I have no idea if there is a more proper naming convention than this, so
there you have it.

Last night I picked up a few essentials and my wife asked if I would make
her some spicy tuna hand rolls and soft-shelled crab rolls. This gave me
the idea... spicy crab roll. It's basically a variation of a roll or hand
roll that I've seen elsewhere called "yum-yum".

Ingredients (I will list the brands that I use or recommend):

Imitation crab - Choripdong
Masago (seasoned smelt/capelin roe) - dist. Chicago Food Corp.
Pure sesame oil - Kadoya
Srirachu (hot chile sauce) - Huy Fong Foods Inc.
Kewpie (mayonnaise) - dist. Toshoku America, prod. Q.P. Corp.
Higashimaru Kabayaki-tare (mock eel sauce) - dist. Daiei Trading Chicago
Co.
Green onion

Nori (roasted, seaweed) - Nagai's (also called sushinori)
Sushi rice - Han Kuk Mi
Manjo aji-mirin (sweet cooking rice wine) - Kikkoman
Rice vinegar (seasoned) - Marukan
Vinegar (natural) - Mitsukan
sugar (plain cane/granulated)
Tamanoi (sushinoko - powdered vinegar) - import. JFC International
Cucumber

Honey panko (Japanese bread crumbs) - Shirakiku
Sesame seeds (roasted) - ASSI

Soy sauce - Kikkoman Lite (I'm looking for a better recommendation
though!)
Wasabi (powdered/prepared) - I prefer powdered if I have time - Ottogi
wasabi powder, S&B prepared wasabi in a tube if not.

Preparation:

WORD OF WARNING, I don't follow recipes (I am inspired by them), nor do I
measure. So... taste CONSTANTLY (unless you're comfortable with eyeballing
ingredients). Also, I'll simply use measurements as in, a little, a lot or
in between. They mean just that. Good luck.

Make your sushi rice how you like. I put aji-mirin in mine as well (just a
little to in between). So, three cups of rice for me would be four cups of
water (in my nice Zojirushi rice cooker) and a little to in between amount
of aji-mirin.

In the mean time, prepare the filling.

First, cut the lengths of crab sticks in half (about eight to ten sticks if
you use my brand). Then shred them. I do this by holding a few sticks
together at a time and squeezing a little bit then pulling apart.

Mix crab (a lot, if you use the brand I mentioned, then about six to eight
full length sticks (they're about eight to ten inches long)), masago (a lot,
maybe two or more tablespoons), sesame oil (a little, I do mean... A LITTLE,
taste), sriracha (a lot, I like it hot, taste), kewpie (in between to a lot,
you want it creamy, but only enough to *coat* the filling mixture, not make
a sauce of it, taste), diced green onions (a lot, the green, not the white,
taste).

The kabayaki-tare can help sweeten (balance) the heat. I use this mainly
when my wife and children are eating with me.

By this time you should have a base mixture (that you have tasted SEVERAL
times whilst adding SMALL AMOUNTS at a time to insure taste quality).

Prepare your rice. I like using one of these three methods. I'll explain
why.

1. Take the natural vinegar and mix with sugar. On a guess... I'd say
about three quarters of a cup with maybe two or more tablespoons of sugar.
TASTE! You want it to taste vinegar-y, but sweet. Don't go overboard...
it's easy to do.

2. Powdered vinegar. My youngest daughter (she's 4, 5 in December) is the
ONLY one who likes this. My wife (and our newest daughter in her belly)
says it's too pungent/potent (you take your pick). It makes my other
daughters almost gag (5 and 7, 6 in December and 8 in November). I don't
hate it, but I surely don't like it.

3. Seasoned rice vinegar. Make your own!!! This is a good choice for
American-style sushi in my opinion.

After mixing the rice "sauce" I like to plug in my little rotary fan and
"fan" the rice that way, whilst chopping at the rice (hi-ya hand movements)
and slowly drizzling your fully mixed (and sugar dissolved) "sauce" over the
rice. Make sure and TASTE as you go. Hot rice won't be appealing if you're
used to semi-chilled sushi rice, but it is too important to let your entire
batch of rice be ruined because you couldn't handle warm rice.

Now, slice the cucumber long ways avoiding the middle as much as possible.
You should normally come out with four to five slices of cucumber this way.
Discard or just throw it down your neck, the rest. Now, julienne those four
to five slices (again, lengthwise, slicing thinly).

Now, after your rice has cooled to the point of your liking, you should be
ready-to-roll (pun intended)!

I use a bamboo mat covered with a bit of plastic wrap. However, I stink at
making rolls and usually end up grabbing it after the filling has
sufficiently been rolled over (and out of the way of getting yourself
messy).

Put some rice on a sheet of nori (normally about three quarters of the way
across from you, and entirely the width or length) spread it accordingly.
Now, place a few of your julienned cucumbers lengthwise and then plop some
mixture down and spread it (I find this is easiest when I just pick it up
and seperate it a bit).

Roll it. Eat it.

OPTIONAL:

Lightly roll the roll in panko and/or push the roll (on one side only) into
some sesame seeds.

Mix wasabi and lite soy sauce to your liking and dip.

*** I hate ginger.

Also, I know I said I don't use measurements, but after thinking about it I
decided it would be moronic and probably wouldn't be met with much glee if I
allowed people to go about wasting a bunch of their resources in trying to
comprehend a vague recipe. Therefore, I inevitably made this a rather long
post.

Good luck with this and I hope this wasn't too hard to follow. I also hope
you enjoy! If you have any questions or comments feel free to throw them at
me.

-Lost

-Lost wrote:
> I have no idea if there is a more proper naming convention than this, so
> there you have it.
>
> Last night I picked up a few essentials and my wife asked if I would make
> her some spicy tuna hand rolls and soft-shelled crab rolls. This gave me
> the idea... spicy crab roll. It's basically a variation of a roll or hand
> roll that I've seen elsewhere called "yum-yum".
>
> Ingredients (I will list the brands that I use or recommend):
>
> Imitation crab - Choripdong
> Masago (seasoned smelt/capelin roe) - dist. Chicago Food Corp.
> Pure sesame oil - Kadoya
> Srirachu (hot chile sauce) - Huy Fong Foods Inc.
> Kewpie (mayonnaise) - dist. Toshoku America, prod. Q.P. Corp.
> Higashimaru Kabayaki-tare (mock eel sauce) - dist. Daiei Trading Chicago
> Co.
> Green onion
>
> Nori (roasted, seaweed) - Nagai's (also called sushinori)
> Sushi rice - Han Kuk Mi
> Manjo aji-mirin (sweet cooking rice wine) - Kikkoman
> Rice vinegar (seasoned) - Marukan
> Vinegar (natural) - Mitsukan
> sugar (plain cane/granulated)
> Tamanoi (sushinoko - powdered vinegar) - import. JFC International
> Cucumber
>
> Honey panko (Japanese bread crumbs) - Shirakiku
> Sesame seeds (roasted) - ASSI
>
> Soy sauce - Kikkoman Lite (I'm looking for a better recommendation
> though!)
> Wasabi (powdered/prepared) - I prefer powdered if I have time - Ottogi
> wasabi powder, S&B prepared wasabi in a tube if not.
>
> Preparation:
>
> WORD OF WARNING, I don't follow recipes (I am inspired by them), nor do I
> measure. So... taste CONSTANTLY (unless you're comfortable with eyeballing
> ingredients). Also, I'll simply use measurements as in, a little, a lot or
> in between. They mean just that. Good luck.
>
> Make your sushi rice how you like. I put aji-mirin in mine as well (just a
> little to in between). So, three cups of rice for me would be four cups of
> water (in my nice Zojirushi rice cooker) and a little to in between amount
> of aji-mirin.
>
> In the mean time, prepare the filling.
>
> First, cut the lengths of crab sticks in half (about eight to ten sticks if
> you use my brand). Then shred them. I do this by holding a few sticks
> together at a time and squeezing a little bit then pulling apart.
>
> Mix crab (a lot, if you use the brand I mentioned, then about six to eight
> full length sticks (they're about eight to ten inches long)), masago (a lot,
> maybe two or more tablespoons), sesame oil (a little, I do mean... A LITTLE,
> taste), sriracha (a lot, I like it hot, taste), kewpie (in between to a lot,
> you want it creamy, but only enough to *coat* the filling mixture, not make
> a sauce of it, taste), diced green onions (a lot, the green, not the white,
> taste).
>
> The kabayaki-tare can help sweeten (balance) the heat. I use this mainly
> when my wife and children are eating with me.
>
> By this time you should have a base mixture (that you have tasted SEVERAL
> times whilst adding SMALL AMOUNTS at a time to insure taste quality).
>
> Prepare your rice. I like using one of these three methods. I'll explain
> why.
>
> 1. Take the natural vinegar and mix with sugar. On a guess... I'd say
> about three quarters of a cup with maybe two or more tablespoons of sugar.
> TASTE! You want it to taste vinegar-y, but sweet. Don't go overboard...
> it's easy to do.
>
> 2. Powdered vinegar. My youngest daughter (she's 4, 5 in December) is the
> ONLY one who likes this. My wife (and our newest daughter in her belly)
> says it's too pungent/potent (you take your pick). It makes my other
> daughters almost gag (5 and 7, 6 in December and 8 in November). I don't
> hate it, but I surely don't like it.
>
> 3. Seasoned rice vinegar. Make your own!!! This is a good choice for
> American-style sushi in my opinion.
>
> After mixing the rice "sauce" I like to plug in my little rotary fan and
> "fan" the rice that way, whilst chopping at the rice (hi-ya hand movements)
> and slowly drizzling your fully mixed (and sugar dissolved) "sauce" over the
> rice. Make sure and TASTE as you go. Hot rice won't be appealing if you're
> used to semi-chilled sushi rice, but it is too important to let your entire
> batch of rice be ruined because you couldn't handle warm rice.
>
> Now, slice the cucumber long ways avoiding the middle as much as possible.
> You should normally come out with four to five slices of cucumber this way.
> Discard or just throw it down your neck, the rest. Now, julienne those four
> to five slices (again, lengthwise, slicing thinly).
>
> Now, after your rice has cooled to the point of your liking, you should be
> ready-to-roll (pun intended)!
>
> I use a bamboo mat covered with a bit of plastic wrap. However, I stink at
> making rolls and usually end up grabbing it after the filling has
> sufficiently been rolled over (and out of the way of getting yourself
> messy).
>
> Put some rice on a sheet of nori (normally about three quarters of the way
> across from you, and entirely the width or length) spread it accordingly.
> Now, place a few of your julienned cucumbers lengthwise and then plop some
> mixture down and spread it (I find this is easiest when I just pick it up
> and seperate it a bit).
>
> Roll it. Eat it.
>
> OPTIONAL:
>
> Lightly roll the roll in panko and/or push the roll (on one side only) into
> some sesame seeds.
>
> Mix wasabi and lite soy sauce to your liking and dip.
>
> *** I hate ginger.
>
> Also, I know I said I don't use measurements, but after thinking about it I
> decided it would be moronic and probably wouldn't be met with much glee if I
> allowed people to go about wasting a bunch of their resources in trying to
> comprehend a vague recipe. Therefore, I inevitably made this a rather long
> post.
>
> Good luck with this and I hope this wasn't too hard to follow. I also hope
> you enjoy! If you have any questions or comments feel free to throw them at
> me.
>
> -Lost

If it hasn't been mentioned yet, toast that nori to give it a nice
crispy edge. Works wonders on rolls or handrolls.