Hawaiian at Home
Musubi is one of our all time favorite snacks but honestly paying $2.50 or more for 1 is so ridiculous! Which is why we think it’s one of those things that just need to be made at home. In our video we show how you can musubi pretty much anything and the only thing that holds you back is your imagination. We even attempted a loco moco musubi which we haven’t seen before and it came out really good! In this recipe we will only be cover the basics of a spam musubi. Once you master or even have experience with rolling your first spam musubi making a loco moco or salmon belly musubi will be similar and simple.
Materials
- Musubi Maker – If you don’t have one you can use an empty spam can to shape and mold your rice.
- Shallow Pan
- Pot or Rice Cooker
- Tongs
- Cooking Utensil
- Flat Edge Spoon
- Small Bowl of water for working with rice
Ingredients
- 1 Can Spam
- 3 cups water for rice
- Nori Sheets
- 1/8 cup Shoyu
- 1/8 cup Sugar
- 1/8 cup Water for sauce
- Furikake (optional)
- 4oz Rice Vinegar
- 2 Tablespoons Sugar
Guide: Easiest Way
- If you have a rice cooker, go ahead and cook your rice according to its directions. Otherwise, in a small pot, cover the rice with water. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and let stand covered for 20 minutes.
- While that cooks, cut the nori sheets in half or in thirds. It is preference and depends on if you like a tad bit more seaweed on your musubis, we do!
- To make the sauce, combine shoyu, sugar, and water in a small sauce pot and reduce until thick like a glaze.
- Pro Tip: When making this glaze we stick to an equal parts shoyu, sugar, and water no matter the amount we are making.
- Next take the spam out of the can (save the can if you do not have a musubi maker) and slice the spam into 8-10 slices depending on how thick you like it.
- Pan fry the spam until it gets a nice caramelization and slight crispiness.
- Pro Tip: There are many recipes that also say to marinate the spam in the sauce and that is okay, We tend to like the crispy texture of the spam and think it benefits the musubi experience much better than a wet sauce soggy spam slice. Also, you are able to control the amount of sauce used which is good if you also don’t want your rice to fall apart from over saucing and you can somewhat control the sweet and saltiness levels. The goal is to balance flavors and textures not overpower them.
- After spam has cooked its time to season the rice (if its done cooking) combine rice vinegar and 2 tablespoons of sugar until sugar dissolves then pour little by little on the rice and mixing it together well.
- Assembly time! Take a noir sheet shiny side down (shiny side will be the outside of musubi) place musubi maker right in the middle and load with rice about 3/4 of the way without pressing down. Then use the presser to compact the rice.
- Pro Tip: Oil the spam can then load rice into the can about 1/3 of the way compacted. It’s easier to compact the rice with the backside of the fingers. Place upside down in middle of the nori sheet then give it a strong love tap, lift gently and the rice should have come out. Add oil to the can between musubi for an easier rice release.
- Top with a drizzle of sauce and furikake, place spam on top. Use the presser to press down and release the mold. With bowl of water wet the tap flap edge or overlapping edge of the nori sheet to help bind the nori together. There you have it, thats a spam musubi!!
- Pro Tip: There is no wrong way to fill your musubi. There are one with a thinner base layer of rice but there is rice on both ends of the spam like a sandwich.
- Now that you have the basics of making and building musubi, experiment with ratios of rice and fillings to see what kind of musubi you like!
Try it with:
- Use different proteins as a filling: loco moco, grilled chicken, seafood, bacon.
- Use different sauces in the fillings: gravy for loco moco or spicy mayo.
- Try making tamago, an omelette or an over easy egg.
Tools Used To Make This Dish*
- Duxtop Portable Induction Cooktop
- Cutting Board: Boos Block Edge Grain
- Cuisinart Stainless Steel Pans
- Half Size Hotel Pan
*I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
