How to Make Glorious Bacon Sushi

October 13, 2015

Sushi is a favourite foodstuff of many, but perhaps you have sat awake late at night wondering if it can become any greater - perhaps you have failed at past Frankenstein-like experiments where you have spliced two foods together and the results have been disastrous. Burger ice cream... no. Strawberry hotdogs... no. porkchop cupcakes... no.

Your food disasters may have destroyed your optimism for future foodie experiments, but allow us to introduce you to something that could not possibly go wrong: Bacon sushi.

No, we're not talking about a measly little morsel of bacon in your sushi roll, we're talking about wrapping your sushi in crisp, streaky strands of perfectly cooked bacon instead of nori. Don't take it personally nori, we love you, but lately we're wondering if you're just too good for us. Occasionally we need to challenge our arteries and see just what they can hold up to (see our Facebook fans' past experiments with ramen-crust pizza.)

So here you have it, the recipe and technique required to make bacon sushi, try it, if you want to know what living really feels like:

Ingredients

• 1 Kg Thinly sliced bacon rashers
• 1/2 tub cream cheese
• 1/2 Stick of cucumber
• 1 Punnet Fresh tomatoes
• Sushi Rice
• 1/4 Cup Rice wine vinegar
• 2 Tbsp Sugar
• 1 Tsp Salt

How to do it:

First things first, you're going to have to make some great sushi rice to hold up to all that awesome bacon-y flavour. Start by cooking the rice in water as per the packet instructions. Usually you will need to cook the rice with the lid on until all the water is gone, and then let it sit until cool.

When your rice is still a little warm it's the right time to infuse some dressing. In a bowl, mix together the rice wine vinegar, sugar and salt until all the granules have dissolved. Pour it over your sushi rice and mix in well. Once this is done, leave your sushi rice to reach room temperature somewhere cool.

Now it's bacon time. Preheat your oven to about 180C and line a tray with lots of foil (bacon is messy business). Arrange your bacon on the tray side-by-side until you create a sheet of bacon. Since UK bacon doesn't come in uniform strips like US bacon, you might need to get a knife and neaten things up. Try not to layer over too much or you might get differences in cooking and your bacon sheet will be less pliable. 

When you're happy with your work top the bacon with another sheet of foil, and then place another tray on top of that. This is the expert way to cook perfect, flat, crisp bacon (I've seen professional chefs do it this way.). Bake your tray sandwich of bacon for 15-25 minutes, but check regularly to see when it is cooked, but still pliable. When you're happy with it, remove from the oven and leave to cool between the trays.

When everything is room temperature, you can begin assemblage. Roll the sushi just as you normally would with a bamboo mat, but use the bacon sheet instead of nori. This is when you need to make sure your bacon was cooked right! If it was overcooked, it will be brittle and snap. 

In the middle of your sushi roll you have a wide range of choice when it comes to fillings. We especially like spreading the rice with a thin layer of cream cheese, then a layer of chopped, de-seeded tomatoes and a stick of cucumber (avocado is incredible too.). 

Slice your sushi with a very sharp knife to ensure it looks like a little rolled rather than a squished up mess. You can even finish by topping the rolls with yummy Japanese mayonnaise!

YUM.