As a speciality of Hawaii musubi is not super common off the islands. The compact mounds of rice are reminiscent of onigiri, but have the added twist of slices of Spam wrapped up with the rice. For this recipe we’re also adding a sprinkle of furikake seasoning to give it a bit more umami.
It’s savory, full of flavor, and just a tiny bit sweet and sour thanks to flavoring of the rice. What more could you want in a snack?
The Spam is fried with a bit of sugar and soy sauce to give it a caramelized glaze. We’re using the lower sodium varieties of Spam and soy sauce as this canned treat can be rather salty! To make this gluten-free simply use gluten-free soy sauce or tamari.
To get the right rice mounds you have to start with sushi rice, which is stickier than log grain rice. Once it’s cooked you add a mixture of sugar, oil, and rice vinegar to it for flavor. You can use your hands or a rice mold to make the rice balls. You can even make one from the Spam container, although you’d need to cut the can very carefully. For mine I eyeballed it and for next time I will definitely buy a mold to make them extra pretty.
Then wrap up the Spam and rice using a strip of toasted seaweed. Use a bit of water to seal the ends together. I found that leftover musubi have much softer and more moist seaweed strips, so if the texture is a bit too crisp for your liking you only need to give it a bit of time to absorb some of the moisture from the other ingredients.
I kept mine plain, but you can add fried egg, avocado, peppers, or spices to your Spam musubi as you like. There’s no one way to enjoy this snack, but all of them are very tasty!
Spam Musubi
Diet: Low-Lactose
Ingredients
- 2 cups uncooked glutinous white rice (sushi rice)
- 3 1/4 cups water, divided
- 1/ 2 cup rice vinegar
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil, divided
- 4 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 (12 oz) can low-sodium Spam, sliced into 8 pieces
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- Furikake seasoning to taste
- 3 sheets roasted seaweed (nori), cut into 8 strips about 1”x8”
Preparation
- Rinse rice in cool water using a fine strainer. Bring 3 cups water to boil in small pan. Add rice and reduce to simmer. Cover and cook for 20 minutes. Remove from heat.
- In another pan combine rice vinegar, oil, 2 tablespoons sugar, and salt cook over medium heat until sugar is completely dissolved. Stir into rice mixture. Set aside to cool.
- Heat remaining oil in large skillet. Add Spam slices and cook until browned, about 2-3 minutes on each side.
- Whisk together remaining sugar and water with soy sauce. Add to pan with Spam and cook for 2 minutes then flip Spam and cook another 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Pour remaining water in small bowl. Working with wet hands form oblong balls of rice with your hands in the shape of the Spam pieces. Or use a musubi mold. Sprinkle furikake seasoning on top of rice mounds.
- Lay a strip of seaweed down with a piece of Spam going across it perpendicular. Add rice on top and wrap seaweed around. Dip fingers in a bit of water and wet seaweed join then press lightly to secure. Repeat until all rice and Spam have been used up.
- Serve cold, room temperature, or warmed for 30 seconds in the microwave. Serve with extra soy sauce for dipping if desired.
Recipe adapted from Omnivore’s Cookbook.