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!

:)

Mmm... Tasty

To kick off this entry, here's the clip I'm about to tell you about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZuV1LJxtJk
Skip to 1.45 for the important bit by the way. I was watching Disney (forcibly by James) and this scene came up. I cracked up; this Jerry guy is me! It was hilarious. Watch the video to find out what I'm talking about! (PS I don't mean that I saw my grandmother in a bikini one day).

On a slightly different note, I bought some lamb's tongue at the butcher a few days ago because it was the cheapest cut of meat (no surprises there). I had a quick look up at how to cook it and even though I only found beef tongue, it seemed pretty simple: poach for a while, peel the skin, slice thin, panfry if wanted. There was speculation over whether to let it cool or not before peeling, so I did half half.

I popped the tongues (five of them) in a pot with some rosemary, oregano and chilli...

Thai Chilli Coconut Roast

What do you do when you want beachy, summery flavours and a comforting wintery meal? You combine them of course! Last night it was a little colder than usual but I felt like a bit of chilli and coconut so I came up with a bit of a concoction:

Coconut oil
Chilli flakes
Cayenne pepper
Desiccated coconut
Thai seasoning



And mixed my chicken breast into it. If I wasn't being so lazy, I would've made more and mixed the veggies in it, but the coconut oil was in the fridge so I had to scrape it out instead of scooping it out. I need a small jar of it to keep in the cupboard for easier use. If you don't have coconut oil, feel free to use a light oil or some olive oil (my veggies got a dash of EVOO - extra virgin olive oil). It shouldn't make too much of a difference.