Yes, I could make rice and roll homemade sushi. But that’s the only use for nori I’m familiar with. I have a vague sense that I had crispy sesame-flavored snack things made from them once … Did I dream that or is it possible to make something like that at home?
What else can I do with them?
You can probably just snack on them. I use them as a low-calorie snack (mine are actually marketed as snacks – they might be a different thickness or something).
My wife and daughter just eat them plain, or crumbled up on rice with a dash of shoyu.
I love to just snack on them like everyone else. I also crumble them up and put them in seafood ramen.
Yep. Seaweed is a nice snack. Or you can make SPAM[sup]®[/sup] musubi, which is very good. (Note: I cut the SPAM[sup]®[/sup] into eight slices, not ten.)
I’ve seen them chopped up and added to snack mixes with nuts and little pretzels and the like. Some Korean girls showed me their sushi like rolls, just smear a thin layer of topping over the nori and roll it up tightly, not just a single turn like maki, then slice it into thin pinwheels. You can cut it up and add it to miso or other soups just before serving.
You can hold it with tongs over an open flame (very very briefly!) and it’ll crisp up very nicely.
You could also make a wonderful Japanese comfort food snack if you happen to like raw eggs: tamago-kake gohan. Take a bowl of piping hot steamed rice, crack open a raw egg into another bowl and whisk it, then pour it over the rice, add a nice splash of soy sauce, then eat, wrapping each tasty mouthful in nori before popping it down the hatch!
I think what you had before was flavored seaweed, likely from Korea. That is flavored with salt, spices, sesame seeds and likely sesame oil. Wonderful!
If you also have some soba noodles on hand you can cut up the nori as a garnish.
If making sushi rolls is too much hassle, just make onigiri. A little tuna and mayo or pickled plumb stuffed into a rice ball and wrapped in nori.
Or (god have mercy on your soul) do this.
(Actually, I don’t mind Spam musubi so much, but I’m not crazy about it either.)
I like to make those triangular rice balls like they do Japan. Here’s the “cooking with dog” lady making them in various shapes. I do the triangular shape as it’s easiest. Stick some tasty filling inside, like a bit of smoked salmon, and then wrap the rice ball in a half-sheet of nori. They’re good take-along food to a picnic or the beach.
ETA: Hey, spam musubi is yummy. I make them occasionally for breakfast, and serve them with sliced mango or pineapple chunks. It reminds us of being in Hawaii!
^^ that’s what I want to make. Ideas? Recipe links?