What is furikake, how is the seasoning made? Composition, calorie content, benefits and harms to the body. Dish recipes.
Furikake is a dry Japanese seasoning, the main ingredients of which are finely chopped seaweed, fish powder, sesame seeds, salt, sugar. Monosodium glutamate is often added to improve taste. Additional ingredients: powdered milk, eggs, vegetables, spices, perilla, katsuobushi and others. Structure - powdery, crumbly; consistency - dry; taste - with a touch of fish, salty, depends on the type and amount of additions. Different versions of the seasoning can have different colors - pinkish, yellowish, greenish.
How is Japanese furikake seasoning made?
The seasoning technology includes several stages: collection and preparation of each ingredient, sorting, grinding, packaging, labeling. Vegetables are washed and treated with an aqueous solution of salts - jasmonic or arachidonic, then a complex of eicosapentaenoic acid and alkali. The algae and spices are washed and dehydrated. The fish is frozen and smoked before dehydration. All ingredients are supplied to the mixing plant in a given recipe after grinding. Then joint pasteurization is carried out. Additional rubbing may be required. During production, biologically active compounds and vitamin activity are necessarily retained.
You can endlessly experiment with the composition of furikake when making seasonings at home. For example, traditional Japanese ingredients can be replaced with more familiar European ones. If you plan to store it for a long time, do not add fresh vegetables or herbs.
Furikake Dry Japanese Seasoning Recipes:
- With nori and bonito … 3 sheets of dry seaweed are treated with a cooking burner or heated over an open fire for 30 seconds on each side. Cut with scissors into small pieces, allow to cool completely. Put in a blender bowl: nori, 20 g sesame seeds, 30 g fish flakes, 1 tsp each. sugar and sea salt. Grind to a powder consistency. Another 15 g of sesame seeds are poured in.
- With wakame and fish crackers … The seaweed is baked for a few seconds in a dry hot frying pan, stirring constantly. White and dark sesame seeds (35 g each) are fried according to the same principle. After the algae, the pan is wiped. All the algae and half of the sesame seeds are poured into the bowl of a blender or food processor, add 1 tsp. sugar, sea salt, 35 g of fish crackers, 20 g of bonito and the same amount of dry fish broth. Can be replaced with cubes "Galina Blanca" with fish. The remaining sesame seeds are added.
Most Popular Furikake Ingredient Combinations in Japan
- Nori, mackerel flakes, sesame seeds, egg powder;
- Wakame, flax seeds, dried onions, sesame seeds;
- Nori, dried anchovies and shrimps, various types of onions, sesame seeds.
It is customary to serve the rolls with seasoning with shiso, salted pollock or cod roe. The most spicy option is with dried wasabi. Furikake is specially made for European side dishes and meat dishes with dried garlic and different types of peppers. You can choose less spicy options - with basil and dehydrated vegetables (tomatoes, cabbage, spinach, pumpkin, sweet potato).
Note! The analogue of furikake in Japanese dishes is a mixture of togarashi spices. Main ingredients: Citrus peel, sesame seed, chili and nori seaweed. In home cooking, the original product can be replaced with a mixture of bonito with red pepper and salmon caviar.
Composition and calorie content of furikake
In the photo, Japanese furikake seasoning
When compiling the daily menu, the energy value of the seasoning is usually not taken into account. For one meal, no more than 1-2 tsp is eaten.product, and this is 6-12 g.
The calorie content of furikake is 440 kcal per 100 g, of which
- Proteins - up to 26.4 g;
- Fats - up to 22.8 g;
- Carbohydrates - up to 34 g.
The permissible moisture content of furikake is up to 2%.
The calorie content of a portion of furikake is 2, 5 g - 11 kcal, of which
- Proteins - 0, 48 g;
- Fat - 0.58 g;
- Carbohydrates - 0, 83 g.
In such a portion, up to 17 mg of calcium and up to 150 mg of sodium.
The vitamin and mineral content of a seasoning depends on the combination of ingredients. The predominant vitamins are retinol and ascorbic acid. The mineral composition of furikake contains calcium, sodium, phosphorus, iron and iodine.
The seasoning is made only from natural ingredients, except for monosodium glutamate - a traditional flavor enhancer; no additives or preservatives are added.
Useful properties of furikake
The Japanese furikake seasoning began to be made in order to compensate for the deficiency of calcium and phosphorus in the body. During World War I, there was a food crisis in the country, and for 65% of the population, white rice was the only food available. Furikake seasoning helped to cope with children's rickets. Thanks to her, the incidence of arthrosis, osteochondrosis, and osteoporosis has decreased.
Benefits of furikake for the body
- Normalizes the thyroid gland, prevents goiter.
- Increases hemoglobin levels, restores losses after heavy bleeding.
- Prevents the formation of cholesterol plaques in the lumen of blood vessels, increases the tone of the walls.
- Facilitates the absorption of animal protein from related foods.
- Tones up, accelerates nerve-impulse conduction, has a positive effect on the function of the visual system.
- Improves appetite, stimulates the secretion of digestive enzymes.
- Prevents the appearance of stagnant processes, helps to get rid of bad breath.
It is recommended to introduce furikake seasoning in the diet of people whose professional activities are associated with quick response.
During pregnancy, Japanese women add the product to almost all dishes. According to studies, babies whose mothers supplemented their daily menu with this seasoning, the likelihood of developing rickets is reduced by 3 times.
Interesting facts about furikake seasoning
The product can be called young - it is no more than 100 years old. The first furikake recipes were developed in 1906-1920. It is believed that the manufacturer was Suekichi Yoshimura, who worked as a pharmacist in Kumamoto Prefecture.
Originally, the seasoning was made from fish bones, dried seaweed, sesame and poppy seeds. This option could be considered a mineral supplement with a sedative effect - with its help, the reserves of calcium and iodine were replenished, helped to get rid of insomnia and cope with nervous disorders.
Later, a food company began to make the mixture. The condiment was sold to consumers in an airtight, narrow-necked container. Such packaging protected from excessive moisture. The product was not cheap, and therefore was inaccessible to those strata of the population to whom, in fact, it was intended. After all, the rich already had the opportunity to eat in a variety of ways.
Later, a food seller, Kai Seiichiro, developed other furikake recipes with cheaper ingredients - kombu and powdered fish broth. Kore Wa Umai was quickly put on stream and made available to the middle class. In 1948, the industrial scale of furikake production increased: it was necessary to deal with the post-war food shortages, which caused exhaustion. The country needed healthy children. By the way, the product has become one of the basic components of the military menus.
Since 1959, the Furikake company took over the manufacture of the seasoning, and now all variants of the mixture began to be called by the name of the company. Several main flavors of the seasoning began to be produced: sesame-salted, with tuna, with vegetables, with salmon, with basil and so on.
Today, the main producer of furikake is the food company Nagatanien Co, which since 1952 has been a leader in the production of spices for Japanese national cuisine and instant products. Her slogans constantly mention the words "healthy" and "Japanese".
In second place in the production of furikake Hagoromo Foods Co is the Japanese cooperation, which is the leader in the procurement and production of tuna. But its products are rightfully considered to be of better quality, which means they are more expensive.
Since 2003, the seasoning has gained truly worldwide popularity. It is definitely served in Hawaii with baked or fried fish, in the USA with Japanese dishes from raw fish, with light snacks in Spain and Italy.
Now furikake is also produced by the South Korean holding CJ Corporation, which specializes in pharmaceutical products. And the seasoning that is produced in this country displaces the Japanese from the markets. You can buy it at affordable prices. In Russia, spicy dry seasoning furikake for rice (20 g) is offered at a price of 190-300 rubles, in Ukraine - at 110 hryvnia for the same amount. Preference should be given to packages, the label of which is translated into Russian.
Watch a video about Japanese furikake seasoning:
