I was around seven years old when people asked me what my favorite food was and I would reply “soft shell crab and rib-eye steak”. They would have a shocked look etched on their faces as they expected a young girl like me to answer something along the lines of chicken tenders and ice cream. But, as the daughter of a chef, that was not the case for me. I have been exposed to such delicacies since I was young, and unlike my brother, I have always enjoyed trying intriguing food.
For the reason above, I instantly fell head over heels for spider rolls. I simplified the procedure to make it more manageable to recreate by using household ingredients. Since the list of ingredients is quite lengthy already, I decided to use a premade Japanese breading mix, which can be found in most Japanese grocery stores, rather than begin from zero. However, you can always use any breading mix of your choice or refer to my previous recipe ( Assorted Tempura ) to create tempura batter from scratch. Moreover, I made unagi sauce and spicy mayonnaise to add a sweet and spicy kick at the end of each bite and give you the option to choose between the two if you do not want to or have enough ingredients to make both.
Recipe
Yields 3-5 servings
Ingredients
Unagi Sauce
½ cup soy sauce
½ cup mirin
3 tablespoons sake
5 tablespoons brown sugar
Spicy Mayonnaise
4 tablespoons Japanese mayonnaise
2-3 teaspoons sriracha (depending on how spicy you would like the sauce to be)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Fried Soft Shell Crab
1 pound soft shell crab
1 cup Japanese breading mix for the dry dip
1 cup Japanese breading mix
1 cup cold water
1 cup ice
Oil for frying
Sushi Rolls
2-3 sheets nori sushi wrapper
5 Kani
300 grams cooked Japanese rice
2 tablespoons cup sushi vinegar
½ teaspoon sugar
1 cucumber, peeled and julienned
Procedure
Unagi Sauce
In a small saucepan, bring the soy sauce, mirin, and sake to a boil.
Add the sugar and lower the heat. Let this simmer for 5 minutes.
Transfer the sauce into another container.
Spicy Mayonnaise
Mix all the ingredients together and set aside.
Fried Soft Shell Crab
In a deep frying pan, heat some oil until it has reached 350℉.
Slice each crab into smaller portions.
Prepare the batter by mixing the breading mix, cold water, and ice together.
Dip the crab in the tempura batter then the dry tempura mix.
Fry each for 3-5 minutes.
Repeat the steps until all the crabs are finished.
Use a spider to retrieve the crabs from the oil and lay them on a wire rack or plate covered in tissue paper.
Spider Sushi Rolls
Prepare the sushi rice by adding the sushi vinegar and sugar to the rice.
Cover a bamboo mat with plastic wrap and place a sheet of nori on top of it.
Evenly spread the rice on top of the sushi until the entire sheet is covered.
Flip the nori over, so the rice side is facing down. Place the fried crab, cucumber, and Kani at the bottom of the seaweed and roll it slowly using the bamboo mat.
* Constantly squeeze the ends of the mat to keep the rice and filling compact in the sushi.
Set aside the mat and remove the plastic wrap from the sushi.
Repeat these steps until there are no rice and crabs left.
Wet your knife and fingertips and slice the sushi into 6-8 pieces.
*Wet your knife between each slice to prevent the rice from sticking on it. Slice the sushi roll in half first, then from there, slice the half down the middle and keep doing so. This way, each slice is the same size.
Top the sushi with unagi sauce and Japanese mayonnaise. Enjoy!
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