Man Cave Cuisine - Spicy Tuna Handroll

Sushi is Man Cave Cuisine? You bet when it's an easy-to-make Hand Roll. That's what it's all about when you hang out in my Man Cave - simply delicious food. 

You don't have to be an expert sushi chef to make my version of a Spicy Tuna Hand Roll. Just get out a sheet of dried seaweed and roll up some fishy filling and rice, with a few slivers of your favorite veggies. If you can make a burrito then you can do this recipe.

Go fishing and bring home the protein - or if you're a city boy then get some fish from you local fish monger. And for a cheap$kate version using fake crab (called krab) go to Hindsight at the end of this post to get the lowdown.

So read on guys (and gals,) I got it all laid out for you below. Man Cave Cuisine isn't all meat and potatoes.

The easiest sushi to make is a Hand Roll. And for my next Sushi Recipe Video I'll have you literally eating out of my hands.

When you dine at the sushi counter in a Japanese restaurant it can be intimidating -- all that precise assembling and slicing choreography.

Making a Hand Roll is like making a flatbread (or tortilla) sandwich roll. Just slice up some veggie and fish ingredients and pile it on a sheet of seaweed (known as Nori) half covered with cooked sushi rice -- then roll it into the shape of a pointy-end snow cone.

Japanese chefs work overtime on visual presentation, but a Hand Roll is more about what you put in, than how it looks.

For this Hand Roll I'm using Spicy Tuna. And Spicy Tuna is just mayo and hot sauce (usually Sriracha Spicy Chili Sauce, or an imitation brand) mixed into chopped raw tuna. But any hot sauce can be used.

(For a cheaper hand roll scroll go to the end of my blog post under Hindsight, and read about making one with imitation crab - I'll have a fake crab recipe, with photos and text, posted in a few weeks, too.)

If you made my Nigiri Tuna Sushi from the last blog post then you may have saved some tuna scraps. A hand roll is perfect for the small trims of tuna, any uneven pieces, and unattractive cuts. (When I make sushi I never throw away the fish scraps, unless it's just too stringy or chewy.)

The only tricky thing is spreading out sticky rice and rolling the Hand Roll. And even that isn't too difficult.

For handling sticky rice just dampen your hands. And for rolling, roll the loaded seaweed diagonally, and seal it with dampened fingertips -- the ingredients will hold together in a sleek black wrap.

With a hand roll the rice doesn't have to be perfect sticky sushi rice. You can use any favorite rice recipe. The sheet of dried seaweed will hold it all together.

You will need a good cut of raw fish (I get mine free from my fisherman neighbor Don, click here to see video.) For this recipe I used fatty tuna. I used a leaner cut of tuna for my Nigiri Tuna Sushi video recipe from a last week. And Click here for  a list of fish commonly used for sushi.

Probably the most unusual ingredient for a Sushi Roll is dried seaweed. They come in 8 inch square thin sheets; anywhere from 10 to 30 sheets to a package. I get mine at Oriental markets, but they are now being sold in some regular chain grocery stores. If you have a Little Tokyo or Chinatown nearby, then you can find dried seaweed, for a decent price. The best price I've found is 30 sheets for $2.49 -- that's less than 10 cents per sheet! Even if you have to pay twice as much, you will surely use up the whole package trying out everything in my Sushi Recipes Video Series.

I was intimidated to try making sushi for a long time, but now I do it frequently. The main thing is to do it a few times -- with a couple of mistakes under your belt, you will get better. I have.

So do check back for more sushi recipes, including a cheap, easy-to-make, California Roll, that's made with krab, cucumber and creamy avocado.

  Spicy Tuna Hand Roll- VIDEO 

Play it here, video runs 2 minutes, 30 seconds.

My YouTube video link for viewing or embedding, just click here.

Ingredients for Spicy Tuna (2 to 4 rolls)

• About 6 ounces of tuna - skinless and no bones. I used fatty tuna for this recipe.
• 3 tablespoons mayo - I used light mayo. Add more or less to desired creaminess.
• 1 teaspoon Sirracha Chilli Sauce - can also use a favorite hot sauce, grated horseradish, or a pinch of ceyanne pepper. Okay to add a little at a time to reach desired spicyness.

Other Ingredients

• About 2 cups cooked Sushi Rice - for my Sushi Rice recipe, click here for text with photos, or scroll down to the end for video only.) You can use any type of cooked rice for a hand roll.
• 1-2 sheets of dried seaweed - sliced in half
• Favorite thinly sliced veggies - carrot, green onions, cucumber or avocado. For a hand roll, fill it up with any favorite sliced veggies, raw or lightly steamed.

Directions for Spicy Tuna Hand Roll
Have Sushi Rice at the ready, room temperature. To see my Sushi Rice recipe, click here.

Mix mayo and Sirracha Chilli Sauce (or your favorite hot sauce) in a bowl. Add a little hot sauce at at time and taste, to bring up to desired spicyness.

Roughly chop raw tuna into small pieces. Mix chopped tuna with spicy mayo. Cover and store in refrigerator until ready to use.

Thinly slice favorite veggies such as: carrot, green onion, cucumber and avocado. Slices can be long or short. You can use packaged shredded carrot or peel and slice your own.

For whole carrots just peel off skin and chop off ends. Split carrot in half across the middle, then split one more time lengthways. Finally slice carrot segments thinly.

For cucumbers slice in half lengthwise and spoon-out seeds. You can peel some of the cucumber or not.

For green onion slice off the green stems and give the stems one more slice lengthwise. (While the green stems are tasty they are tough to bite through, so slicing them thinly makes it easier.) You can sprinkle in some of the chopped white onion pieces too. (Discard green onion root and any wilted stems parts.)

Next, slice dried seaweed in half. It's kind of brittle so handle carefully. Please note that dried seaweed is super-obsorbant, so make sure cutting surface, your hands, and the knife are dry.

Time to bring it all together. Place halved seaweed section, lengthwise, on a dry surface. Dampen fingers and spread on a layer of Sushi Rice over about one half of the seaweed. Just enough rice to cover the surface, no need to pile it on too thick.

Now add spicy tuna on the rice-side of the seaweed. It's up to you how much fish to add - a thick or thin layer. Again, once you've made a few Hand Rolls then you will get better at figuring out the amount of rice to fish you like.

 Okay lets wrap it up! Lay on your veggie slices diagonally over the spicy tuna and rice. Next, roll the seaweed in a diagonal direction: bottom left side to upper right side. (I'm right handed, but if you're left handed then make the hand roll filling on the right side of the seaweed, and roll it bottom right to top left.)

Finally seal the Hand Roll with a bead of water. When you have rolled it up moisten fingertips and wipe the seaweed end-edge and press it together. It should seal up and stick together easily.

The end result will look like an ice cream cone with the pointy end. You can make Hand Rolls one at a time or all at once.

Hindsight
If you don't like raw carrot, it's okay to seam for a few minutes to desired softness. This pertains to any veggie you like to use.

It's up to you how much veggies, rice and fish you add to each roll. You can be generous or skimpy doling out the spicy fish.

I know sushi grade raw fish is way expensive. A cheap seafood substitution is krab. You've seen the small frozen packages in seafood deli cases, and even laid out with fresh fish. It's tasty and you don't have to pry it out of a shell. Sometime the quality is suspect. It can be a little dried out from freezing for too long. An easy way to reconstitute, after defrosting, is to sprinkle on a little water, loosely cover, and do a 30 second micorwave (take out pieces as they get warm and soft, and continue to zap in 10 second increments, if krab pieces are still cool.) The krab will soften and plump up perfectly. Finally do a rough chop and mix it with the some Spicy Mayo.

Hand Rolls work well with imperfect rice, too. Since the rice is in a wrap, you can use reheated cooked rice from another day, or even defrosted from the freezer. Just make sure the rice is heated to room temperature.

You can easily use brown rice, just follow my Sushi Rice directions. And after the rice is cooked, let it set for an extra 10 minutes. Brown rice is toothsome with an extra nutty flavor, and more nutritious.

Sushi Rice Recipe Video

Beef Onigiri - Japanese Fast Food Video

Beef and rice - can't get more basic than that. Just saute a 3-ounce slab of marinated and sliced ribe-eye, then wrap it up in a few balls of sticky rice. That's what makes up a typical Beef Onigiri Japanese recipe. You can add a small sheet of dried seaweed snack (becoming more popular and even sold at regular groceries) for an extra salty kick.

And I picked up all these ingredients at my local 99c only Store! How's that for a unique cheap$kate meal? Hang out with The 99 Cent Chef and you can live high on the hoof - so read on and I'll give you the Beef Onigiri recipe: presented with yummy photos, GIFS, and a video.

There's not much to it, really. Just click here to see my sticky Sushi Rice recipe - that's the only atypical ingredient, but even that is a cinch to make when you follow my unique stop-motion video instructions.

As for steak, well, I get a single serving and marinate it in soy sauce, sugar, and a little garlic. That's a lot of flavor. I like working with these cheap small 3-ounce packages of rib-eye. It's my favorite cut of beef because you get that large centerpiece of sirloin and a marbled strip of super-tender loin along the edge - the best of both worlds.

These small steaks are perfect for stir-fries, like my Beef Broccoli recipe, here. You don't need an $8 slab of beef for my recipes. And while 3 ounces of steak at 99.99 cents still equals 5 bucks per pound, you are saving money by using such a small amount (and saving calories too.)

Japanese Onigiri is fast food from the East. It's portable and filling. You can wrap almost any favorite veggie or cooked protein in sticky rice. Check out my Salmon Salad Onigiri recipe from last month, here, to see what I mean.

Sticky rice is messy to handle, so use a sheet of plastic wrap. My video leaves this part out: I made the rice ball the traditional way of using my hands and moistened it with a little water. However, most chefs now use plastic wrap to press and form the Onigiri.

You can present the Beef Onigiri plainly or wrap it with a sheet of dried seaweed snacks. You can get packages of dried seaweed snacks almost anywhere now, and what's so great about them is they are pre-cut to a perfect size.

My Beef Onigiri recipe makes about 4 rice balls, and it's easy enough to double the recipe. So give it a go - it's a perfectly delicious small bite.

Beef Onigiri  - VIDEO
 

Play it here, video runs 2 minutes.

My YouTube video link for viewing or embedding, just click here.

Ingredients (about 4 rice balls for 1 to 2 servings)
1 cup brown or white rice - use my Sushi Rice recipe. Click here to see the video.
3 ounces of steak - I used a small rib-eye steak. You can use sirloin or any tender cut of beef, even ground meat like beef, chicken, or turkey.
1 tablespoon soy sauce - I used low sodium.
1/2 teaspoon sugar - or a favorite sweetener, that can be sauteed with the meat. Okay to add more to taste.
1/2 teaspoon garlic - chopped. Okay to use garlic powder or dried garlic.
1 teaspoon oil - for sauteing meat.
Dried seaweed - optional. I used pre-cut (about 2 by 4 inches) dried seaweed snacks. Okay to use any size really, just cut them with scissors.

Directions
Prepare sushi rice according to my directions here (or use your favorite recipe.) Allow cooked rice to reach room temperature.

Chop steak into small bite-sized pieces. Add a marinade of soy sauce, sugar, and garlic. Mix well and set aside for 5 to 15 minutes. If steak marinades longer, then store it in the refrigerator.

In a frying pan, over medium heat, add 1 teaspoon oil. Saute marinated beef until done, about 2-3 minutes. Drain and remove meat when done. Allow to cool down a couple of minutes.

In the video above I formed the rice ball with my dampened hands. But it's cleaner and easier to use a sheet of plastic wrap.

For assembly, place the sheet of plastic wrap on a dry surface. Pile on about half a cup of cooked rice in the middle of a plastic sheet. Press into the middle of the rice mound to make space for the cooked steak. Add about a tablespoon of steak.

Add just enough rice on top of steak pieces to cover (optional - okay to leave steak exposed.) Pick up the four corners of the plastic to start forming a ball. Now you can close up the rice ball with plastic wrap. Lightly roll and squeeze the ball. You can keep it round; flatten one side; or form a traditional triangle shape.

It's okay to eat the rice ball right out of the plastic wrap, or make a few Beef Onigiri and serve on a plate. For extra flavor, use a piece of dried seaweed and partially wrap the Onigiri. The piece of seaweed gives you a dry surface to hold, for easier eating.

Hindsight
This recipe is easy to increase. Just double the ingredients list to make twice as much.

Use cheaper ground meat like beef, chicken, or turkey - just mix in the marinade and saute until cooked through. Any chopped meat is okay including beef, pork, chicken, and even flaked, cooked fish. You could also stuff rice balls with canned (drained) tuna, salmon, chicken or turkey.

Okay to substitute meat with chopped veggies (steamed and/or raw) and cooked mushrooms.

Cooked beef can be on top of a rice ball -- meat can be exposed, or covered with rice.

California Roll - Sushi Recipe Video

I've been California Roll dreaming lately. This sushi roll is made with budget fake crab (krab,) and is a tasty inexpensive ingredient for getting your sushi rolling skills up to speed.

A California Roll is simply constructed of crab (or krab,) thin slices of cucumber, creamy avocado, and sushi rice, wrapped in a sheet of dried seaweed (called Nori). I think it's the addition of avocado that makes it the most popular of sushi rolls.

Sushi is notoriously expensive, but don't worry I've got your back, and have a couple of workarounds for you in my latest chea$kate recipe. Number one, I use fake crab (krab,) listed as surimi in sushi restaurants. Secondly, cucumber is cheap, and while avocado is sometimes expensive, you'll only use one avocado to make 4 large California Rolls.

The California Roll first made it's appearance in Los Angeles in the 1970's. Avocado was introduced into a roll as a substitution for more expensive tuna. And, to keep it cheap, fake krab was soon added. If you want to break the bank with real steamed crab (or, if you are lucky enough to have a fisherman friend,) by all means use it.

A lot of people freak out when offered raw fish, so a California Roll with cooked crab is a perfect way to introduce anyone to sushi.

I use krab all the time, like in my delicious Mexican Black Bean and Krab Ceviche recipe - just click here to see it. And with this recipe, you can make 3 to 4 large California Rolls (and when sliced, that's about 32 pieces!)

My local 99c only Store almost always stocks half-pound frozen packages of krab for 99.99 cents. You can get krab from your favorite fresh seafood section in larger markets. For real crab, I've used it from a can - just add a little mayo if it is too crumbly or mealy, to moisten and flavor. Use real crab to impress a date and for special occasions. In the meantime get some sushi rolling skills using cheap krab.

Fake crab is sold frozen in the seafood section of a deli case. The quality can vary when defrosted: from tender and moist, to dry and stringy. An easy fix for dry krab is to drizzle the defrosted krab with water and then microwave it for about 30 seconds. It's surprising how well the krab reconstitutes and becomes tender and moist again.

So give it a shot;  what have you got to lose but a few bucks - it's a heck of a lot cheaper than dining at a sushi joint. Plus, you'll trip out your friends once you get a little practice. This is my cheap$kate go-to sushi recipe. It's colorful with a creamy and crunchy texture and the price is right. If you are new to the sushi experience, here is a cool video about how to eat sushi.

Everyone likes a California Roll, but if you haven't tried one, now is the time to do it yourself -- especially when you see how easy and cheap it is to do, by checking out my Sushi Video and illustrated directions below.

California Roll - VIDEO

Play it here, video runs 2 minutes, 20 seconds.

My YouTube video link for viewing or embedding, just click here.

Ingredients (about 4 rolls - about 32 slices)

• 4 sheets dried seaweed
• 6 to 8 ounces krab - fake crab. Okay to use fresh crab or from a can.
• 1 large avocado - slice the flesh.
• 1/2 cucumber - scoop out seeds with a spoon and slice. Okay to peel or leave on some skin.
• 2 cups of cooked rice - about half a cup per sushi roll. See my Japanese Sushi Rice recipe by clicking here or watch the video at the end of this post.
• Small bowl of water - for moistening your fingers and knife blade to handle sticky rice.
• Soy sauce for dipping - dissolve in a pinch of wasabi or horseradish for spicy heat.

Directions

Fake Krab should be moist and soft to the touch right out of the package.

If the krab has been sitting in the freezer it can dry out and become stringy. I've found rinsing krab in water and then zapping it in the microwave for about 30 seconds tenderizes it. You don't want to cook it, just warm it up. As you know, microwaving is uneven and you get hot spots, so check Krab every 15 seconds and take out pieces as they soften. 

Shred or roughly chop krab. You can also leave krab in larger pieces -- as long as they fit on seaweed and rice.

Prepare veggies. Slice cucumber in half lengthwise and spoon out seeds. Slice cucumber halves into thin one to two-inch strips. You can leave on the skin or remove some of it.

For avocado, slice in half and remove seed. I like to make slices into avocado with the skin on; then take a spoon and scoop out each sliced half. Fan out avocado slices. I use about a 1/4 of avocado per roll (depending on avocado size.) For cucumber, I use enough to cover about a third of the roll. After you've made a few rolls you'll figure out how much krab-to-veggie balance suits you.

Finally, get out 4 sheets of dried seaweed and a couple cups of cooked sushi rice. (You may only need a cup of cooked rice, depending on how thick or thin you make the California Rolls.)

Now time to assemble the California Roll. It's easiest to use a sushi bamboo mat. The mat is slightly larger than a sheet of seaweed. You could also place a sheet of plastic Saran wrap, or a large gallon Ziplock bag, on your cutting board or counter. The plastic should be larger than a sheet of seaweed. In my video. Make sure your hand is dry when handing dried seaweed because it gets sticky when wet.

Lay one sheet of dried seaweed on a clean dry surface, a bamboo mat, or a sheet of plastic wrap. Dip your fingers in a bowl of water and dampen your fingers. Grab a handful of rice and spread it on the seaweed sheet. You can do a small amount of rice at a time until you get used to handling it.

Gently spread out the rice over the seaweed in an even layer. You may need to moisten your fingertips a few times. Don't press to much or the rice will get mushy. The rice layer doesn't need to be too thick, maybe a 1/4 inch or so - you will be adding the veggies and krab, too. (Of course experiment and add as much rice as you like - I use about half a cup per sushi roll.)

Make sure to cover all the seaweed except along the one edge - leave at least 1/2 inch of that end uncovered with rice. (When all the ingredients are added you will roll and dampen that end to seal the California Roll.)

Now add the cucumber sticks and sliced avocado over slightly less than half of the rice and seaweed -- just left of center. Finally, add a layer of krab. This is when you can experiment with how much krab and veggies to add. Maybe you like more avocado than fake crab?

Now comes the trickiest part, but it's not too hard to do. You just grab the seaweed with rice and fold it over the krab and veggies. Now with both hands press the roll -- your fingers should press inward like you are making a tighter fist. Just move your fingers up and down the roll to evenly press the roll into a long log-cube shape.

Finally make one more half-roll (if needed,) to the end of the uncovered seaweed edge. Give the roll one more tuck with your fingers pressing inward, like making a fist - go from one end of the roll to the other to tighten and make the roll even looking. 

Now you will seal the roll. Just drizzle on some water with your fingertips along the uncovered seaweed end. Give the California Roll one final roll to seal it closed.

Using a sushi rolling mat instead of your fingers is easier, and makes the roll more even-looking. With a little practice, you'll get better at rolling - with or without a sushi mat.

Now you are ready to slice it, then serve. Put the California Roll on a cutting board with the sealed seaweed seam against the board. Get out your sharpest knife and moisten the blade edge. Seaweed is very sticky against the rice, so you must have a damp blade or the seaweed will tear and make uneven edges.

First, slice the roll in half. Now you can slice each half-roll in half again, and one more time to get eight pieces of California Roll. The object is to make each piece edible in one bite.

Arrange on a plate. Repeat the rolling steps with the other 3 sheets of seaweed. (You could do all the rolling at once and slice it all, so everyone gets their roll at the same time.)

Make a dipping sauce with soy sauce. I like to stir in a pinch of wasabi or horseradish for heat.

Hindsight
 Of course, this recipe is easy to double. My 99.99 cent, 8-ounce package of krab is enough to easily make half a dozen California Rolls. Just make twice as much sushi rice (it's cheap enough,) and get one more avocado.

Making a sushi roll takes a little practice. Sometimes the sushi roll is thin, or too fat. But it's easy enough to open the roll and add or subtract filling before you seal it. Here's my GIF of rolling with a bamboo sushi mat.

It took me half a dozen rolls to start to get the hang of it. But that's no problem because I got to eat the tasty lopsided mistakes. Usually, a package of seaweed has 30 sheets, so you can get plenty of practice.

And using krab is a cut-rate way to go. You could even use crunchy thin sliced carrot (or any favorite steamed veggie) as a filling to practice on - vegetarian sushi rolls are the cheapest way to get your rolling skills up to speed.

Make sure to have a bowl of water to keep your fingers moistened when handling sticky Sushi Rice. Also, have a hand towel nearby. And your hands and fingers should be dry when rolling with dried seaweed.

If you use crab from a can, it can be too shredded and a bit dried out. But it is fine if you mix it with a tablespoon of mayo. Stir in 1/2 a teaspoon of Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce (or your favorite Mexican hot sauce) for a Spicy Crab Roll. Fresh cooked Lump Crabmeat or fresh-cracked Crab Legs from your seafood market make an extravagant California Roll.

You could even finely chop some krab for a Spicy Krab Roll. Just add mayo and hot sauce as listed above. You want a creamy texture, like a macaroni or potato salad. After it's made, store it in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Sushi Rice