Category: Other Recipes

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Spam musubi isn’t exactly sushi, although it is very similar. It is a popular Hawaiian snack using spam, regular rice (not sumeshi), and nori. I find it to be really yummy and not too hard to make. The marinated/fried spam tastes almost like unagi, in an odd roundabout way, but trust me, it’s good! (Hehe that’s to all of you who turn your noses up at the idea of spam (the food) – it’s actually pretty good! Try it scrambled in eggs too 🙂 )

If I haven’t seemed quite here this past week, it’s because I’m in the middle of finals. Yeah, I know, my university finishes the year quite a bit later than most others, but that’s okay, because we get to start a lot later too! We don’t start until the end of September! 😛 Wish me luck – one more final this quarter, and then only a year left in school! I can’t wait to be out of here!

Makes 10 pieces.

More Pictures

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Several people have requested a tempura recipe, so here you go! This will work for most any type of tempura, from shrimp to vegetables, and even bananas!

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So now that you know how to make oshizushi, it’s time to make some! You can use most ingredients in oshizushi, although squishier ingredients work better since they can compress very nicely. Here are some of the creations we tried:

Island Oshizushi

For one oshizushi (4-6 pieces, depending on how you cut it), use about 1 cup sumeshi, a 7″x2″ piece of pineapple, and a 7″x2″ piece of unagi. Be careful, because the pineapple will leak juice into the rice so the rice falls apart if it isn’t packed tightly enough!! (For directions for making oshizushi, click here)

Son’s Fun Oshizushi

This is the oshizushi shown in the How To post. This one has a little bit of everything in it. We used smoked salmon, liverwurst, avocado, and tobiko, then tied it in a green onion stalk. We were being a little random with this one! 😀

Frisky Oshizushi

This is similar to the Frisky Roll. Once you have compressed the sumeshi, place a long slice of cucumber on top of the sumeshi, and try to compress it as much as possible. It probably won’t compress much, since it’s a pretty hard ingredient. Then place alternating strips of avocado and unagi on top of this similar to how it was done in the Frisky Roll recipe.

A Little Bit of Everything Oshizushi

This is another oshizushi that has a bit of everything in it. First after the sumeshi is compressed, put down a layer of avocado and compress it. Next is a layer of unagi, then green onion. Compress these, then add a layer of smoked salmon on top. Compress it all, then eat it! (It tastes better than it sounds!)

[HDR-IMG]Oshizushi is a type of sushi that uses a small wooden box to press the sushi into little rectangles. It’s a lot of fun to press the sushi, especially since there are so many different combinations you can make (As you will see, we went a little overboard 😉 ).

1. When you get your box, you will see there are three pieces that make up the box. There should be one box-like piece with vertical slits on the side, and two flatter pieces with wooden feet.
2. One of these flat pieces should have feet that extend beyond the edges of the flat piece of wood. Place this on your workspace, flat side up.
3. Place the box on top of this flat piece, with the vertical slits opening upwards.
4. Place a large piece of plastic wrap in this, pressing it to the bottom and sides so the entire inside surface is covered. The plastic wrap should extend an inch or two over the edges of the box.
5. Wrap the second flat piece of wood in plastic wrap. This will keep it from getting too dirty.
6. Fill the plastic wrap-covered box about 2/3 full with sumeshi.
7. Press the plastic wrap-covered flat piece of wood flat side down in the box to compress the rice.
8. Place your ingredients, one layer at a time, into the box. Compress with the piece of wood between each layer. If you are small and/or not one with much arm strength (like me!), it helps to have someone heavier or stronger (or both) to help compress it for you. If not its fine, it’s just that when it’s compressed more it sticks together better when you are eating it. I used Son for all my sushi pressing!
9. Once all of your ingredients have been placed on the sushi and compressed, use a sharp knife to cut the sushi through each of the vertical slits in the box. Also cut through the plastic wrap.
10. Using the plastic wrap that you had put in the box, lift out the sushi. I prefer to do it this way, just because it keeps the box from getting too dirty.
11. Replace the plastic wrap in the box with a new sheet before you make another batch.
12. Eat your freshly pressed oshizushi!

This is a more complicated take on plain inari sushi.

Son likes to make this fried rice for me occasionally (this is the only thing he ever cooks for me) so we thought we would put it into inari and see how it turned out! Well, it turned out tasting pretty good, so now we share it with you!

Ingredients

• 2 packages aburaáge
• 1 small onion
• 1 tbsp butter
• 4 Chinese sausages
• 2 cups shrimp (we used precooked frozen shrimp)
• 3 cups rice (1.5 cups uncooked rice cooked with 1.5 cups water)
• 2 tbsp shoyu
• 4 eggs
• 6 stalks green onion

Cooking Directions

Cook the rice. (I use a rice cooker, you can cook it in a pan if you prefer)

Dice the onion into small pieces.

Slice the sausages into thin slices.

Cut off the tails of the shrimp and cut the shrimp into thirds.

Break the eggs into a bowl, and whisk until smooth.

Chop the green onions. (I just use scissors to cut them into small bits)

Once the rice is done cooking, sauté the diced onions (not the green onions) with the butter in a large frying pan.

Put the sliced sausages in the pan and let cook for about 10 minutes, or until they start to brown. Occasionally stir, so the sausage cooks evenly.

Pour in the chopped shrimp, and let cook until it begins to turn opaque.

Mix in the rice, stirring so it is distributed evenly throughout the pan.

Pour about 2 tbsp shoyu into the pan (more if you want it saltier, less if you prefer a lower salt intake). Stir.

Pour the whisked eggs into the pan, stirring so everything is coated with egg. Let cook while stirring for about 5 minutes.

Pour the chopped green onions in. Stir so they are evenly spread about the fried rice.

Make the inari sushi, using the fried rice instead of sumeshi.

Eat! You can eat them plain, with shoyu, or with Siracha hot sauce!.

Inari-zushi is a packet of fried bean curd, filled with rice. It tastes better than it sounds, I swear! 🙂 This was the only type of sushi that I ate all throughout my childhood, up until I was a teenager. Children generally love inari-zushi, as can be seen by the abundance of names that kids have for them. A few names that my family had for it are soldier hats and footballs.

We used to always get inari-zushi when we would go over to my Japanese grandmother’s house, especially on New Year’s. The New Year’s sushi is always the best – we preorder our sushi from this small sushi restaurant in the Japanese area near us, which always has the longest lines on New Year’s Eve! Then comes the wait. We always pick up our sushi on New Year’s Eve, since the sushi shop is closed on New Year’s Day. The boxes of sushi just sit there in our kitchen, tempting us, but we aren’t allowed to touch a single piece! It’s torture.

New Year’s comes, and the whole family completely pigs out on sushi! Holidays are always a food fest in my family, eating first around lunch, then snacking all afternoon and eating again before we divvy up all the food between the relatives to take home. I can’t wait until New Year’s!

Ingredients

• 1 package aburaáge
• 3 cups rice or sumeshi

Cooking Directions

Depending on the package of aburaáge you buy, it might or might not have a small package of sushi vinegar seasoning included. If it does, then you can cook rice and just stir it in thoroughly. If not, cook the sushi rice.

Bring a pot of hot water to boiling.

In the package of aburaáge, you will find the aburage in a clear plastic package. Do not open this package. Put this package in the boiling water, and boil for 5 minutes.

Remove the package from the boiling water, cool for a few minutes.

Cut open the package, being careful not to spill any of the juices in the package.

For each piece of aburaáge, carefully open from the cut side, being careful not to tear it. Open as fully as possible, to make it easier to fill. BEWARE: the aburaáge will be hot!

Fill with sumeshi. I usually use a regular spoon to fill them, as it is easier to get the rice in this way.

We topped ours with tamago and green onion, but traditionally, they are plain or topped with sesame seeds.

Eat! You can eat them plain, or with shoyu.