John Myers
They are often on the menu for sushi lovers, but other Asian specialties can also be prepared with them: nori seaweed is widespread in Far Eastern cuisine. Find out where the sea delicacy comes from and how it is prepared.
Purchasing and storage
For the nori sushi rolls, it is best to buy the ready-toasted leaves, which are also known as yaki nori. To refine salads, noodles, or soups, the roasted seaweed is also available in strips as kizami nori. You can also get the spice powder Ao Nori, the Ajitsuke Nori flavored with soy sauce, and various Nori snacks to nibble on in Asian shops or well-stocked supermarkets. Make sure that the sales packaging of the respective algae product is leakproof. This is the only way to preserve the sweet, mild taste of nori and its consistency. Once the packaging has been opened, it is best to fill the leaves into a tightly sealable container and use them up as soon as possible.
Worth knowing about Nori
Various types of edible algae are summarized under the term nori. The leaves of red algae are usually commercially available, less often green algae. The algae come from aquaculture. After harvesting, the leaves are rinsed in fresh water, crushed, pressed into thin sheets, dried and processed into various products. For sushi, the nori is roasted and then gets the typical green color. Reddish products are unroasted.
Kitchen tips for nori
Toasted nori is paper thin and crispy. You don’t need to boil or soak the sheets to prepare different types of sushi: the contents of the rolls make the seaweed supple, so you can easily roll nori maki. Another use for the leaf-shaped seaweed is in nori wraps. Nori powder, strips, or crumbled sheets can be used to flavor foods as desired.
Why is wasabi part of sushi and sashimi?
This is historical. As early as around the year 700, wasabi was used as a valuable gift and as a means of paying taxes.
It was also attributed to an antimicrobial effect, so that the emperor, for example, always ate wasabi with his meals to protect himself from poisoning.
