Homemade Crab Stick Maki (Recipe)

Since my wife's nieces and nephews are into Japanese food, my wife decided to make crab stick maki for them last week. We weren't sure how it would turn up but decided that since only the kids were going to eat the makis, it was worth a shot :). You don't get volunteers every day.

Here are the ingredients we used:

• 6 cups of Japanese white rice
• 6 crab sticks
• 2 tbps of rice vineger
• 2 tbps of sugar
• 2 tbps of salt
• 1 tbp of soy sauce
• 6 nori or seaweed sheets
• 1 tbs of mirin or sweet rice wine
  

Following this, here are the steps to prepare your maki:

1. Place you Japanese white rice in a bowl and combine this with vinegar, sugar, salt, mirin and soy sauce. Let the rice mixture set for 10 minutes
2. Cut off the top half of each nori sheet. Place one nori sheet down on the sushi mat covered with plastic wrap with the longer end towards you. Wet your hand and place 1/2 cup mixture over the nori, leaving a one inch border on one long end of the nori.
3. Life the edge of the nori closest to you and fold the filling. Lift the bottom edge of the sushi map and roll towards the top edge while pressing firmly on the sushi rool. Continue rolling towards the end of the roll and continue to add pressure to seal the sushi roll.
4. Slice off about 1/2 inch from each end of the roll and discard trimmings. Slice the roll crosswise into 5 pieces. Repeat the procedure with the rest of the nori and rice.
   
   

You can get most of your groceries from the Japanese mini market called Meijiya along Kelawei Road. I got the sushi mat, rice vinegar and mirin sauce here.

While it looks easy, it's actually a lot harder than I thought. You need to add consistent pressure so that the rice firm up and have an even shape.

The maki initially received mix response from the kids. The really hungry ones walloped a whole bunch of the makis while their smarter cousins watched and waited to see what happen. Eventually senses prevailed and they too join the foray. A delightful sight...at least for my wife.