it...

Mum has thyroid problems that makes her go even more haywire than she already is, and for this, she needs a little more iodine than she actually consumes. Trying to get her to eat seaweed not holding rice and fish together would be a challenge.

However, when I mentioned that I was making this, she said that she absolutely loves this stuff. She worked with Japanese for thirteen years and grew to love the umami sprinkle put on rice. I have a feeling rice consumption in this household will rise with this new addition.

So what is furikake? In it's simplest form, it's toasted sesame seeds and seaweed, but it can have other stuff like bonito flakes, salt, dried mushrooms and even stuff like dried egg in those weird packetpreservativedeadly gunk versions. I didn't know which one to try, but seeing as I researched the history of furikake AFTER actually making it, my imagination did the work for me.

I've made three versions:
- furikake salt (more like a flavoured salt)
- plain furikake (furikake + a little salt)
- furikake plus (scroll down!)

I can't wait to try it on tonight's dinner: curry prawns and mango! It's gonna be soo good :)

Basic Furikake

Makes 200g maybe? Maybe more, I really don't know.

1 cup raw sesame seeds

70g dried seaweed (I used wakame, feel free to use nori if you're scared of other seaweed)

1 tbsp sea salt

Heat a frypan (not as small as mine) on medium heat, add the sesame seeds and toss quickly to prevent burning. Take them off the heat once they are slightly golden.

Crush the seaweed into teeny tiny bits. This may take a while.

(photos)

Mix the sesame seeds, seaweed and salt in a bowl. I found it easiest to use my hands.

Furikake Salt

1 batch basic furikake

1/2 cup salt

Combine the furikake and the salt until mixed.

Furikake Plus

1 batch basic furikake

2 - 3 tbsp chilli flakes

1 - 2 tbsp spirulina powder

Combine the ingredients. The spirulina will fall to the bottom, so make sure you shake the container every time you use it.

I suppose you could make the furikake a bit more refined and make the spirulina mix in a bit if you put it all through a coffee grinder or put it through one of those grind-top salt 'shaker' things.

However you use this stuff, and whatever mixture you make, you'll have a fantastically umami treat for your thyroid!

:)

Surfing and Strength

Argh! This every-second-day thing is NOT working. I may have to make blogging a daily thing just so that I actually keep it going.

So the other day I went for a surfing lesson because I've really really wanted to go surfing for SUCH a long time. I got the lesson as a voucher for Christmas so we picked a nice beachy day and I went out for a surf.

And OMG it was soo much fun!! I slipped into a wetsuit and jumped into the nice surf with a massive group of other pre-surfers with my specially-chosen board (I had about three after they kept swapping them). The instructors stayed around for a while and were super helpful, and they all had their different teaching techniques so that made it that much easier to learn.

And how can I not say that standing up on the board is the best part of all?! One minute, you're in the water, standing on the sand, then you're doing a rigid push up on your board, and before you know it you're on your feet guiding the board down to shore while trying to keep your balance. It's so invigorating and just fun standing up on that board!

Baba Ghanoush

I can't say I'm impressed. However, I also can't say that I've had baba ghanoush before, so I have nothing to compare this to. I'm still not impressed.

I really wish I put in the effort to use the barbecue to cook the eggplant.
I wish I roasted the garlic.
I wish I had some spices, or at least the knowledge of which spices, to add to this dish.
I wish I added some salt.
I wish I had some salty pita bread in the house.
I wish baba ghanoush could be made with the eggplant still piping hot from the oven/barbecue to keep all the delicious smell in.

So obviously my baba ghanoush lacked a bit of flavour. But I can always add a bit of flavour later, right? Next time I have it (I'm thinking with eggs in the morning), I'll add a ton of flavour to it - I'm thinking salt, olive oil, cayenne - but if I make it again, I'll definitely smokey up the eggplant. Some smoke would make a difference I reckon!