Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Gunkanmaki

October 14, 2014

smoked salmon and cream cheese gunkan maki

Sushi comes in all different shapes and sizes and some of it can look a bit daunting to make at home.

I have often admired (and eaten) Gunkanmaki (warship roll) as it whizzes past on the conveyer belt of my local sushi restaurant and decided it was time to branch out from the traditional sushi roll and put my culinary skills to the test with this special type of nigiri.

You can see how Gunkanmaki got its name - it looks like a boat made out of nori seaweed and filled with rice with a topping of soft or finely chopped ingredients dolloped on.

Traditionally, the Japanese, use toppings which are delicious but can be an acquired taste such as oysters or fish roe. I decided to start with a more western flavour and was surprised to discover that Gunkanmaki only needs basic assembly skills.

I was in a rush so I popped in a packet of Yutaka microwavable rice, which is ready to eat in 1 minute, and seasoned it with mitzukan powder.

It's up to you if you want to make your rice from scratch using Yutaka sushi rice, with a traditional seasoning of 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar, 1 tablespoon of mirin, 2 teaspoons of castor sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt.

When the rice had cooled, I pressed it into my plastic nigiri mould and popped out my perfect balls of rice.

Next, I cut the nori seaweed into strips 3cm wide and wrapped a slice of nori around each rice ball, making sure it overlapped at the starting point. The seaweed sticks together perfectly with one grain of cooked sticky rice.

The nori was about 1cm higher than the rice which made my boat shape and left space for lots of topping.

For the topping, I made enough for 12 rolls by mixing up 50g of smoked salmon pieces and 50g of cream cheese in a small bowl.

Each warship was topped off with a loaded teaspoon of the smoked salmon and cheese and I scoffed them down with a blob of wasabi, a soy sauce dip and some tangy mixed vegetable pickles.






Also in Japanese Recipes

Japanese canapé recipes for parties

November 29, 2019 0 Comments

Christmas is in a month now! Fancy trying something new for parties? Here are some Japanese canapé recipes! (You can also check another canapé recipe here)....

View full article →

Salmon, Sweet potato with Yuzu Pepper Creamy Mushroom Sauce

November 01, 2019 0 Comments

As part of our Chefs focus feature we bring you a tasty recipe for Salmon, Sweet potato with Yuzu Pepper Creamy...

View full article →

Autumn: Japan's Most Bountiful Season!

September 16, 2019 0 Comments

Autumn is here! We call it Shokuyoku no aki (食欲の秋) means autumn is a season for appetite. Autumn is a harvest season for potatoes and mushrooms, so dishes...

View full article →