San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Spicy Tuna Hand Rolls
3 tablespoons chopped tuna (can use scraps from cutting tuna for nigiri)
½ teaspoon mayonnaise
½ teaspoon flying fish roe
¼ teaspoon Sriracha sauce
¼ teaspoon finely chopped green onion, white part only or white and tender green part ½ sheet nori, toasted
¼ cup Sushi Rice (see recipe), at body temperature, covered with a damp kitchen towel 1⁄8 teaspoon wasabi paste 10 daikon sprouts, roots removed
Soy sauce, for serving
To make the filling: In a small bowl, combine the tuna, mayonnaise, roe, Sriracha sauce and green onion and stir to mix.
Assemble hand rolls: Hold the nori sheet, shiny side down, in your non-dominant hand, securing it in place with your thumb on top and supporting its length with your fingers. Moisten your dominant hand with water and pick up the sushi rice. Gather it into a loose ball, then press from the corner into the middle of the nori. (The rice should be about ¼-inch thick, leaving a border of the nori on the top, bottom and side uncovered. The other half of the nori should not have any rice on it.)
Make an indentation in the middle of the rice, and smear wasabi over the indentation. Place the filling on top of the wasabi.
Bring the bottom corner of the nori to the middle of the nori sheet, so that the midpoint of the bottom of the nori becomes the point of the cone. Roll the nori around the ingredients and sushi rice.
Continue to roll until you have formed a cone.
Sushi Rice
1 piece kombu, about a 2-inch square
1 cup rice vinegar
½ cup sugar
5 tablespoons kosher salt
6 cups just-cooked Japanese short-grain rice
Instructions: In a small saucepan, combine the kombu, vinegar, sugar and salt; place over medium heat and bring just to a boil, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar and salt. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature. Discard the kelp and store the seasoned vinegar in a nonreactive airtight jar in the refrigerator until ready to use.
Place the cooked rice in a shallow, wide, nonreactive bowl. Using a wooden or silicone spatula moistened with water, gently spread rice as thinly as possible. Splash cup of the vinegar evenly over the rice, then, using the spatula, “cut” the rice.
To cut, hold the spatula at a 45-degree angle, and slice into the rice, turning the bowl as you make this repeated motion.
As you mix the rice and vinegar, wave a hand fan to help cool the rice and to remove some moisture. (You want to cool the rice as quickly as possible to room temperature to get rid of extra moisture, but not beyond that.)
Place a dampened kitchen towel over the rice, and if you’re not using it right away, place it in a warm spot in the kitchen, or over the very low heat of a pilot light or double boiler.