Here's my latest easy fusion creation. Fish Finger Musubi. I think I can safely claim to this dish being a Kurumicooks original - I haven't seen it anywhere else and it was just one of those serendipitious occasions when I found some fish fingers in the back of the freezer and wonder what to do with them for a quick lunch - eh, viola! The Fish Finger Musubi was born!
If you know your Japanese, you'll know that a "musubi" translates as a "rice ball". Musubi are one of the oldest Japanese foods with a history of a thousand years and more. Musubi are all about a quick, food on the go, style of eating. They make their way into millions if Japanese lunch boxes every day.
Which brings me to fish fingers - those little battered digits beloved of two or three generations of children, mine included. My grown up child of a husband is still partial to the occasional fish finger or three for lunch, so whenever I am away, he always buys some and puts them in the freezer, which, as I said before, is where i found them. My husband made some appreciative noises when I tested one of these out on him and I thought they worked very well too. Taste-wise, using a fish filling complements the nori seaweed wrapper. I added an extra zing with a couple of teapsoons of tartare sauce spread across the fingers although you could use mayo if you have no tartare handy. I added some rocket leaves as a vegetable component although any small salad leaves would work just as well.
These are a cinch to make - the one bit of kit you need is a musubi mould to shape your rice. (These are only about $/£5 on line and usually you get a pair of them - I purchased mine from Amazon.) Once you have your musubi moulds, all you need to do is cook some rice, bake your fish fingers in the oven for 12 - 15 minutes (basically, what the pack tells you to do) and then assemble. What do you get for a few minutes work? A quick, filling and nourishing lunch or supper (I hesitate to use the word "snack" as one of these is really quite filling.) I ate just one of these with a salad and was more than ready for an afternoon's work.
I really hope you try these out. They are quick, good to eat and fun to make - we should all have a bit of fun in the kitchen now and again, shouldn't we?
You can find the Youtube tutorial by clicking Fish Finger Musubi or by scrolling to the bottom of the page. The written recipe is just below.
Happy moulding! Kurumi XXXX.
ingredients:
(makes 3 musubi)
4 frozen fish fingers
200g / 7 oz cooked Japanese rice
1 sheet of nori seaweed
4 tsp tartare sauce
1 musubi mould
how to:
cook the fish fingers according to the instructions on the packet. this should take 12 - 15 minutes
take a sheet of nori and fold in half lengthways. (make sure the folded nori is the same width as the musubi mould.) then, cut in half
lay 1/2 a sheet of nori on a cutting board. place the musubi mould in the middle of the nori. put 50g of cooked japanese rice into the mould. insert the mould lid and press down to compact the rice. remove the mould and then take the mould lid off of the rice. if the lid is stuck to the rice, then gently prise it off using a knife
next, place 2 cooked fish fingers on the rice layer. add 2 tsp of tartare sauce and spread the sauce along the fish fingers
pile some rocket leaves or other small salad leaves on the top of the fish fingers
now, put another 50g of cooked rice into the mould. compact the rice with the musubi lid and then remove the mould and the lid
using a slice or the blade of a large knife, ift up the rice layer and place it carfully over the salad leaves
last, wrap the fish fingers and rice up with the nori sheet, gently closing the nori over the top. if the ends of the nori won't close, use a few grains of rice to stick them together
your first fish finger musubi is ready! repeat the process for #2