We made this recipe for lunch, a while ago when we were watching Moana for our Disney movie night. I love planning out the whole day with recipes inspired by or from the region the movies are based in.
While the kids weren’t a big fan of spam, they loved the rice but I grew up on grilled spam and mustard, so I loved paring it together.
This was such a fun lunch, thay we had after having Loco Moco for breakfast earlier that day.
Hawaiian Masubi
Prep Time25minutes mins
Cook Time5minutes mins
Total Time30minutes mins
servings 8
Sushi Rice
- 1 ½ cup dry short grain sushi rice
- 2 cups water
- 2 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
Caramelized Spam
- 1 can 12 oz Spam
- 2 ½ teaspoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoon granulated sugar
- ¼ cup water
Assembly
- 3 sheets roasted seaweed nori cut into 2 inch wide strips
Instructions
Prepare the rice. Wash the rice until the water runs clear. Add the washed rice and water in your rice cooker and cook. In a small mixing bowl, mix together the rice vinegar, sugar and salt until the sugar dissolves. Then drizzle the mixture over the cooked rice and carefully mix it with a rice paddle until combined.
Cook the spam. Slice the spam into 1/4 inch thick slices. Using a medium sized skillet on medium-high heat, cook the spam until browned and crispy on the edges for about 4 minutes, flip after 2 minutes for even cooking.
Caramelize the spam. In a small bowl, mix the soy sauce and water until combined. Turn the heat to medium low heat and sprinkle the sugar evenly over the spam and flip the spam to evenly coat, about 30 seconds. Next, pour in the soy sauce mixture. Swirl the sauce and flip the spam to evenly distribute. Then let the spam gently simmer until the sauce dissolves around 4 minutes. Flip the spam slices every 2 minutes.
Assemble. Line the inside of your Spam can with plastic wrap. Add about 1/2 cup of rice into the lined spam container and gently press down to fill the mold.
If you don’t want to use the can, you can just use your hands to form the rice into a rectangle to fit the spam.
Pull the rice out of the mold. Place a slice of caramelized spam on top of the nori strip at the bottom, then place the rice on top of the spam, then roll up the spam and rice wrapping the nori around it.
Secure the end by wetting with water and place the musubi with the seam side down. Continue with remaining pieces. For a breakfast musubi option, add a rolled egg omelette.
Notes
- Brown and crisp the spam first. It’s very important that you brown the spam on medium-high heat first. It renders some fat and makes a very crispy crust.
- Caramelize the spam on low heat. Then you will use some sugar and soy sauce mixed with water to braise and make that beautiful caramelized flavor over the Spam. You will end up with a dark brown caramelized surface that is glossy and delicious.
- Shape the rice in the plastic wrap after you pull it out of the spam container. When you pull the rice out of the container the shape may disfigure a tiny bit. To tighten the shape, gently pack the rice into the desired shape by using plastic wrap to protect your fingers from sticking to the rice.
- Seal the edges of the nori strip with a dap of water. To seal the ends of the seaweed strip, simply dip your finger in some cold water and seal the ends.
