This post has a couple of firsts in it for me. First, I will be trying Spam for the first time in my life. Second, this will be my first attempt at making a cooking video for this blog.
Spam musubi is Hawaiian in origin I believe, although I may be wrong. It basically looks like Spam sushi. I never had Spam before, so I really had no clue what it tasted like. However, I think it is safe to say that unless it is in the form of a musubi, I don’t think I would ever have it.
Before I move on to the video, there were a few of lessons learned while doing this:
1- Get a camera person to help. Cooking one-handed while trying to film = crappy video.
2- Remember to take out the recycling and the garbage before you start filming. I got it together and was about to take it down and got distracted. Then I started filming forgetting about it. Hence the lovely bag by the door in the background at one point.
3- Get a real camera. I shot with my point and shoot digital camera. Not ideal, but it was an experiment to see how it turned out.
4- Do not shoot at night when you are tired. I was saying “ummm” every two seconds because my brain was shutting down. My radio professor would be ashamed of me right now, not to mention telling me off and threatening to fail me.
5- One last thing, the camera so adds pounds. Must go on a diet lol.
I had to split the video into two because youtube won’t allow videos over 10 minutes. Anyhoo, on with the show…
I should point out that in the clip, I did not cook enough rice. I think I would need to double the amount to 2 cups uncooked rice.
Spam Musubi
1 can Spam
4 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar
Nori sheets
Furikake
Sushi rice
2 cups uncooked sushi rice (short grain rice)
2 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 tsp sugar
Method
- Rinse sushi rice until the water runs clear. Place rice in a rice cooker or a pot and add water. If cooking on stove top, bring to a boil and reduce heat to low. Cover and let steam 25 minutes.
- In the meantime, slice Spam into thin slices (about 1 cm) and pan fry until browned on both sides.
- Place browned Spam in a plate or bowl and sprinkle the sugar over top. Add soy sauce and incorporate. Set aside.
- Whisk together the rice vinegar and teaspoon of sugar. Set aside.
- When the rice is ready, pour rice vinegar mix over top and gently fold in with rice paddle or spoon. Fan the rice when doing this to get rid of extra moisture.
- Sprinkle furikake over the rice to taste and fold into the rice.
- Cut nori sheet length wise in half. Wet and place musubi mold in the center of nori strip and place Spam into the mold.
- Wet hands and take some rice and form a ball. Place rice into the mold. If you are using a mold, flatten using the top flat piece of the mold. If you are using a cut out Spam can like I did, push down of rice with a rice paddle or your fingers. Be careful not to cut yourself if using your fingers.
- Pull mold off the rice and Spam. Fold the nori over, wetting one edge in order to seal the musubi.
this looks really good! I’m not a big fan of spam… but I would try this
Nice… and unique! Thanks!
@Jo – thanks! I am not a fan of spam either, but I had to try this. Not regretting it one bit.
Not bad for your first try at making spam musubi. I would recommend finding the actual spam musubi mold instead of using the spam can; you don’t have to watch out for the sharp edges and the mold comes with a press, which results in perfectly rectangular spam musubi. When you marinate the spam, you could experiment with other sauces for different flavors, like teriyaki sauce. Also, spam comes in different flavors. From experience, you necessarily don’t have to make sushi rice for spam musubi; the rice just has to be moist and sticky enough. You might also find it easier to bite into a spam musubi that is made with two smaller layers of rice with the spam slice in the middle instead of one big layer of rice on top of the spam.