I was dreadfully tuckered out after making my Ultimate Chinese Chicken Salad™ and shrimp fried rice over at alohaaloha’s last night. On my way home today, I dropped by the fabulous Mitsuwa Marketplace and picked up some sushi fixings. The big ticket was a wing of hamachi (yellow tail) tuna, plus an assortment box of kappa maki, tekka maki, ebi, ika, maguro, hamachi, sake and tako. I also bought an experimental dose of sayori halfbeak filets, just for grins. A bottle of Kirin lager, some organic gari (pickled ginger) and a tray of shoyu ninniku rounded out the bill perfectly.
It took about a week or so for me to recover from being inducted into The Sashimi Preservation Society. Yet, even after consuming pounds of fresh caught tuna, I’m back in the saddle again this evening. Tonight, I’m working on my latest concoction, the Shrimp Fried Rice Te Maki[sup]®[/sup]. This hand roll contains the following:
Tempura shrimp
Hamachi wing
Nori
Nigiri rice
Scallions
Yama gobo*
Cucumber
Daikon sprouts
Goma
Wasabi
[sup]* Pickled burdock root[/sup]
All rolled together in one of those unforgettable Japanese dinner style ice cream cones, it assumes the basic flavor components of the classic Chinese shrimp fried rice. It must be the crisp breading on the tempura shrimp that combines with the rich hamachi filet to bring out the nigiri rice and other vegetables in this bizarre amalgamation. I discovered this new delight quite by accident.
It was after being just whacked enough to want something different in the midst of making my own home grown sushi one night. I had bought two large tempura te maki that consisted of tempura shrimp rolled into rice and seaweed. For gits and shiggles, I unravled one and stuffed in some hamachi and scallions. The result (after dipping it into my wasabi mud) was stupendous. So, tonight, I’m going after the real thing. I’ll be adding all the minor elements from my most favorite sake te maki (salmon skin hand roll) into this revised edition. Wish me luck.
What sort of sushi creation have you come up with to satisfy your own deranged vision of raw fish gone terribly wrong?