Spam Musubi with Shiso

Shiso is one of my favorite herbs, right up there with basil. Here on FOODjimoto.com, I've added shiso to pesto in my Umeboshi and Shiso Pesto post, and to my mother's recipe for Stuffed Chicken Rolls with Shiso & Umeboshi.

This time, I've added shiso leaves to Spam Musubi.

For several years I've tried to grow shiso with no success until this year. I bought several packages of seeds from the Kitazawa Seed Co. I've included the links to the Kitazawa Seed Co.'s pages for the different varieties--take a look if you'd like to know more about shiso.

This is the green variety, above, called Ao Shiso. I couldn't grow it before, but this year I soaked the seeds in water for two days, drained the water and let the seeds sit until they cracked and a root formed. Then I planted them and they sprouted nicely! This variety is the one I've most seen in sushi bars.

The red variety, or Aka Shiso, is the variety used to color umeboshi (Japanese pickled plum) and also found in some tsukemono (pickled vegetables).

This variety is called Hojiso. The leaves are green in front and red in back. I haven't seen this one before and thought I'd try it. It grows fast, like basil.

This is Ayako. She is a relative visiting from Osaka, Japan. Ayako tried spam musubi for the first time at the Higashi Obon.

You may remember Ayako from the Chocolate Cupcakes--Magnolia Bakery's Recipe post that had some photos of Rick & Jessica's honeymoon trip to Japan, and their visit with Ayako's family in Osaka.

We decided to make some spam musubi the next day, since Ayako liked it so much!

Basic instructions on making spam musubi can be found on our Spam Musubi post.

To add the shiso leaves, simply place them on top of the rice before adding the spam. If you're really a fan of shiso like me, you may want to add them on top of the spam too.

Ayako made hers without shiso--turns out she is not a fan.

She took them to Auntie Tsuyuki's 98th birthday party.

It was fun making spam musubi with you, Ayako!

Itadakimasu!

When we picked up Ayako at the airport, she saw our sign, came up and introduced herself and greeted us with a big smile.

Ayako's father went to college in the US and lived here for several years. One of the things he wanted Ayako to try was a Tommy's burger, one his favorites.

She also tried a double-double from In-N-Out. Afterall, if you come to Southern California, you have to have an 

In-N-Out burger, right?

We had a good time at the Higashi Obon with Bill and Nancy.

Ayako and Nancy even danced the bon odori.

Ayako leaves for Japan soon.

It was nice meeting you, Ayako. We had a lot of fun! Hope to see you again!

No printable recipe.

Onigiri 101

Food is one thing we all have in common, we all need to eat, and it brings us together in lots of different ways.

I think one of the best ways is sharing--sharing our food and sharing what we know about it.

It's one of the things I really enjoy doing.

Two of my friend Gail's grandchildren love rice.

So does her daughter.

Whenever I make onigiri or spam musubi and take them to Gail's house, they are devoured by the kids.

The way I know the meaning of onigiri and musubi, they are interchangeable, they both mean 'pressed rice' or rice ball in Japanese.

I wrote a little about them when I made Onigiri with Salmon and Edamame.

I asked Gail if the kids might like to learn how to make onigiri and have a little lesson, Onigiri 101.

She said, "Yes!"

This is Gail's granddaughter, Sophia.

Sophia loves rice.

She likes nori and furikake too.

She also loves watching cooking shows on television, so it was only natural that we have a little cooking lesson on how to make onigiri--AND turn it into an opportunity for Sophia to be the star of her own cooking video!

This is Madison.

Her mother Christine and Sophia's mother Ceci are friends.

Madison and Christine joined us for the cooking lesson.

Both girls have beautiful smiles, don't they!

To make onigiri, you'll need short or medium grain rice, water and salt.

Instructions for cooking rice are at the end of the post.

Here's Sophia, future cooking show star, showing us how to make onigiri.

And here's Madi showing off the onigiri she made with a little bit of furikake nori on top.

Start with making round onigiri, they're the easiest and sure-fire success!

Next--

Spam Musubi. 

Sophia made a spam musubi and started eating it right away!

She used the half-sized musubi-maker, perfect for 1 piece of sliced, fried Spam, wrapped in half a piece of sushi nori.

This is Christine using a large musubi maker.

You can get them at Nijiya or Marukai markets, Amazon has them too.

Here's Ceci working on her first Spam musubi.

Ceci graciously consented to demonstrate the making of spam musubi on video.

It's her first time making them and she did a great job!

Ceci has a big personality.

BIG.

She's bold, energetic and animated.

On video, she's almost...shy.

I loved seeing this other side of her!

After the cooking lesson was over, the kids headed for the pool.

This is Colin, Madi's brother.

And this is Dean, Sophia's brother.

He loves rice too.

Today, Dean loved the water more.

He'd rather swim than make onigiri.

Can't say that I blame him.

I'll bet that water feels so good!

He's going to show us a cannonball.

What a splash!

Grandpa Ramiro was outside watching the swimmers with Tacho.

Tacho is a chihuahua mix Gail rescued.

Oh!

You can't see Abby.

Abby is a pomeranian mix that Gail also rescued.

Lucky Dogs!

***

To make plain rice onigiri you'll need:

2 cups of short or medium grain rice

2 1/2 cups of water

salt

The first thing you do is wash the rice by putting it in a bowl or sieve and rinsing it under running water, using your hand to mix the rice around while rinsing.

When the water runs clear, empty all the water from the bowl and let the rice sit for a few minutes.

If you like drier, firmer rice, measure 2 cups of water to 2 cups of rice, a 1 to 1 ratio.

I like the rice a little softer, so I use 1 1/4 cups of water per cup of rice, so 2 1/2 cups of water for onigiri.

If you're using a rice cooker, put the rice and water into the pan and cook, making sure the outside of the pan is not wet before you put it into the rice cooker.

If you're cooking rice on top of the stove, put the rice and water in a large pot, bring to boil, cover, reduce heat to lowest setting and cook for 20 minutes, then turn off the heat.

Let the rice steam for 10 - 15 more minutes without lifting up the lid on the pot.

After the rice has steamed, remove the lid and mix the rice by using a folding motion rather than a stirring motion so the grains of rice don't get smashed.

Let the rice cool before making onigiri.

Note: 2 cups of rice makes enough for about 6 people--if you're making onigiri, be sure to have plenty of rice to practice with. I made 4 cups of rice for our cooking lesson for 4 people--making onigiri and spam musubi.

To start making the onigiri, have a small bowl of water nearby to wet your hands so the rice doesn't stick to them.

Wet your hands and sprinkle a little bit of salt on one of them, then rub your hands together.

Kids will use about a 1/4 cup rice for an onigiri or less. I put some rice on a plastic placemat, had them cup their hand over a bit of rice and had them use that amount, and press the rice together using both hands, cupping them over each other.

Sprinkle a little furikake nori over the top or serve with a 1/4 sheet of nori (toasted seaweed sheets) wrapped around the onigiri.

Spam Musubi

Spam and rice.

Together with a wrapping of nori (seaweed sheet) make Spam Musubi.

My understanding is that spam musubi came from Hawaii, but my neighbors say they have this all over Tawian, too.

There's lots of different ways to make spam musubi, if you Google it you can see all the different variations.

Here, you'll find instructions for the spam musubi pictured below.

We didn't eat Spam very much when I was growing up, my mother didn't like it.

She said she ate a lot of it in Camp--Rowher, Arkansas, where she, as a Japanese American, was incarcerated during WWII with her family. Not fond memories for her.

But our current family memories are pushing those over.

Now, she'll eat an piece of spam musubi and enjoy it.

For family pot-lucks, someone will make spam musubi, it's popular and almost always gets eaten up.

If there's any left, it's the one thing the boys will want to take home.

Here's what you'll need:

1 can of Spam

3 cups medium grain rice, cooked

5 sheets of roasted sushi nori

acrylic spam maker

You can find the acrylic spam maker at a Hawaiian market or Japanese market like Marukai. 

Ebay and Amazon.com also have it.

In case you've never had Spam before, this is what it looks like, right out of the can.

Slice the Spam into about 1/4 inch slices.

My goal is usually to make 10 slices, but mostly it comes out to 9. A spam slicer--yes, they have them--makes 9 slices.

But since you use 2 slices per roll, 10 is better. Besides, I think you only need a small taste of the Spam in each bite.

Put the slices into a heated frying pan.

Lightly pan fry the Spam. You don't want to crispy fry it, that will make it hard and dry.

Remove from the pan and place on a plate.

Cook the rice how you would normally cook rice.

You'll need a small bowl of water next to your work surface to wet your board and hands to keep the rice from sticking.

Wet your work surface a little, empty the rice pot onto the work surface and spread it out so the rice will cool.

Lightly salt the rice, and mix.

Cool the rice before you start putting the spam musubi together.

If the rice is too hot, the nori will shrink and pucker.

This is the spam musubi maker.

It's just an acrylic frame and tamper. 

Some of them have grooves in the tamper, that will make it so the rice doesn't stick to it, so if you have a selection, get that one.

I bought this 50 sheet package at Marukai market, but you can get one with 10 sheets.

There's two sides to a sheet of nori.

A shiny smooth side, and a rough side.

This is the shiny side.

Place the shiny side down.

You'll be able to tell--the pictures don't really show the difference very well.

Place the musubi maker about 1 inch from the edge.

That looks like it needs to be moved down a little, doesn't it.

Then add a thin layer of rice into the spam musubi maker, spreading it out with your fingers. 

It's about two small handfuls of rice.

Use the tamper to tamp it down gently.

You don't want to mush the rice together--which will happen if you push it down too hard.

Then add the two slices of Spam.

Then another layer of rice.

Ideally, the Spam will be in the middle.

Tamp the top layer down gently.

Lift the frame up over the tamper.

On my second roll, the nori was placed a little better.

Take the tamper off the top and flip the bottom piece of the nori up.

It's okay if it goes over the top edge, just fold that part over the top.

Flip the spam musubi up,

And over.

It will look like this.

Next, moisten the edge--sparingly--with a little water.

Roll the spam musubi over the edge of the nori and let it rest on that edge.

Gently push in the rice at the ends.

These are the ridges on the tamper.

This is a one slice spam musubi maker, using a half sheet of nori.

Best get the double one.

Since I had 9 slices of Spam, I had one left and used my single maker.

Here's an end view.

There are a lot of variations.

Some people put furikake nori on top of the spam layer, or cook the spam in teriyaki sauce. 

Another good variation is to add a layer egg omelet on top of the spam--a breakfast spam musubi.

Slice the roll in half, then half again.

Wipe your knife on a damp, clean, kitchen towel. 

It will make the cutting easier.

This post is for Nicole.

At her request.

Thanks, Nicole, for the requests and questions.

If you have any questions, you can email me--Karolyn@foodjimoto.com.

I'll do my best to answer questions in a future post.

Itadakimasu!

****

Ahhh--Easter egg hunts of years past...

This is one of my favorite photos.

He liked sunglasses even when he was 20 months old and in diapers.

Her first birthday party and Easter egg hunt.

Be sure to take a lot of photos of your little ones, they grow up fast.

This is my brother Warren and my mom at Easter.

They like to hide eggs for the kids.

Warren is a lot of fun.

He's been known to put a $50 dollar bill in one of the eggs as a surprise for the kids.

Now that most of them are in their 20's, candy alone doesn't create quite the excitement that it used to.

I like to see the delight on Warren's face as he watches whoever discovers the big money egg.

When I was little, my mother's father--Norwalk Jichan--used to drive over with an armful of chocolate Easter bunnies every year for us.

I bought this one for my mom.

My mom and I love Peter Rabbit.

It's the second one I bought for her.

I had to get another one because the first one melted in the car.

When my kids were little, and we had a family party here at our house, my mom used to leave a present for the kids under their pillows so they could discover it when they went to sleep that night.

I'm going to leave the chocolate bunny under my mom's pillow.

She'll get a kick out of it.

No printable recipe for Spam Musubi yet.