Inarizushi
Inarizushi is usually much simpler than this. Traditionally it only involves the fried tofu packet, abura-age, stuffed with sushi rice and sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds. In typical American palate fashion we have dressed it up a bit more. You will find our addition of a kampyo tie in some high class sushi houses but our fillings push it out of consderation for the traditional tag. We have sort of hybridized inarizushi with onigiri here by adding fillings but unlike onigiri the filling is scattered thoughout the rice instead of in a concentrated surprise in the center of the rice ball. The seasoned abura-age is slightly sweet so this can be used as an appetizer or as an excellent meal finisher if not a true dessert. The abura-age are availble either canned or frozen from your local better Asian market and as you would imagine, the frozen product is superior. It comes pre-seasoned in a plastic bag that you boil unopened for 5 minutes. Cool and the little golden tofu packets are ready to stuff. They usually throw in a packet of dried vinegar seasoning for your rice but don’t use it. Season your rice with Marukan Seasoned Rice Vinegar if you don’t want to go to the trouble of building sushi vinegar. We used Koshihikari rice for this and I love it. It is easily the best California sushi rice that we have ever used. Apologies to our old standby, Tamanishiki, but this stuff is just flat out better. Kampyo can be bought as unprepared dried gourd strips but there is quite a bit of prep involved and unless you have an excellent seasoning blend (I don’t) you won’t be able to tell the difference between the ones you spent hours on and the pre-seasoned ones from the grocery. You’ll find them in the refrigerated section usually in the pickle area. It’s pretty obvious what to do here. Cook the rice and season it with the vinegar while cutting and cooling to get that attractive sheen that comes with great sushi rice. Mix your stuffing ingredients with the rice. Takuan, seasoned shitake mushroom and green onion inari are shown but you could go with whatever. Stuff the packets and tie with kampyo strips if you’re using them. Sprinkle with sesame although we did not since we were having another sesame dish. Whatever your stuffing, just remember that you will have the slight vinegar twang from your rice and the sweetness from the abura-age that need to complement your filling. These would be a great item for a build your own sushi party since you need zero skills to fill a pre-made, pre-cut tofu packet, you don’t need any special equipment, there’s no raw fish involved and everyone who has ever had them with us loved them.






7:02 pm
erin_NY says:
My goodness, I feel like I need a Japanese-English dictionary for this post! But I’m sure it’d be worth it, I love those. As long as they aren’t filled with ginger…yuck.
7:41 pm
kathy says:
I think when you read the words in Japanese it takes more concentration to figure out what it is!! Hearing it out loud is what I am use to and I actually was surprised how alien the written words were to my brain. The Inari are sooo good, alittle sweet and the vinegared rice with any filling is delicious. They have potential as dessert too!
7:55 pm
john_houston says:
How about a glossary? That’s probably a good idea for v2 of ftlg anyway. Apologies for the jargon, I forget that not everyone is as Japanese food OCD as I am.
Inarizushi – the word sushi with any modifier in front of it changes the s to z. This is the sushi rice stuffed fried tofu pocket regardless of enhancements
Onigiri – These are balls of rice about half again as big as a golf ball (but size varies) with a surprise inside. Sour plum is a traditional favorite and has its own name, omeboshi, but it can have pickled fish or radish or just about anything. The rice ball has a belt of nori for less sticky handling. A picnic food favorite.
Kampyo – dried gourd strips that have been scrubbed with salt, reinsed and reconstituted in a sweet flavored liquid
Takuan – pickled daikon radish, usually day-glo yellow
Abura-age – deep fried slices of tofu cut open to form packets
8:21 pm
mike_NY says:
Wow, not only pretty, but informative too! You guys could embarrass vegetarian cooks with this. Good Job!