Musubi, also known as onigiri, is a traditional Japanese portable snack that dates back thousands of years to the Samurai era. It's nothing more than a seaweed wrapped patty of cooked rice with salted meat or pickled veggies tucked in the middle. It's very popular in convenience stores all over Hawaii and Japan.
And it's what I make when I have a single serving of leftover cooked salmon from the night before, but need to make lunch to serve more than one. It doesn't look like leftovers, and when paired with a side salad, is quite satisfying. (The leftover salmon does need to be mild in flavor-- so something like leftover miso salmon, teriyaki salmon, salt and pepper salmon, lemon pepper salmon, honey butter salmon, brown sugar or maple salmon, and ginger scallion salmon will work just fine.)
Next time you have salmon leftovers, give it a makeover and tuck it in rice and blanket it with nori.
*Note added June 2021: A friend of mine used this recipe to make spam musubi and gave some very helpful feedback to include pictures and information on the type of rice used to make musubis, and how to cook this particular type of rice. In the recipe I specify using Medium Grain rice. This is Japanese rice or unseasoned sushi rice and is in between long grain rice and short grain rice. Read more about medium grain rice here. The type of rice used is important because if you use long grain rice, the rice won't be sticky enough to hold together and the musubi will fall apart. If you use short grain sweet rice, the musubi will be too soft and sticky. Here's a good link to how to cook Japanese rice, but usually on the back of the bag of Japanese sushi rice, there are both stove top and rice cooker instructions, and it's very similar to the instructions on the link (at least rice to water ratio).
This Kokuho Rose pictured above is the brand of Japanese rice I used, but there are many other brands such as Botan Calrose, Nishiki, Sekka, etc. Somewhere on the package, it should say sushi rice or medium grain rice.
Yields 2 to 3 servings
Ingredient:
- 6 oz of cooked salmon
- 2 T mayonnaise
- 1 T furikake
- ½ an English cucumber, sliced into long strips
- 2 sheets roasted nori
- 3 cups medium grain* cooked white rice (This is Japanese rice, or unseasoned sushi rice, NOT long grain or short grain sweet rice. See Note above)
- musubi mold
Procedures:
- In a bowl, flake the salmon and pick out and discard any bones. Mix flaked salmon with mayonnaise and furikake until combined.
- To mold the musubi, lay a sheet of nori on a cutting board or clean work surface. Place musubi mold over it, in the middle, then fill the mold with a mound of rice. Press the rice firmly with the musubi maker press until the rice is about ¾ inch thick, adding more rice as needed. (It's important to press firmly, so the rice is not loose and the musubi will hold together properly.)
- Add half the salmon mixture evenly on top of the pressed rice.
- Lay strips of cucumber on top.
- Add another mound of rice on top and spread evenly. Press the rice firmly with the musubi maker press until the rice is about ¾ inch thick, adding more rice as needed. Your salmon and cucumbers should now be sandwiched between two layers of rice.
- Use the press to hold the rice down with two thumbs and pull the mold upward to unmold the musubi with your index fingers. Wrap the nori around the rice-salmon-cucumber-rice stack. Flip over the musubi log so the nori seam is down, and set aside. Repeat steps 2-6 for the second musubi log.
- Cut each musubi log into 6 equal pieces, making a total of 12 pieces. Note: If you want this to be a portable snack, then only cut each musubi log in half making a total of 4 large pieces; wrap each piece tightly with saran wrap.