Lazy Tuna Sushi

If you like the taste of sushi and enjoy forming  musubi you’ll love this “Lazy Tuna Sushi” recipe because it’s the best of both worlds.

Years ago I had a neighbor who called this recipe  ”Poor Man’s Sushi”.   I didn’t like calling it that so I changed the name and added egg then wrapped it in nori!

Lazy Tuna Sushi

The Rice

Heat the vinegar, sugar, salt and water until the sugar is dissolved.   Place semi-cooled rice in a shallow pan and pour the mixture evenly over the rice then mix lightly until almost  cooled.  Update: This may be too much liquid for this amount of rice.  Just add slowly until you get flavor without over-wetting the rice.  It depends on how moist your rice is after it cooks. Hope that helps.

The Tuna

In a medium-hot,  non-stick skillet, heat the tuna along with the shoyu, stirring constantly to break up the chunks into flakes.  Update: keep stirring on over the heat until fairly dry as you do not want to add more moisture to the rice.

Optional Egg

Beat the egg with the mirin then scramble into fine bits.

Optional nori

Cut strips of nori into desired width.

Assembly:

Combine the tuna, egg and rice.  Shape into desired shape and size.  I like doing triangle shape…musubi style as it’s quick to form with my bare hands.  Wrap in nori if desired.

You can omit either the egg or tuna.  Try it with canned salmon too!   Don’t make the rice balls too big…one, two or even three bites is big enough.   This recipe will yield 12-15  pieces of “Lazy Sushi”.

I’ve decorated mine with black sesame seeds and served with beni shoga.  But you could also add cooked peas or edamame. 

This “sushi” is bento-able.  Meaning…there is no raw fish involved so  it’s okay to pack then eat later.  The vinegar and salt will slow the growth of bacteria.  But always use common sense and safe food handling  for all your bento lunches.

I packed some “Lazy Tuna Sushi”  in a bento for our house guests as an in-flight meal.

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