Hawaiian Style Musubi, 2 Flavors

My first attempt at making sushi at home was a mixed bag. I decided to make California rolls and some kind of tofu-maki in my room in college. The California roll was passable, but the tofu roll tasted like wet dish sponge wrapped in rice and nori. The fault was mine as I had no experience with the tofu and simply cut it up and stuffed it into my rolls - sans draining, marinade or seasoning. The horror...

As I've mentioned recently, sushi quality fish is simply not available to us landlubbers in Atlanta (although I've heard you can get it frozen on the internet). In lieu of suitable maguro, teka and unagi, my approach has been to explore the world of sushi preparation without using actual fish. Enter in the whole realm of musubi.

Musubi, as I've learned, is a collaboration of the Japanese art of sushi and the strange Hawaiian obsession with Spam. I first sampled this delicacy not on my honeymoon, but in southern California on a trip to visit my buds. Traditionally it's prepared as a sort-of mega Spam nigiri, but I prefer the SoCal method better for both presentation and eatibility. The latter was especially important as this was one of the featured recipes in my Good Eats party spread.

I started by marinating sliced Spam Lite (of course) overnight in teriyaki sauce. Shortly before rolling, I browned the slices in a non-stick skillet.

For a base, I used Good Eats' (of course) awesome sushi rice recipe, using only half of the salt specified. Spam is plenty salty enough to carry the dish. A single batch provided enough for 4-5 logs of musubi.

As far as tools are concerned, I employed a box sushi mold I picked up in an Asian store. Similar models can be found for about $7 on E-Bay. This is simply a plastic box with two plates for the top and bottom to compress the contents. I didn't use bottom and instead built my musubi directly on nori.

The musubi itself is simply two layers of rice with some spam in between. My mold was the perfect width for 2 slices of spam. You remembered to keep a bowl of water handy to keep your hands hydrated so that the rice wouldn't stick to your fingers, right?

Use the top plate to firmly compress the contents, then carefully remove the mold. Behold, naked musubi!

To finish, wrap the nori tightly around the brick being careful not to deform the shape. Wet the nori, and press to adhere. Slice into 6 sections immediately before serving and top with a dab of sweet and sour sauce and a few scallions.

I also prepared an alternate version based on a similar dish I'd seen on our honeymoon in Kauai. Instead of Spam, a layer of salami sat atop the rice with a healthy dose of sesame seeds for seasoning. I followed suit using the good stuff from my deli, and garnished by dipping the sliced sections in roasted sesame seeds.

Ok, so I hope I haven't upset the sushi masters too terribly. As for my guests, they snapped up the little morsels faster than I could slice them, even when I told them it was Spam. I really liked the box-style assembly method. It was super-easy and produced beautiful and tasty morsels.

The recipe for spam musubi makes approximately 30 pieces from 5 rolls. Each piece is about 1 point.

Update 5/8/06 - The last photo was entered in this month's Does My Blog Look Good in This photography contest!