Spicy Sashimi with Umeboshi on Crispy Renkon

Have you ever had renkon chips? Renkon is lotus root. The only time I remember eating renkon when I was little was on New Year's Day--my grandmother said it was traditional--you ate it "so you can see the future". Renkon is also in nishime and umani--but I've never had it fried and crispy. Namiko Chen over at Just One Cookbook has a great tutorial on making renkon chips. If you want to cook anything Japanese, you can most likely find it on Just One Cookbook.

My daughter sent me this photo of a dish she was eating at the restaurant Nobu, in the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, and wanted me to try to make. I had no idea of what it tasted like--which was probably a good thing--it made me use my imagination. What would I WANT it to taste like?

My imagination led me to shiso and umeboshi, my favorite Japanese flavors and another favorite flavor, jalapeños--the result is this Spicy Sashimi with Umeboshi on Crispy Renkon.

You might remember this package of Butsugiri (cut in pieces) Wild, USA Sashimi--like the one I bought at Marukai for my Spicy Tuna on Crispy Rice post. The cost was under $5 for less than a quarter of a pound. Be sure to ask the man behind the counter which packages are ahi tuna.

Spicy Sashimi with Umeboshi on Crispy Renkon

Makes approximately 20 pieces

Ingredients:

1/4 lb. ahi butsugiri tuna, diced

1/2 to 1 teaspoon umeboshi paste

1 teaspoon to 1/2 finely minced jalapeño pepper

20 shiso leaves

1 teaspoon shoyu

1 piece fresh renkon

1 teaspoon vinegar

oil for frying

optional: kaiware (daikon sprouts) for garnish

If you have umeboshi at home, you can finely mince into a paste 1 whole umeboshi. If you don't, my suggestion is to buy the umeboshi paste in the red tube--it's a lot smaller portion than the umeboshi paste in the larger, clear bottle. In my Stuffed Chicken Rolls with Shiso and Umeboshi post, I explain umeboshi a bit further.

If you don't care for the umeboshi taste, you can simply mix the jalapeño with some thinly sliced green onions, sesame seeds and a teaspoon of sesame oil and shoyu.

I diced the butsugiri tuna pretty small and mixed it with 1/4 teaspoon umeboshi paste and 1 teaspoon finely minced jalapeño. The ume taste wasn't apparent (to me) with such a small amount, even though the umeboshi paste is strong, so I added another 1/4 teaspoon of umeboshi paste and then added 1 teaspoon of shoyu (soy sauce). 1/2 teaspoon umeboshi paste gives it a subtle ume taste--if you like umeboshi, I'd add 1 teaspoon total. 

My husband doesn't like too much heat, so I took the seeds and veins out of the jalapeño and only added 1 teaspoon, but if I was making it for my parents who love jalapeños, I'd add half a jalapeño, seeds & all.

Refrigerate the sashimi until ready to use.

This is fresh renkon.

I bought this at Marukai market, and this is how it was packaged. 

If you can only find this poached, processed renkon, it works too, but it doesn't come out quite as crispy.

I peeled the renkon, but Nami doesn't. I peeled it because that's how I was taught, but you really don't need to peel them when you're frying them.

Slice the renkon thinly, about 1/8 of an inch, put the slices into a bowl of cold water for about 5 minutes, adding 1 teaspoon vinegar to keep the renkon from turning brown. I tried slicing them with a mandolin kitchen tool, but the slices came out broken. I'm going to have to work on my technique.

If you buy the processed renkon, there's no need to soak them.

Drain and blot the excess water from the renkon slices with paper towels or a clean kitchen towel.

Heat oil over medium heat until about 350ºF and fry renkon slices until crisp.

Fry them until they're hardly bubbling, that's when they're crispy--like making tortilla chips. The fresh renkon will turn a golden color and the packaged renkon will come out more white. Be sure to try one--so you can tell if you're frying them until they're crispy.

These are the fresh, fried renkon chips, sprinkled with furikake nori. They make a great snack.

This is the difference between the fresh on the left, and the packaged renkon, on the right. This one I sprinkled with himalayan salt--skip the kelp granules--I thought it was my bottle of aonori!

Back to the sashimi--Take the sashimi mixture out of the refrigerator, taste and adjust seasoning--I added a little bit more shoyu. Put the crispy renkon slices on a shiso leaf and put a generous teaspoon or two of the sashimi mixture on the renkon--dividing the sashimi mixture amongst the 20 pieces. Garnish with daikon sprout tops.

Itadakimasu!

***

Remember the vegetables I planted in my Maple Miso Dijon Salmon post? They're growing--and I've planted more. This is cabbage. It's small, but I think it's ready to pick.

We've been eating the kale--picking off the leaves as needed. We did that with the romaine, too. The romaine is finished--it grew really fast since we've been having such hot weather for winter, but we still ate a good amount of romaine.

I didn't have a lot of success with my cauliflower. I was expecting to get big, nice heads--like I see in the grocery store--but they were small. The hot weather made some of them look like they blew up!

I've got some new vegetables going--this is swiss chard.

 Arugula. It's got a nice, spicy peppery flavor--delicious!

I just planted some broccoli. Maybe we'll get some cooler weather and it will grow nicely. My mom grew broccoli and she said the taste was incredible.

This one is collards. I wonder if it will get HUGE like the collard greens in the store.

We planted this little tree last year. I was afraid it had died--it's never a good idea to plant fruit trees in the grass, they'll get too much water--but there didn't seem to be a place in the non-grassy areas, so it got planted there. It bloomed! I was worried that the flowers wouldn't get pollinated--the person that helped me at San Gabriel Nursery where I bought it said that it needs an apricot tree nearby for pollination--but my apricot tree still isn't even budding. NONE of my other fruit trees are budding yet. I kept thinking I should have gone to the nursery to get some branches of apricot trees that are blooming to put next to my little tree for pollination like they advised. But I didn't.

But look! There are 5 small fruits! HOORAY!

There must have been an apricot tree blooming somewhere in my neighborhood. This tree is a Japanese UME tree--someday I'm going to be able to make my own umeboshi!

***

Spicy Sashimi with Umeboshi on Crispy Renkon

Makes approximately 20 pieces

Ingredients:

1/4 lb. ahi butsugiri tuna, diced

1/2 to 1 teaspoon umeboshi paste

1 teaspoon to 1/2 finely minced jalapeño pepper

 20 shiso leaves

1 teaspoon shoyu

1 piece fresh renkon

1 teaspoon vinegar

oil for frying

optional: kaiware (daikon sprouts) for garnish

1. Dice butsugiri tuna and place into a bowl. Add umeboshi paste, jalapeño and shoyu. Mix gently. Refrigerate until ready to use.

2. Slice renkon and put into a bowl of cold water with 1 teaspoon vinegar if you are using fresh--skip this step if you are using poached renkon. Pat slices dry with paper towels.

3. Fry in 350ºF hot oil until crisp, drain on wire rack.

4. Take tuna mixture out of the refrigerator. Taste and adjust seasonings. Place crispy renkon on a shiso leaf and top with a generous teaspoonful of tuna mixture. Garnish with kaiware (daikon) sprout tops if desired.

Spicy Tuna with Crispy Rice

My family loves spicy tuna rolls and I'm sure they'll be excited to try these!

I first saw a photo of Spicy Tuna with Crispy Rice on Pinterest--but it took me awhile to find Ravenous Couple's original pin. Their photo is amazing and inspired me to make this sushi. Please click on the link and see for yourself--and take a look at their other amazing dishes and photos while you're there.

  I used Ravenous Couple's photo and recipe as a tutorial of sorts--trying to get a beautiful photo of my own sushi.

  My husband came home for lunch just as I was finishing up my photos and quickly ate eleven pieces. He usually doesn't like spicy OR fried food, but he loved these! He raved about the yaki onigiri (crispy rice) and how good it was--crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle.

Spicy Tuna with Crispy Rice

makes about 20 pieces

adapted from Ravenous Couple

Ingredients:

1/4 lb. sushi grade tuna

1 tablespoon mayonnaise (kewpie brand preferred)

1 tablespoon Sriracha (use more or less according to taste)

1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon thinly chopped chives or green onions

2 cups rice, cooked and seasoned for sushi

1 tablespoon shiro goma (white sesame seeds)

1 tablespoon kuro goma (black sesame seeds)
about 1 tablespoon shoyu or teriyaki sauce

optional: shiso (perilla) leaves & diced jalapeño

I bought this butsugiri (cut into pieces) wild, USA tuna at Marukai and cut it into smaller chunks. It's a quarter-pound and easily made 15 pieces of sushi with enough left over for 5 more. I don't buy tuna sashimi much anymore, so this is a rare treat.

I bought this Kewpie brand mayonnaise--I've always wanted to try it. If you don't have it on hand, use Best Foods. Sriracha hot chili sauce--everyone has that, right?

Mix the sashimi with 1 tablespoon each, mayonnaise and Sriracha, plus 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil, cover, and refrigerate. I used only half the amount of tuna recommended in the recipe with the full amount of sauce and was worried it would be too hot--but apparently it wasn't. After eating all the sushi, Gary calmly said, "My mouth is burning." Calmly, not frantically--so I'm assuming it was a good kind of hot.

I just realized my readers may need a primer on making sushi rice. It's simple to use the instant sushi seasoning as I did in my Homestyle Sushi Bar post, but this time I used the vinegar, sugar and salt mixture. You can find a good sushi rice primer on La Fuji Mama's Sushi Rice, the Secret Behind Delicious Sushi post if you haven't made sushi rice.

After the rice has cooled, make the onigiri using a plastic mold you can find at an Asian market. I was taught the proper way to make onigiri is to compact the rice loosely, but this time, since the onigiri will be fried, pack the rice in a little more firmly so it won't fall apart while frying.

After making the onigiri, I brushed a small amount of Red Shell's teriyaki sauce, which I always have on hand since my neighbor is Hiro Watanabe, owner of Red Shell Foods. You can use plain shoyu too. Then, I dipped the onigiri in the goma (sesame seeds).

The three on the left, I rolled in the sesame seeds, and the others I put the sesame seeds on my fingers and pressed them onto the onigiri. I liked that better.

Then I took the onigiri outside to fry them with a butane stove I use for shabu shabu. I like to fry foods outside, that way the whole house doesn't smell like oil. One day, I will have to break down and buy the enclosed fryer that the Ravenous Couple used in their post. Fry the onigiri and drain well.

Note: Be sure to use a splatter screen--the oil will pop!

Top the yaki onigiri with spicy tuna chunks, top with chopped chives, green onions, or chopped/sliced jalapeños. Garnish with shiso leaves.

Itadakimasu!



***

This is my daughter's birthday week.

Happy Birthday to a wonderful daughter who keeps us all close even though she lives far away. It's fun looking at all these photos and with each one comes a flood of memories.

You may remember her from other posts, she actually started out planning on posting regularly here on FOODjimoto.com, but became too busy with motherhood and work. You may remember her Chicken and Dumpling Soup.

It's Karen & Mitchell's wedding anniversary soon, too.

Wedding photos by Lauren Miyake Photography.

 One of the fun things they did at their wedding was, instead of a guest book, they had guests sign a Someday Chair, a rocking chair. 'Someday we'll be sitting in this rocking chair on our front porch.'

 Use a spray varnish to seal the signatures, so they won't rub off.

A clever adding of Santa Monica on the chair seat! A Someday Chair is a great do-it-yourself item for a wedding reception.

I loved these candles in a mason jar, too.

I thought these wedding ideas would be good to share since summer wedding are coming and there a lot of do-it-yourselfers out there.

Happy Birthday and Happy Anniversary, Karen!

I love you.


***

Spicy Tuna with Crispy Rice

adapted from Ravenous Couple

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. sushi grade tuna

1 tablespoon mayonnaise (kewpie brand preferred)

1 tablespoon Sriracha (use more or less according to taste)

1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon thinly chopped chives or green onions

2 cups rice, cooked and seasoned for sushi

1 tablespoon shiro goma (white sesame seeds)

1 tablespoon kuro goma (black sesame seeds)

optional: shiso (perilla) leaves & diced jalapeño

sushi su: 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons rice vinegar, 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar, 2 teaspoons salt, stir until dissolved

1. Wash and cook rice. When rice is done and has steamed for 15 minutes, season with sushi powder or su while hot. Start with half the amount of su, sprinkle on hot rice and cut and fold rice with shamoji or paddle. Fan rice while adding vinegar mixture. Season rice to taste. When cooled, set aside covered with damp towel.

2. Cut up tuna and mix with mayonnaise, Sriracha and sesame oil. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

3. Form rice into nigiri using a rectangular mold or by hand. Press rice firmly into mold. Season with a small amount of shoyu or teriyaki sauce and press sesame seeds onto rice or roll in thinly spread sesame seeds on a plate.

4. Fry nigiri until crisp, drain well on paper towels.

5. Top with spicy tuna mixture and garnish with chopped chives, green onions, or jalapeños. Garnish with shiso leaves optional.

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.