Seaweed

[Hiroyuki]

John, you remind me of something I have forgotten for decades: Roasting nori! We used to do that when I was small, but not any longer. Pre-roasted nori is so prevalent these days.

I know how to roast nori, but I can't say I'm particularly good at it. High-quality nori is a must, of course. Black and thick. Green and thin ones are no good.

Place a clean fish grill free from odor, which you can get at a 100-yen shop, on the burner.

Set the heat low.

Start roasting a sheet of nori, first at a distance, say 20 to 30 cm above the grill, holding two diagonal corners of the sheet with your both hands, constantly flipping it upside down. When it's dried enough, bring it near the grill, holding one corner of the sheet with one hand, again constantly flipping it upside down. Keep roasting until the black nori turns nice and green entirely.

Some people roast two sheets of nori at a time. Maybe you should ask someone around you, they will be willing to tell you how.

[Dan Nguyen]

Did you watch the May 10 edition of Tameshite Gatten on NHK, which featured hijiki? I didn't, but here is the webpage on that edition:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/gatten/archive/2006q2/20060510.html

(Japanese only, of course)

An interesting topic is a new way to cook hijiki. The webpage says that hijiki is simmered for four hours on the site of production, so it doesn't require much cooking in the home kitchen. The new way is to simmer it for only three minutes. The details are as follows:

1. Reconstitute hijiki by soaking it in water for 30 minutes. (In the meantime, make dashi.)

2. Wring hijiki lightly, spread it on a plate, and heat it in a microwave (for 1 minute and 30 seconds for 10-g dried hijiki) with no plastic wrap on.

3. Fry other ingredients in oil, such as carrots and aburaage.

4. When they are cooked, add hijiki and dashi.

5. Simmer for 3 minutes. The dashi is now absorbed in hijiki and other ingredients.

I will try this way and report back.

So far, I have usually simmered hijiki for about ten minutes.

Thankyou Hiroyuki for this information, I am new and love Japanese salad !