cook: musubi

I've returned to outrigger canoe paddling after 2 1/2 months of resting strained intercostal muscles, and practice has been okay while the pain or twinges have been phantom. I'm just sore now from  regular exercise. I've been enjoying the few practices so much that I'm committing to strengthening those muscles in order to stay in the sport a couple more years. This Saturday my outrigger canoe club is hosting a regatta, and so I'm bringing a snack of musubi. Someone requested a plant-based option, and so I sliced a block of tofu into planks after blotting it with paper towels to get rid of much of its water, and then baked them in a marinade of Bachan’s Japanese yuzu barbecue sauce and then popped them into a 400 degree oven. 

I also measured out 4 cups of Japanese rice. I had borrowed a rice cooker from a friend in order to cook a larger volume of rice without it going mushy or burned. I used basically a 1:1 ratio of rice to water after rinsing and then letting the rice soak for 30 minutes before pressing the button to cook and then steam the rice.

I remembered that I had Portuguese sausage in the refrigerator and added those slices to a baking sheet along with 4 cans of Spam I had also sliced into planks.

Rather than fry all the meats in a skillet, they were laid into baking sheets that were sprayed with cooking oil and then popped into the hot oven to sear or brown. That probably took 15 minutes.

Oh yeah, I decided this oven technique was gonna be easier.

And then I messaged my friends to ask how much water to use in the rice cooker. I ended up using the first digit of my index finger of how much water should be atop the rinsed rice. 

I had bought this inexpensive tool for making musubi at Daiso, and it worked great. I simply dipped the bottom third of the mold in water and then laid it perpendicular on top of the nori or dried seaweed. I had bought seaweed snacks at Costco, and so I needed 2 slices of nori. The musubi tool came with a handy little rice paddle for ladling and squishing rice into the mold that I didn't even use the press. I then sprinkled furikake on top and then the plank of protein. And then flipped the ends of the seaweed over the protein. The moisture of the rice and the stickiness of the teriyaki sauce on the meat didn't necessitate using water to seal the seaweed.

I followed Sheldon Simeon's recipe for Spam musubi, which was adapted from his Cook Real Ha'waiian (a public library book from months ago in which I photocopied recipes I wanted to try), and didn't bother toasting the seaweed. They tasted great.

Making musubi was labor intensive with the construction and then wrapping of all the snacks in food plastic, and no leftovers! The keiki gobbled them all up at the regatta yesterday.