Taste Summer with Spicy Tuna Temaki rolls

September 08, 2010

Summer’s finally here and sushi is the perfect food for a roasting hot day as it is great for barbecues, picnics and summer buffets and will fill you up without weighing you down.

This delicious seasonal recipe is very flexible – you can use tinned tuna steaks or tender chunks of raw tuna meat and add the spicy kick with either a sprinkle of chilli powder or a dash of hot or sweet chilli sauce.

Temaki hand rolls are the perfect food for a summer garden party or eating al fresco with friends as you all build your own. Just stuff the cones of nori full of sticky rice and tasty topping and eat immediately. If you are planning a picnic, then get out your rolling mat or sushi magic rolling machine and try making this recipe as fiery maki rolls instead. That’s the beauty of sushi – lots of ways to make it and lots of ways to eat it.

As always, the first step is to make your sticky and delicious sushi rice; you can make it from scratch on the hob or pop it in a rice cooker.

Once it’s cooked, put it in a hangiri or large bowl and mix in some rice seasoning. You can buy ready made rice seasoning but I like to use a dressing made of of 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar, 1 tablespoon of mirin, 2 teaspoons of castor sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt.

While your rice cools you can make the spicy tuna filling and for this version I am going to use raw tuna and chilli powder.

Chop the raw tuna steak into small chunks and mix with 1.5 teaspoons of Japanese mayonnaise and half a teaspoon of chilli powder. You may want to vary the amount and strength of the chilli powder depending on your taste. Make sure the tuna is completely coated in the spicy mayonnaise mixture and you are ready to roll.

Take a sheet of nori seaweed and slice it in half. Put a piece in the palm of your hand with the rough side up. First take a dollop of rice and spread it in a diagonal line across of the nori sheet, then spoon some of the tuna mix on top.

Roll the seaweed up into a cone shape and you have a nice, spicy tuna temaki that’s ready to eat and is great with slices of pickled gari ginger and a crispy green salad.

This recipe also works well with salmon, just make sure you get a nice fresh piece of sashimi-grade fish to get the full flavour of you are going to eat it raw.