Smoked Tuna Masago Sushi Roll

Smoked Tuna Masago Sushi Roll

My brother makes some really incredible canned smoked tuna and I was lucky enough to get some from him recently. This is one of the things I decided to make with it. I love sushi and I really like to use masago in it. This sushi roll highlights both and it tastes as amazing as it looks and it's really simple to make too!

So yum!

I started with the sushi rice.

Sushi rice is super simple. Get some Calrose or other short grained white rice and cook it up in a pot or rice maker. I use a pot because I already have too many specially designed gadgets in my kitchen and the pot just works. 2 cups of water to 1 1/3 cups Calrose rice. I have a hot water tap so I use that for the water, then add the rice and turn it on high. Let it get to a rolling boil for 30 seconds or so then pop on the lid and pull it off the heat while you turn the burner down to low and let it cool off a bit. After your burner is cooled off, return the pot to the burner to simmer for at least 20-30 minutes then check your rice. If you take a taste and it's still a bit tough in the middle add 2-3 tablespoons of water and set back to simmer for another 10 minutes. Take it off the heat now and fluff it, put the lid back on and let it sit while you do whatever. I like to do this early so the rice has some time to age for a little while, maybe an hour or so. After it has cooled a bit (lid on) put the rice in a big bowl and add 3-6 tablespoons of rice vinegar to taste and stir it with a wooden spoon until well mixed and fluffed. Keep it covered until you are ready to prepare the rolls.

When you are ready to finish up your sushi rolls, it's time to set up your rolling station. This is mine today. My brothers incredible smoked tuna (about 8 oz) mixed with 8 oz neufchatel or cream cheese.

Some green onion, a sushi mat, chop stick, iced tea spoon, plastic wrap, masago and nori. Here's the assembly sequence.

Place down some plastic wrap on your sushi mat, then thinly and evenly spread the sushi rice to cover just the bottom half of the mat. This is a thin, light layer, it's really easy to over do the rice in a sushi roll. Next add one 1/2 sheet of nori to cover the rice. Then using your spoon and chop stick add a nice even row of the smoked tuna mixture and top that with a little of the masago and some strips of green onion. Then you roll it up! Do this slowly and apply even pressure all the way across the row to get it nice and snug.

Adding the last coating of masago, which is the roe of the capelin fish. Capelin is a type of smelt found in Arctic waters. Capelin is a sustainable fish found in large quantities, so eating masago sushi is an ocean-friendly option.

Lay down some plastic wrap on a sushi plate or on a cutting board and then lay down a 2 inch wide 1/4 inch deep layer of masago onto it with a small spoon. After unrolling your smoked tuna roll from the mat and it's plastic wrap, set it on top of the masago and press gently, turn the roll and press again until you have covered the roll. Now roll it up gently in the plastic wrap and roll it gently until it's uniformly covered with the masago. You can now put it in the refrigerator for later or unwrap it immediately and plate it.

I chose to plate mine immediately because I was hungry and it looked soooooo good!

Then I added some garnishes. Some green onion, pickled ginger, wasabi and a squeeze of Kewpie sriracha mayo with a little bit of masago in it.

I hope you'll try this. Thanks for the tuna little brother!