Seaweed

[BarbaraY]

I ahve purchased this a couple times and find it goes well with simmered dishes. Here are some examples:

takikomi gohan (fist one)

simmered with pork

and of course one of my favorite dishes

matsumaezuke

←

Thank you for responding, however I can't read Japanese so I can only guess.

I can see the matsumaezuke has carrots and the kombu but do I see shiratake in it, too?

Do you rehydrate the kombu before adding to the other ingredients?

[Hiroyuki]

I ahve purchased this a couple times and find it goes well with simmered dishes. Here are some examples:

takikomi gohan (fist one)

simmered with pork

and of course one of my favorite dishes

matsumaezuke

←

Thank you for responding, however I can't read Japanese so I can only guess.

I can see the matsumaezuke has carrots and the kombu but do I see shiratake in it, too?

Do you rehydrate the kombu before adding to the other ingredients?

←

I bought a bag of kizami kombu at the 100-yen shop!

The instructions on the package say to soak in water for 1-2 minutes and rince well.

What may look shirataki (you mean shirataki not shiratake, right?) is actually dried squid (surume).

I'll post a picture here when I make some dish with the kizami kombu.

[BarbaraY]

Yes, shirataki not shiratake. That helps.

[Hiroyuki]

I ended up making the same old nimono (simmered dish), using kizami kombu, carrot, shiitake, uchi mame (beaten soybeans?), and aburaage. Sorry, I can't be creative with stuff like this...

[BarbaraY]

I ended up making the same old nimono (simmered dish), using kizami kombu, carrot, shiitake, uchi mame (beaten soybeans?), and aburaage.  Sorry, I can't be creative with stuff like this...

←

Thanks Hiroyuki, That looks like something close to what I could do. No aburage or uchi mame here but I think I could work around that.

[Hiroyuki]

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.

[torakris]

I just thought I would add a link to the quite long Chuka wakame thread.

[_john]

I went to a new yakionigiri chain the other day called "yakioni". their nori was incredibly fragrant. it reminded me to ask how to achieve really fragrant, crunchy, nori? I have bought many types of average supermarket nori, roasted it myself, for things like onigiri or makizushi but it has never come close to matching the fragrant, crunchy, nori of high quality sushi restaurants or these particular yakionigiri. what is it exactly? roasting technique? expensive nori?

[helenjp]

Pretty hard to figure out what somebody else ate, but could it be Japan's answer to Korean nori? Brush the nori lightly with sesame oil, sprinkle with a little dry-fried coarse sea salt (yaki-shio) and toast lightly.

Apart from that, expensive nori is probably part of the answer - there is a lot of variation. I discovered that from the bottom up, by buying nori at discount groceries - it looks like and tastes like old, discolored, lace curtains.

And then there was the black nori (the unpressed dried "clusters" of nori) that released red (dye???) into the water when I tried to make nori-chazuke out of it.

[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 !