Seaweed Gomasio

Adapted from MountainRose Blog

A sesame seed seasoning blend from Japan, this makes a great addition to rice, salads, sandwiches, wraps, pizza, popcorn, soup, and veggies!

Ingredients

1 cup sesame seeds, raw
1/2 cup dulse/nori/kombu seaweed flakes
1 Tbsp sea salt

Directions

Toast the sesame seeds in a pan over medium heat, tossing or stirring constantly to keep the bottoms from burning.

Once the oil starts to release from the seeds and they start turning golden, remove from the heat. Pour the seeds into a bowl to cool for about 8 to 10 minutes.

If you are unable to find seaweed flakes, just toss some sheets of nori (or other seaweed) into a grinder until about the same size or a bit larger than the sesame seeds.

Once cool, mix the seaweed flakes and sea salt into you sesame seeds.

Pour into a shaker and enjoy!

Optional:

You can also experiment with adding variations! Try using hemp, flax, pumpkin, sunflower, or milk thistle seeds. Or try including garlic granules, peppercorns, oregano, basil, orange zest, or chili flakes for different flavours.

Tofu Musubi

Adapted from my
Spam Musubi recipe


Picture from Bread without Butter blog
 
INGREDIENTS

Half package of firm tofu
1/4 cup tamari / soy sauce (low sodium is best, if you have)
1/4 cup loosely packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cup cooked sushi rice
2 sheets of roasted seaweed, cut in half


DIRECTIONS

In a small saucepan, begin dissolving sugar into tamari/soy sauce. Remove from heat once sugar is completely integrated.

Slice tofu into 1/4 inch thick pieces and press excess water out using paper towels. Heat up a frying pan on the stove top with one tbsp of vegetable oil. Lightly salt pressed tofu and pan fry over medium heat for 5 minutes each side, or until just starting to brown.

Add generous amount of the sauce to the tofu and cook off for another 2-3 minutes, until the sauce begins to reduce. Remove tofu slices from heat and let marinate in the sauce.

Using a bamboo sushi mat, or any non-stick flexible surface, lay down the halved seaweed sheet. Place a 1/4 inch thick layer of sushi rice, covering about 1/3 of the seaweed sheet. Place a tofu slice on top of the rice.

Wrap the seaweed around the rice and tofu, using water or extra sauce to seal the seaweed. Use the mat to gently press musubi into a rectangle.

Easy Sushi at Home

A number of years ago now, a couple of friends of mine went "WWOOFing" (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms – an organization that connects volunteers with farms all over the world in need of assistance, often in exchange for room and board) in Japan. One of the farms they stayed with introduced them to a way of preparing sushi for a large, busy family without someone having to spend hours assembling all the rolls or cones. When they came home, they introduced this technique to our group of friends:

First, get your sushi rice cooking. For how to make the sushi rice, see this recipe.

Sushi ready for assembly: Steam broccolini stems, avocado, baked sweet potato sticks, cucumber sticks, and homemade tamago.

Second, prepare all the ingredients you like to have in sushi rolls. We like veggie rolls of various kinds, so we cut tofu, avocado, and cucumber into sticks and grate a bit of carrot and/or radish. We also lightly steam asparagus or broccolini/broccolette stems and bake yam sticks. You may also want to get more adventurous and add raw or cooked mushrooms, spinach, bell peppers, mango, green onions, baked squash, homemade tamago, tofu (plain or marinated), or, of course, shrimp, crab, and sushi-grade fish. For condiments, in addition to soy sauce or tamari, you may want wasabi, pickled ginger, mayonnaise, cream cheese, toasted sesame seeds or gomasio. Check out the online menus of sushi restaurants for inspiration.

Third, cut your sheets of sushi nori into square quarters.

Finally, when your rice and other ingredients are cooled, lay out all the ingredients on the table. Just like having a taco night, everyone grabs some nori squares, add some rice and their favourite ingredients and condiments, roll it in their hands into a rough cone shape or just hold it like a taco, and eat!

Add in bowls of miso soup to complete the meal.