Furikake & Cocktails

One of the foods Japanese people love is furikake. Furikake translates to shake + cover. It’s a condiment that’s made up of salt, sugar, teeny bits of seaweed, and dried fish. In other words, it’s an umami salt bomb. It’s traditionally sprinkled over white rice (at breakfast) to make white rice more interesting. Frankly, looking at the types offered, I think its origin was as a substitute for actual proteins. Some options include dehydrated egg (sounds weird but Japanese people eat eggs with rice so…), seaweed, salmon (again, Japanese people eat salmon for breakfast), wasabi, bonito, shiso, and so forth.

I’ve been putting shiso furikake on my eggs in the morning but thought that it must have other uses. Here’s a thought: cocktails! It can be used in lieu of salt on cocktail glasses, like on my 'hiso-hito (see recipe after the jump).

Happy holiday weekend, Everyone! Have fun, be safe with that grill and see you back here on Tuesday!

‘HISO-HITO - makes one

Shiso furikake
4 shiso (perilla or ohba) leaves
1-1/2 teaspoons ginger syrup + ½-teaspoon for rimming
2 lemon wedges
2-ounces shochu
Soda water
1 lemon twist for garnish

In one small dish, sprinkle a thin layer of shiso furikake. In another small dish, add ½-teaspoon ginger syrup. Add a ½-teaspoon of soda water to the syrup and stir to combine. Dip the rim of a Collins glass or tall thin glass into the ginger syrup, tilt it to one side to let the excess drip off and then dip it in the shiso furikake.

To the glass, add three torn shiso leaves, 1-teaspoon ginger syrup and one lemon wedge and juice of one lemon wedge. Add a splash of soda and muddle to release the shiso and lemon’s aromatics. Add shochu and ice. Add soda to fill. Garnish with a shiso leaf and lemon twist. Kampai! 

Note: If you don’t have any ginger syrup, any simple syrup will do; use one-teaspoon superfine sugar for the drink and rim your glass with Rose’s Lime juice. If you want to make this non-alcoholic, omit the shochu and double the ginger syrup.