Inarizushi

Whenever we go to the Sushi Shop for lunch in our building at work, Rach would often get an order of inarizushi. When it comes to sushi, I rarely eat the ones that don't have fish in them. One night, we went for all-you-can-eat sushi at Kanda, and I tried a piece of inarizushi. Yum! I liked it!

On a recent trip to the Korean market, we found canned abura-age (thin deep fried tofu). It was ready to eat right out of the can, all you needed was to make the sushi rice. So why not? They don't come cheap though...about $6 for 15 slices.




1 can of aburaage
1 Tbsp minced garlic
5 slices fresh ginger
3 Tbs mirin (sweet cooking wine) or 1 Tbsp honey thinned with water
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup water

For Sushi Rice:

1 cup sushi rice
1.5 cups of water5 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp mirin
3 Tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
toasted sesame seeds and finely crushed nori


To prepare aburaage:

1. Open can and boil the aburaage to rinse off the oily marinade.
2. Mix all ingredients to make the marinade.
3. Soak abuura-age in the marinade overnight in the fridge.

To make sushi rice:

1. Soak rice in water for 10-15 minutes.
2. Mix rice vinegar, with sugar, salt, mirin. Heat gently while mixing so salt and sugar can dissolve. Let it cool. Put aside.
3. Wash rice two or three time in running water, drain well and transfer into deep cooking pot with water. (for every cup of rice, use 1.5 cups water)
4. Bring to boil, reduce heat and cook covered for 15 min.
5. Take pot off of heat source, and pour rice over an aluminium covered baking pan to cool. At this point, the rice should be soggy. Drizzle the vinegar mixture over the rice. Do not mix, the rice is delicate. Let it sit for 15 min to cool and soak up the rest of the water. It can be used when you can grab it with your hands or when they begin to look hard and clunpy.

To assemble:

1. Carefully open the abura-age pockets and fill them with cooled sushi rice.
2. Sprinkle toaste sesame and crushed nori on top. Serve.
   

This was pretty easy to make, however, I used a bit more mirin and sugar that what was in the recipe and it ended up a bit sweeter. Other than that, it was good. I would make this again. Kev didn't have any, and he didn't seem too interested either.