Originally Posted by
MSYtoJFKagain
Apparently after some recreational beverages l also ordered some nori from FreshDirect last week. Sadly when the order showed up last night it was missing what was going to be the star of the show for my temaki/handroll learning, 1 lb of lump crab meat.
Does anyone have any ideas for what I can use?
I currently don't have easy access to sushi grade fish so I'd rather find a more traditional protein to use.
I was thinking something like chicken katsu strips or maybe some bbq pork?
There is a school of thought that anything that tastes good on bread should taste good with rice.
Tried and tested ideas from my family for temakizushi are: avocado, smoked mackerel, prawns/shrimp (battered if you prefer), sliced cucumber*, omelet strips, kinpira (esp carrot and gobo - or substitute sunchoke/artichoke for gobo/burdock root, just beware the inulin flatulence.)
Tweaking further I’d add most kinds of soboro: salted salmon, canned mackerel, canned salmon, even canned sardines, and there is pork or beef too - the secret to soboro is how you season it, it’s generally salty from soy sauce/shoyu with sweetness from mirin &/or sugar, oyster sauce is a good secret ingredient for beef and pork soboro. You could fry thin strips of (or shredded) ham/bacon/pork belly with soy sauce, sake and a mirin/sugar to get a “tastes good with rice” result.
Also, rather than going for chicken katsu, I’d steer you in the chicken karaage direction - it’s yelling “hello!” at you.
Now if you want to go off in a completely unfettered, what can I eat with nori and rice direction, don’t get too shackled to the vinegared rice concept.
Take a look with Google images at onigirazu in Japanese おにぎらず or お握らず
hot dog wieners, ham slices, chicken nuggets, cheese, hamburgers - the “anything that tastes good with bread” concept is flying in Households throughout Japan. One only needs to free themselves from the binding dogma of osushi.
Nori rules!
* cucumber: I’ll take the ends off and grind ONE end in some salt for a minute to make it less bitter through the osmosis process. Depending on the cucumber, I might remove some seeds (this pulp can be added to a gazpacho)