When I first tried uni, at a little sushi restaurant in Honolulu [1] in the summer of 2008, I was not a fan. Something about the texture, the saltiness, and how exotic it seems just put me off. For the next three years, I was convinced that I just plain didn’t like uni.
In spring of 2011, I was at a fellow food blogger’s house [2], filming some sustainable sushi videos for a friend [3] with a couple of other friends of mine [4] who are also food bloggers [5]. Among the types of seafood we had to work with was some fresh golden uni.
Since this was my first time meeting Rachael [4] and Greg [2], and at the time I had only met Cathy [5] and Martin [3] once… I sure as heck wasn’t about to admit that I, a sushi blogger, didn’t like uni. Especially since everyone else was raving about it so much.
So I tried the uni temarizushi [6] that Rachael made… and they were actually pretty good. Then I ventured to try the fresh uni straight from the tray… suffice to say that since then, I’ve become a full-on uni lover.
Lucky for me, uni is pretty sustainable, not to mention good for you as well (and also an aphrodisiac… oh la la! ~_^)
If you want to know more about uni, why not listen to the uni episode [7] of my Miso Hungry Podcast?
A few weeks ago, Rachael gave me a cool little kitchen toy called a Rice Cube [8]. (Disclaimer: I got this as a gift, and Rice Cube also donated several Rice Cubes for us to give away on our podcast [9].) So when I bought a tray of uni for the uni episode [7], I wanted to find a way to use the rice cube with it.
I tried compressing the uni into a cube with the rice… but that just looked ugly (though still delicious). So instead I made a cube with the sushi rice, laid a lobe of uni over it, then sprinkled it with paprika and topped it with a sliver of green onion. I actually liked this better than normal nigiri, because not only was it ridiculously easy to make, the ratio of rice to uni was also perfect.
If you want a Rice Cube for yourself, you can buy one through their campaign to fight childhood obesity on IndieGoGo [10] at a discount and have the proceeds go towards fighting childhood obesity. OR… you can head over to the Tako Episode [9] of my podcast, where we’re giving away three of them!
- Recipe [11]
- Nutrition Info [12]
Ingredients
- 2 cups sumeshi [13]
- 1 tray uni
- 1 tsp paprika
- 4 stalks of green onion, white part discarded
Cooking Directions
- Use a Rice Cube [8] to form the sumeshi into squares (or use your hands, dampened with water, to form the sumeshi into balls. Or you can use plastic wrap [6], or a small mold)
- Top your cube or ball of rice with one lobe of uni (or two if they’re small).
- Sprinkle with a little paprika, and top with a sliver of green onion.
- Enjoy!
Coming Soon!
Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet. These values are only estimates based on the individual ingredients, and not meant to replace the advice of a medical professional.