Hijiki

Hijiki is green to brown in colour when found in the wild. A fisherman and a professional diver harvest the hijiki with a sickle at the time of the low tide of the spring tide of May from March. After collection, the seaweed is boiled and dried to be sold in the form of dried hijiki. Dried processed hijiki turns black. To prepare dried hijiki for cooking, it is first soaked in water then cooked with ingredients like soy sauce and sugar to make a dish.

Hijiki is normally eaten with other foods such as vegetables or fish. It may be added to foods that have been steamed, boiled, marinated in soy sauce or fish sauce, cooked in oil, or added to soup. Hijiki seaweed may also be mixed in with rice for sushi, but is not used as a wrap to prepare sushi. Article source from wikipedia.

I love to eat this with rice or porridge, I call this my comfort side dish ;)

Ingredients
10g dried hijiki
1/2 carrot
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
3/4 cup of dashi stock
2 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp mirin
1/2 tbsp sugar

Methods
1) Soak dried hijiki for 20mins until swell up.
2) Rinse with running tap water for about 3 rounds.
3) Shred carrot into thin and short strips.
4) Heat a pan with sesame oil and add in the carrot and well-drained hijiki.
5) Add in dashi stock and seasoning until the level covers the hijiki and carrot and bring it to boil.
6) Simmer in low heat and stew for about 20-30mins or until hijiki turns soft.
7) Adjust the taste and add in more seasoning if need to before serve.

Recipe modified from http://justbento.com