Homemade furikake recipe, seasoned with homemade miso and gochujang powder, garlic bits and traditional ingredients such as smokey bonito flakes, toasted sesame seeds and nori seaweed.
One of the best things about furikake is how much flavour it can add to food. It is such a versatile seasoning with so much substance (and texture!) that can be sprinkled on rice, eggs, pasta, popcorn, snacks, soups - the sky is the limit as long as you're willing to be creative.
This furikake recipe is is quite easy, but it's definitely not a quick process. The miso/gochujang powder takes about 2.5 hours to dry out in the oven before you can use it. It makes about 2 cups but you can easily double it if you think you will be going through it quickly.
Since the drying process for the miso/gochujang powder takes quite a bit of time, I made this recipe to create double miso/gochujang powder than the recipe calls for so you can have extras to season your meats, create a second batch of furikake or sprinkle it as a seasoning on other foods. (Your oven is already on, you might as well right?)
INGREDIENTS
For this furikake recipe, you will find most items at an Asian grocery store, specialty store or online.
PUTTING IT TOGETHER
Drying the Miso/Gochujang Paste Into Powder
To make the miso/gochujang paste, simple just mix the 2 pastes together in a bowl. It is very important that you spread the paste very thinly on parchment paper before drying it. It will reduce the drying time significantly. I spread mine 1 mm thick.
Using parchment paper to line the pan will help make it easier to remove the dried miso/gochujang paste once it has been dried.
Once you have the dried miso/gochujang paste broken up, blitz it into a fine powder in a food processor or blender. This recipe will make extra powder - use it to flavour anything that you would normally use salt on for an added umami flavour boost! 🙂
Crisping Up the Flavour Bits!
Crisping up the rest of the ingredients was the easiest part. Just make sure you toast the garlic and sesame seeds during the second half of the toasting so they don't burn. The goal for this is to make everything 'candied' by drying out the soy sauce and mirin right onto the bonito flakes and then toasting everything into to give it a bit more of a nutty flavour.
Once everything is candied and cooled, you should be able to easily crumble it with your fingers into even smaller pieces. If the ingredients still feel a bit wet to you after it has cool, add it back onto the heat and dry it up for a few more minutes by toasting it.
Shredding up the Seaweed
I found it very tedious and finger numbing to shred the seaweed with just scissors - so to make it easier, I hand shredded the seaweed into small manageable sizes first. Then I stacked the small pieces into 4 layers and then used the scissors to cut them into tiny pieces. This also gave my seaweed a bit more of a uneven whimsical shape as well! 🙂
Storing Your Furikake
Store your furikake in a airtight container. Any moisture in the air will make it clump together - but if it does clump together, it's also not a big deal you can easily jab it with a fork or spoon a few times or vigorously shake the container and it will break apart into tiny bits again! 🙂
Try Combo-ing this Homemade furikake recipe with some Kewpie mayo for some crazy good flavours!
Homemade Furikake Recipe
INGREDIENTS
Miso/Gochujang Powder Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons miso paste
- 1 ½ tablespoon gochujang
Furikake Ingredients
- 1 cup bonito flakes
- ½ tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 teaspoon mirin
- ¼ cup sesame seeds
- 2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
- 1 sheet nori seaweed
- 3 tablespoon of miso/gochujang powder that was previously made
INSTRUCTIONS
Making the Miso/Gochujang Powder
- In a small bowl, combine the miso paste and gochujang paste together. Put a piece of parchment paper into a cookie sheet and spread the paste thinly (1mm thick) onto the parchment paper.
- Set the oven to 150F (66C) or as low as your oven can go and bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes.
- While you are waiting for the paste to dry in the oven, you can start the "Toasting the Ingredients" steps.
- Once 1 hour and 30 minutes has passed, check to see if the paste feels 'bendy' or 'gummy'. When you bend the parchment paper, the paste should crack slightly. If it still feels moist, continue to bake it for another 30 minutes until it is dry.
- Once the paste has dried, rip it off the parchment paper and break it up into smaller pieces and blitz it in a food processor or blender until it becomes a powder.
- Set the powder aside for later.
Toasting the Ingredients
- Finely chop 2 cloves of garlic and set aside for later.
- In a frying pan, set the stove to low heat and add in the bonito flakes, soy sauce and mirin and start toasting it for approximatly 5-7 minutes. (Don't worry, it's supposed to clump together at first)
- Add the sesame seeds, and finely chopped garlic and mix it together and toast it for another 4-6 minutes until they are 'candied'. It should be golden brown colour, make sure to keep everything moving in the pan to prevent it from burning. Pay attention the the garlic bits the most, as they tend to burn the quickest.
- Remove it from the heat and set it aside to cool for 10 minutes. When it is cool it should feel crispy and candied. (If it still feels moist, add it back into the frying pan to toast for another 1-2 minutes and let cool again)
- Once the bits have cooled, use your fingers to break apart the pieces. Some of the bonito flakes might still be in large chunks. Once everything has been crumbled into small pieces, set it aside for later.
Shredding the Seaweed
- Using your hand, rip the seaweed sheet in half.
- Then take first sheet and rip it into thin pieces 1-2 cm wide strips (they don't need to be perfectly sized), repeat the same process on the second sheet
- Once all the seaweed are in short 1-2 cm strips stack 3-4 of them on top of each other and use scissors to cut them into tiny pieces. I like to be whimsical and not cut them uniformly sized, by cutting triangle shapes from the corners of the strips.
- Once the seaweed is all shredded up, set it aside for later.
Mixing Everything Together
- Once you have finished making the miso/gochujang powder, toasted the ingredients and shredded the seaweed and everything has cooled, combine all the seaweed, toasted ingredients and 3 tablespoons of miso/gochujang powder and mix well in a small bowl.
- Store in an air tight container for a few weeks.
- Enjoy with: plain white rice, eggs, pasta, popcorn, roasted potatoes..etc 🙂
NOTES
- The miso/gochujang powder will make approximately ¼ cup of powder. You will have extra leftover. Use the extra powder to sprinkle on any dish you would sprinkle salt on for some added flavour!
- Store your furikake in a airtight container. Any moisture in the air will make it clump together - but if it does clump together, it's also not a big deal you can easily jab it with a fork or spoon a few times or vigorously shake the container and it will break apart into tiny bits again! 🙂
- If you are putting this on plain rice, it tastes phenomenal with some Japanese kewpie mayonnaise mixed into the rice before sprinkling on the furikake!
NUTRITION
Disclaimer: As with most of my posts, I provide affiliate links to make items easier to find if you cannot purchase this locally. I would never recommend anything I don’t own myself or highly recommend, but I would prefer you buy your items locally to support your stores (and chances are they are cheaper locally!) ?
josie says
This is a new adventure for me to do this Homemade Furikake Recipe, I followed all your ingredients to make it, turned out perfectly well !!! Thanks.