Are you as happy to see 2020 in the rearview mirror as the Pixeladies? We are hopeful that 2021 will see us back in the studio working together at the same time! So let’s ring in the new year with class registration and a recipe.
Registration
Registration for classes starts on January 1! We don’t usually start registration on New Year’s Day, because that is when Kris is usually cooking for the huge family get-together. But this year it’s gonna be a Zoom affair, so that leaves Kris plenty of time to start processing registrations. Click here to read more about our class offerings and to register. The first class doesn’t start until February 1, so you have plenty of time to register. In the meantime, here’s Kris with some personal food history and a recipe from her son Miles, who is all grown up from our throwback holiday post from last week.
Traditions
I grew up around special foods for New Year’s. My aunts would create a Japanese smorgasbord of dishes, and I would go visit one auntie and eat and then go to the other auntie’s house and eat. It was great. Now that I’m grown up, I realize how much work it is to create all the different foods (and who has to do it)! Since I’ve lived with my mother-in-law for the past seventeen years, I’ve helped her cook for the family get-together. Here’s a photo of us making makizushi two years ago.* Total transparency: I’m not very good at the cooking part, but I can roll the sushi so that’s something. And, you have to get up pretty early to do this, so I do not look my best. Jane, of course, looks great!
SPAM Musubi Recipe
One of Neil’s cousins was pretty smart a few years ago and taught Miles how to make SPAM musubi, so now he is in charge of making it for the party. Here is the recipe. For those of you wondering why this dish is called musubi while Jane and I made sushi, I’m here to answer the mystery: a musubi is made with plain rice, while sushi is made with a vinegar-flavored rice. Wanna learn 22 more things about sushi? Click here!
Ingredients:
- ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- one can SPAM
- app. 2 cups cooked sticky short grain rice
- 4 sheets of dried seaweed, also known as “sushi nori”
Materials:
- musubi mold. You can find these rectangular molds at Japanese grocery stores like Oto’s in Sacramento, but you can also try it free hand.
Directions:
- Slice SPAM into 8 even slices.
- Sear in pan until brown crust forms.
- Add sugar and soy sauce to the pan with the SPAM still in it and cook on low until the sugar and soy sauce melt together. Make sure that all the SPAM is eventually coated.
- Place 1 sheet of sushi nori on cutting board and place the bottom of the rectangular mold on top of the nori.
- Place some rice in the mold and press it down with the top of the mold.
- Brush some of the sauce on the rice.
- Place two slices of SPAM on the rice.
- Add more rice and press the top of the rectangular mold down onto the rice.
- Lift the mold off.
- Fold the rest of the nori sheet over the molded rice. There will be a seam at the top (which will become the bottom of the musubi roll). Seal it with a bit of the soy sauce mixture, if required.
- Repeat for the other three sheets of sushi nori.
- Let each roll set (about 10 minutes) before slicing into 8 slices.
- Makes 32 pieces. Miles usually triples the recipe for parties, quadruples it for the family gathering.😉
HAPPY NEW YEAR! 明けましておめでとうございます！
* For you language nerds out there, zushi and sushi mean the same thing. The Japanese change the “s” sound to the “z” sound in compound words. So, sushi becomes makizushi!