Just Bento

I’m cheating a bit here since this recipe has been featured already on Just Hungry. But it did get rather buried in a general article about seaweed, so here it is again in the Homemade Furikake series.

This combines hijiki, which is full of fiber and minerals, with chirimenjako, tiny little whole salted fish. You can find both at Japanese grocery stores, and Chinese grocery stores carry something similar. Since they are whole fish, they are full of calcium, and also pack a lot of umami. Many Japanese people are lactose intolerant, so they get their calcium by eating things like chirimenjako.

• 4 Tbs. dry me hijiki or a small handful of regular stem hijiki, soaked until soft and rinsed
• 3 Tbs. chirimenjako
• 2 sheets of nori , well shredded
• a large handful of katsuobushi (bonito flakes)
• 3 Tbs. soy sauce
• 1 Tbs. sesame seeds
• Red pepper flakes, shichimi or nanami tohgarashi
• Optional: 1 Tbs. very finely chopped orange or yuzu zest

Chop up the hijiki finely if you are using the regular long stem kind. You don’t have to do this if you are using me-hijiki.

Put the moist seaweed and the chirimenjako in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Stir around until it’s dried out quite a bit and is getting a bit crispy but not burnt.

Add the soy sauce, the bonito flakes, and the shredded nori, and continue stirring until it’s almost dry. Add the sesame seeds, citrus zest and red pepper, and stir until the sesame seeds start to pop. Take off the heat and cool completely.

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator, and try to use it up within a week.