INGREDIENTS

1 can of spam (preferably - classic, lite or 25% less sodium)

5 cups freshly cooked and steaming hot Japanese style short grain rice

Nori sheets (large seaweed sheets)

TERIYAKI GLAZE

1/4 cup shoyu

1/4 cup sugar

1/8 cup mirin

1/8 cup water

DIRECTIONS

Wash and cook rice, this takes about 20 - 30 minutes usually, so while that is going, open spam and slice.

Slice spam in 6 to 10 slices, depending on how thick or slim you want your spam.

In a saucepan, add sugar, shoyu, mirin and water and stir over low to medium heat.

When sugar is dissolved add the spam and allow to heat in liquid for a minute or two on both sides of spam.

This will infuse some of the teriyaki flavor into the spam slices while sauce cooks down to a nice sticky glaze.

Remove spam slices and set aside. When sauce has cooked down transfer to a heat proof dish and set aside.

If using the same pan as glaze, be sure to wipe clean, a wet paper towel is perfect to wipe it while it’s still hot.

Add a little oil to pan and fry spam on medium heat. The teriyaki sauce will char nicely on the spam adding a little crispiness.

Spam is fully cooked straight from the can, so fry until your preference. I like it a little crisp, but not burnt.

ASSEMBLY

Spam musubi maker is optional! Traditionally Musubi’s were and still are made by hand. If doing it by hand, you definitely want to let your rice cool until you can safely touch it.

The fastest way, is to actually use a baking sheet.

The goal is to compact hot rice into a spam sized shape and wrap it up nicely in a nori sheet that make the Musubi easy to hold and eat.

Fluff your rice, this allows you to see if your rice is evenly cooked and prevents large rice clumps.

Nori sheets have a smooth side and a rough side. Place the rough side facing up so the ingredients stick better to it. Place your Spam musubi maker on top of nori sheet. Placement of nori sheet might take some practice. Just like wrapping a gift, you want to make sure you have enough nori to connect to itself with the perfect ratio of rice and slice of spam in the middle. If you’ve ever rolled a burrito or even made sushi, it kind of works best to keep the ingredients toward one side and not just piled in the middle, this way you can squish the ingredients tighter into the wrapper, but not too tight, or the nori sheet will tear. Use your musubi maker as a sort of measurement of what you are envisioning in rice to spam ratio. If you want t a lot of rice, then you definitely want enough nori on one side to reach up to the height of your rice and spam.

If you have only a single musubi maker instead of a double, cut your nori in half, scissors are easiest.

Fill your musubi maker with desired amount of rice and press down to compact rice. Depending on how far your rice squished down, you may want to adjust the rice amount. When your rice block is the size you want, push the musubi maker press down and lift the musubi maker mold up over your rice.

Spoon on some teriyaki glaze. Not too much or the rice will become saturated and fall apart. Maintain a clean rice margin at the edges, and add glaze mainly in the middle to keep rice from falling out of your nori wrapper. For advanced Spam Musubi Pros, if you are feeling extra fancy, you can sprinkle on a little furikaki sprinkles over the teriyaki glaze. Do this sparingly as it may weaken the integrity of your musubi.

Place a slice of spam on top of your teriyaki glazed rice and carefully roll the spam and rice over until you connect the nori to itself. Let the spam musubi sit on the seam of the nori sheet for a moment and the hot ingredients will seal the nori against itself. If your ingredients aren’t that hot, you might have to dip your finger in water and run it along the seam for it to stick, kind of like licking an envelope.

If using a baking sheet, fill rice into baking sheet and press flat, really squish it! Add a little teriyaki glaze, then add spam slices on top and cut rice around the spam. Remove rice and spam and place on nori sheet and carefully roll the spam and rice over until you connect the nori to itself. Let the spam musubi sit on the seam of the seaweed sheet for a moment and the hot ingredients will seal the nori against itself.

Some people have mentioned using the spam can as a form or mold, it is so dangerous with the sharp edges of the can that I highly recommend against it. It is so much easier to just use your hands.

A good scoop of warm rice in your hands and press together between your palms to about the size of a piece of spam and place on your nori sheet and wrap it up.

Wrap each spam musubi in clear plastic wrap. They are popular at any party and kids love them for lunch or afternoon snacks. They also supposedly freeze and reheat in the microwave well, I honestly have not tried it, but truthfully they never last in my house beyond the day they are made.

There are truly so many possibilities to take this one recipe idea and make even more things. For instance, a popular alternative to spam on rice is a piece of mochiko chicken, or chicken katsu or garlic chicken. You can also add an egg to your spam or substitute a fried egg. You can substitute almost anything you like to eat with rice, like a slice of ham, hot dogs, Portuguese sausage is good, I might even add an egg to that. You can also make them in different sizes to serve as appetizers. Of course you can just cut your spam in strips and make a more traditional sushi roll, but then it would no longer be a musubi, just spam sushi :)

Cooking is fun!

Wishing you many tasty bites!

Aloha,

Mai

https://youtu.be/04m0FzeFWdY