S6 E28: Sushi-ish Rice Cups and Nori Wraps

This week on Three Kitchens, Erin makes what she's calling sushi-ish. These snacks are sushi-inspired, made with canned tuna instead of raw fish. Come along to hear how it went and what we thought of it! 

A rice cup is a cute little snack made by baking cooked rice in a muffin tin (or silicone cup) and then topping it with whatever you like - in this case a tuna salad and avocado. 

Nori wraps are another option using the same filling of tuna salad, but wrapping it with rice into a sheet of nori (seaweed). It also has cream cheese in this one, which tasted great but threw the texture off a bit. 

As usual, we have thought up a few ways we'll try this differently in the future, but they were a great option for lunch boxes or on-the-go snacks. 

Get the recipe: Sushi-ish Creations

 

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Transcript

Heather DErin W (00:13)
I think I found some sushi-like alternatives. So there is a couple versions of this I am going to try.

Heather D (00:16)
Mmm.

Erin W (00:19)
Alright, well hello

and welcome to today's episode of  Three Kitchens Podcast. My name is Erin Walker and joining me for this recipe adventure is my co-host Heather Dyer.

Heather D (00:31)
Hello there. I like that it's an adventure. I'm always up for an adventure.

Erin W (00:31)
Hello! yeah, is anything

we do in the kitchen not a little bit adventurous? I always feel like we're trying something new. It's a little bit of an experiment.

Heather D (00:44)
That

is kind of the whole point of this, isn't it? It's taken us five years to figure it out. Just in time to not do it anymore. Should we say that? Yeah. Yeah.

Erin W (00:46)
It's our shtick.

Yeah.

Exactly. Yeah. So we're going to wrap

things up on the podcast around our five-year anniversary here in April. So we started in April 2021 and it is now April 2026.

Heather D (01:08)
April 2021.

It's time.

That's crazy when you think about how long we've been doing this. When you say five years, that's... And I've lost count, but I think we're close to 300 episodes, aren't we?

Erin W (01:15)
Mm-hmm. And...

Ooh,

I can,

Heather D (01:22)
We'll find out.

we haven't counted it up yet.

Erin W (01:26)
Yeah, we've cooked a lot of recipes.

We've published a lot of episodes. And when you put this into the overall timeline of life, it's insane, Heather.

Heather D (01:33)
And when you put this into the...

I know it really is and maybe we'll do a a little final wrap-up chit chat about it when once we're finished these last couple of episodes we haven't even recorded everything yet so maybe at the very end stay tuned for that but this is our second to last recipe episode yeah yeah so let's get to it what are you gonna what are you gonna make I'm excited

Erin W (01:42)
Yeah.

So we have struggled a little bit coming up with what are we going to do next? And it feels a little bit like a bit of extra pressure slash. I mean, it's not like what is there left to do, but trying to aim somewhere. It's been hard. We've been struggling.

Heather D (02:00)
We have struggled a little bit coming up with what are we going to do

to do?

I know. I haven't even

chosen mine and I have to do the last recipe episode and I just can't decide what sort of direction to take for it. I know. It's just going to be the way we usually pick. Yes, we're getting a little too concerned about what it should be, but it's going to be the way we usually pick it, which is either led by our stomach.

Erin W (02:25)
I

It's in our head a bit, isn't it?

Heather D (02:41)
telling us that looks like something I want to eat or maybe it's just a trend or something we've been meaning to try.

Erin W (02:42)
Yes.

Yeah,

so I came across a couple things that I was like, okay, I think I know where I'm gonna go with this. My one son loves sushi.

Heather D (02:49)
Yeah, what's it gonna be?

Mm-hmm, so do I.

Erin W (02:57)
and so do I,

and I know you do too. And I don't want to try making sushi, because this seems like a highly skilled, not something everybody's going to do, you know. I've watched enough videos to be like, mmm, don't think that's in my league. you took a class! What?

Heather D (03:14)
I took a class once. Did I ever tell you how I took

it? I took a sushi rolling at a restaurant way, I was probably like early twenties, 22, 23, something like before we started. Yeah, right. Nice. Yes. And honestly, the

Erin W (03:28)
just before we started this podcast. Yes, yes.

Heather D (03:37)
Handling the fish at home, that part makes me a little bit nervous. Probably unnecessarily, but still, I feel like I'm not exactly sure what to buy. I really want to fuck it up. I don't want to make anybody sick. So that's where my experience started and ended. Yeah. Yeah.

Erin W (03:38)
All

Also, we're landlocked. Right? Like, there's no source

of fresh fish. And it's not something we cook with often. It's not something we handle often, you know, like, it's just out of our range. But I think I found some sushi-like alternatives. So there is a couple versions of this I am going

Heather D (04:08)
Mmm.

Erin W (04:11)
try.

based off of some videos on Instagram. So the first is a cream cheese tuna, cucumber and rice sushi wrap.

Heather D (04:16)
So the first is a cream cheese.

Erin W (04:23)
from what it looks like. It looks really easy to make similar to the way we made those, remember those Korean chicken quesadilla things we made where the wrap was cut and then you folded it four ways?

Heather D (04:26)
it looks in the way

make that like twice a week in my kids lunch. Not that I fill it with different stuff, but yeah, that's how I make quesadillas now. Yeah. Yeah.

Erin W (04:38)
Okay.

Yeah, so this is with a square of rice paper. no,

a square of seaweed. And you cut it up to the middle and then you've quadrants that you're going to fill.

Heather D (04:49)
Okay, nice. you cut it up to

Erin W (04:54)
with it shows cream cheese canned tuna have to worry about the fish handling sliced cucumbers and then rice

Heather D (04:57)
cheese, tuna. fish.

Hmm. Sticky rice like sushi a sushi rice. Yeah. Okay. I'll What's the difference? Do you know? I think sushi rice grape.

Erin W (05:04)
Like a sushi rice. Yeah. I'll probably just make sticky rice.

think sushi rice is an even shorter grain than sticky

rice.

I've seen it at the store and that's the only difference I've

Heather D (05:15)
Okay. I've seen it at the store and

I know it's sweetened. You put like, is it a wine or something into? something you put into the sushi rice to give it that flavor.

Erin W (05:19)
race vinegar or something?

Okay,

I'm going to have to look and see what I do to each of these components that's going in here. Might be a little bit different. And then the other way of doing this that I've seen is making little tuna rice cups with, so you take...

Heather D (05:28)
not for sticky rice.

see what I do to each of that's going in here. Might be a little bit different.

I know what you're talking about. Yeah.

Erin W (05:45)
You take your rice and you press it down into a muffin tin so that it makes

like a little cup. And then you put some tuna salad in there. And then you put sliced avocados, some sriracha mayo, some sesame then you can eat these little tuna rice cups.

Heather D (06:00)
Yeah.

I have seen where they put a little like square of the seaweed into the muffin tin at the bottom, put the rice inside. But then I don't know if it's heated or any like if it's a baked one, because I've seen different ones, so that when it pops out, it all holds together.

Erin W (06:19)
Right. I think they heated a little bit based on what I'm looking at on Instagram. So I think these are two ways to make like mock sushi. To make them a way that I feel comfortable handling the fish because like you said I'm not super comfortable with handling raw fish so maybe like the raw tuna or even like canned salmon I think would be really good in this. And then

Heather D (06:21)
I don't know. I've never

based on what I'm looking at.

sushi. To make them a way.

Mm-hmm.

Erin W (06:44)
something green and or crisp and are fresh.

Heather D (06:45)
And then.

What are the ones called that are in a mold? You know the ones I'm talking about? I have all the molds. Okay, we never make them.

Erin W (06:50)
yes, the Onigris. I have some molds too. And I came across some videos on that as well

and they often are filled with a tuna filling.

Heather D (07:02)
or whatever you want. I had made them before like years ago, but kind of forgot that I had those molds.

Erin W (07:02)
or whatever.

Yeah,

yeah, so these are be two ways that I'm gonna try making something sushi-like at home. The ones that I'm talking about that are like the quesadilla wrap, I think would be great to pack in lunches because they'll go, but I think the little cups will be more of like an at-home sushi fun.

Heather D (07:26)
I love both these ideas. Love it. Love it. Can't wait to eat it. And you can eat my terrible imitations of sushi before you go and eat the real sushi when you're in Japan. Oh, well, don't worry. be disappointed. You won't have to eat these after you've had the real sushi.

Erin W (07:27)
Yeah.

And you can eat my terrible imitations of sushi before you go and eat the real sushi when you're in Japan. So you won't be disappointed. You won't have to eat these after you've had the real deal.

Heather D (07:47)
Hey, what we do, what we can with what we've got and the skills that we've got, I'm sure that's going to be delicious.

Erin W (07:49)
Yeah.

Yeah, my kid's been

bugging me for a while. Come on, let's just make sushi. I'm sure it's not that hard. So I'll try something like sushi and we'll see just how hard it is.

Heather D (08:04)
I think you can do it. And if not, we'll just laugh. I'll laugh at you and you'll laugh at yourself and we'll just, we'll have a, we'll still have a fun time.

Erin W (08:11)
We'll just scoop all of our rice out of the soy sauce. We're dipping it in

and it'll all be good.

Erin W (08:39)
we are recording, so let's get at this.

Let's talk about sushi-ish creations that I made in my kitchen.

Heather D (08:46)
Mm-hmm.

Erin W (08:46)
Again, I think these kind of fall under a quote unquote recipe because it's really not.

Heather D (08:52)
It's that's funny because I just this morning as I was puttering around, I listened to this week to the Bhutan Eska episode and we had that come. I was telling that story about the. It's not really a recipe.

Erin W (08:55)
Yes.

It's not really a recipe. So again, like, I mean, what do you call it if it's not a recipe? You know?

I feel like recipes are more detailed, right? I guess it is a recipe, but it's just such simple things that you put together.

Heather D (09:12)
I think, I guess it is. Yeah, yeah.

Erin W (09:17)
So I cooked up a whole bunch of short grain rice. I don't think I got specifically sushi rice but it was a very nice short grain rice that I cooked up.

once you've got it cooked and I let it cool, so I kind of did that part earlier in the afternoon and then just let it sit in the pot. I fluffed it up with a fork like they say you should. It sat in that pot, cooled down. And then when I was ready to assemble everything, I added a couple teaspoons of rice vinegar, a pinch of sugar and a pinch of salt.

and then just used my little rice paddle to mix it all up and make my rice. And then this worked for both of the things I made. I made enough so that it would all satisfy everything.

And then for the tuna rice cups, I put a large ice cream scoop of rice into my silicone baking

never use an actual muffin tin, I always use my little silicone inserts. And then I can fit more. No, I set them on a baking sheet and then I can do like...

Heather D (10:21)
but you don't put them into the pan. yeah, yeah.

Erin W (10:26)
20 muffins on a baking sheet. It's really efficient. So once you've got those in there, I dipped the back of my tablespoon in some oil and then I pressed down to make an indent in each of the rice cups. And then you're going to want to cook those in a preheated 350 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes to kind of firm them up. I have a feeling I could have gone a little bit longer.

because when I took them out of the silicone cups and started stuffing them, they fell apart. And I was like, okay, we'll just put them back in the silicone cups and then they won't fall apart. But maybe they would hold together better if I would have done longer. So I think I was around the 12 minute mark. So I maybe could have gone the extra few, but I didn't want my rice getting too crunchy. I wasn't really sure where that end point was. my patience and tolerance was kind of at a low level. So I just...

Heather D (11:11)
Mm-hmm.

Erin W (11:16)
Good enough. And so once those came out of the oven and cooled a little bit, I had a tuna salad that I made and there was just a little ice cream scoop of it in that cup. And then I topped it with little diced up pieces of avocado. I had some sriracha mayo, little bit of soy sauce, some sesame seeds on there.

Would have been really cute if I found some black sesame seeds, because I think that would have contrasted nicely with all the colours. But ⁓ the regular sesame seeds I had worked just fine. And then, voila, you serve, you scoop it out with a spoon and eat it.

Easy peasy.

Heather D (11:52)
I tried to eat it by hand. I was like, it's falling apart. And the kids and I had a discussion. Do you use a spoon? Do you just hold it? What should we be doing? And we had these, it was very messy. That's okay. We're just like, at this point, just eat the thing. This, I felt too that it could have.

Erin W (12:00)
I gave you no outlines.

Just get it in my mouth, right?

Heather D (12:12)
I actually wouldn't have minded if the edges of the rice were a little crispy. Like I think it did need a bit more time for that cup base to be a bit more solid, I guess. I don't know what you want to call it, but I wouldn't have minded a little like crispiness in the rice. I think that actually would have been a nice texture with it.

Erin W (12:18)
Yeah.

Yeah,

I also would have put maybe like a fresh little bit of seaweed on it or like sliced up some nori and had some little crispy strips on there or something.

Heather D (12:38)
Mmm.

Yeah, a little salt, something. I also, as a cilantro lover, I think some chopped cilantro on top just before you eat it if you like cilantro like I do. That would also be good. Just something fresh, kind of.

Erin W (12:43)
Yeah.

Does cilantro usually go

with sushi? Have you ever had cilantro with sushi?

Heather D (12:57)
Yeah sure, it goes with

everything Erin. It goes with everything. It goes with anything fish. It goes with anything fresh. It goes with avocado. Right? So that's why I mean I love it so I would put it on just about anything. I'm not the world's biggest fan of canned tuna. In fact I hate canned tuna.

Erin W (13:01)
I'm still learning. I am still learning. ⁓

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

Heather D (13:20)
I didn't tell you that in advance because I figured I owed it to you because you ate Boston Big Beans, which you hated so much. ⁓ So it was my, it was a payback. I owed you that. I didn't, I didn't hate this. I didn't hate this, but it would not have been my choice of filling. I would do like a canned salmon or crab, like canned.

Erin W (13:29)
That's hilarious.

Okay.

Yeah.

Heather D (13:47)
I think would have been really yummy in there. But I think there's options and I love the method of it, the presentation of it.

Erin W (13:47)
Yeah.

Yeah, I think it's a good little delivery

vehicle. Yeah.

Heather D (13:55)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. And I like the celery. I don't know who was talking about the celery. You told me one of your kids. Yeah, I like that in there.

Erin W (13:56)
Cool.

My son.

I was like, that's

the whole point of the celery is so that it's crunchy. Anyway.

Heather D (14:06)
Yeah.

Erin W (14:08)
Okay, we're no

right, and so the second method of assembly was on a piece of nori. So I went and got packages of large square made for rolling sushi nori and

So to make this one, you're going to cut a slit in the middle so that it divides it sort of into four quadrants. So only cut like halfway through halfway in the middle. Kind of like when you make those folded over quesadillas that we talked about in the first half. And on one quarter, you're going to spread cream cheese. On your second quarter, you're going to spread the tuna filling or

Heather D (14:39)
Mm-hmm.

Erin W (14:49)
alternatives if you don't like your tuna. On the third part I had sliced cucumbers and the last part was the sushi rice. And so you fold this up, And then the video I saw sliced it kind of diagonally to make triangles.

But I found that wasn't easy to work with when it came to try and wrap it up and do things with it. So I just sliced them in half and then wrapped them up in wax paper like I would for my kids lunch. yeah, eat this dipping it in some soy sauce that's got maybe some wasabi or if you like something like chili in there or whatever you like to dip sushi in.

I would say eat this with that. And was a little unsure how the texture of the nori was going to turn out because it kind of was absorbing the moisture from the cream cheese and the tuna and the cucumbers. And I was like, I see why this traditionally just sits around the rice because it kind of maintains itself a little bit better. So it was a little bit.

Heather D (15:37)
you

Erin W (15:50)
I know. It's softer and not crispy. But I guess it's not totally crispy around a piece of sushi either. It does absorb some moisture and soften up. at first I was like, hmm, I don't know about this, but I think in the end it was all okay.

Heather D (16:05)
I really liked it. And I agree, I think maybe the way to do it is to put rice on each quadrant and then put your fillings on top of the rice. Like, if you can get the rice thin so that the... Yeah, I don't know. Because isn't that how onigiri is typically? It's like the whatever filling is inside... Yeah.

Erin W (16:16)
That'd be a struggle. But yeah, I think you just tolerate.

the races around all the filling.

Exactly.

Heather D (16:30)
Probably

for that reason, because it... who knew? You know? Although if you're going to eat it right away, maybe it's...

Erin W (16:33)
Yeah, it makes sense.

It's amazing as I was spreading the cream cheese on it, it was starting to like soften and like ripple kind of like you know when you get paper wet and it was like immediately that texture had changed. By the time I had finished spreading the cream cheese I was like boy there was one I even ripped pretty good. Well I was making it because it softened up right away.

Heather D (16:37)
No?

⁓ yeah.

Mmm. Well, it does taste really good. Like, I really... I like it with the seaweed.

Erin W (17:05)
Yeah, I thought it was really good for a go snack. Like I could see packing those and keeping them just in a cooler and being able to pull those out and snack on them. Like why buy the cheap little packs of sushi when you're out and about when you could bring something like that. And you could put something that you prefer more in there. I would do that.

Heather D (17:11)
Mm-hmm.

for sure, I mean you could do just like... I don't know, you could do anything even like chicken or like whatever you like that you had just chopped up.

Erin W (17:33)
you could put really any sort of protein that you like

in there.

Heather D (17:38)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, like I was thinking teriyaki chicken. Like maybe if you had something leftover, this was something you could do with the rice, leftover rice and whatever protein you had with it. I don't know. It's like with those quesadillas you were talking about, I put all kinds of, when I have leftovers, the other, yesterday, yesterday, I put mashed potatoes and cheese in.

Erin W (17:59)
yes!

Heather D (18:00)
in the quesadilla and then fried it up with like herbs and garlic on the outside, kind like we did with the crispy, crunchy grilled cheese sandwich from Cheryl, our friend Cheryl, remember? And she had said you do it on a quesadilla. So I did that on the outside just to give it a bit more flavor, but the kids love that. They're like, ⁓ cheesy potatoes in a tortilla? Yes, please. So I think with this is similar. You could put almost any kind of thing that you feel goes with the seaweed.

Erin W (18:09)
⁓ yes.

Yes.

Yeah. Yeah, I think you could make it. I was watching some videos on kimbap, which is like sushi. I feel like I might get slammed for saying something like this, but from my outside observation, it looks like it's a South Korean rice with filling roll, but they, I have seen they'll do like fried spam.

Heather D (18:29)
Mm-hmm.

Fusion. Fusion.

Erin W (18:51)
in it and julienned carrots and like pickles in there too like a pickled radish kind of thing in there too and then it's rolled up in nori and sliced up and right so I felt like when I learned this I was like ⁓ they have a sushi like product

Heather D (18:54)
Mmm.

my God, all of that sounds so good.

Mmm.

Erin W (19:12)
as well, but it doesn't necessarily have raw fish in it. So there's a whole bunch of options. And I think you could go, if you looked down like more Korean centered food, I think you would find a whole bunch of different things you could do there too.

Heather D (19:24)
Hmm, yeah. I love the idea.

Erin W (19:25)
Don't come at me, please.

Heather D (19:28)
⁓ yeah, you gotta be careful with that one. Korean and Japanese. Don't mix. Yeah.

Erin W (19:31)
Yeah, yeah, know. I know there's history there. I'm

there are similarities. Exactly.

Heather D (19:36)
Again, this is not a food history. This is not a food

politics of food podcast. Okay, like, yeah.

Erin W (19:43)
Yeah, I mean, it's kind of like how we're always

talking about food wrapped in a pastry, like any sort of dumpling, like we're always comparing them across the world. I think this is almost like the Asian comparison is food that's in rice and seaweed.

Heather D (19:49)
Mm-hmm.

Erin W (20:00)
maybe and they just have their own different fillings and different flavors and so I think you can really be inspired or influenced by a whole bunch of stuff out there. Just mix it all together.

Heather D (20:00)
Mm, yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, love it. I think this is fun.

Erin W (20:13)
If you like it, put it together and eat it.

Heather D (20:19)
That is really the message at the end of the day, isn't it? What do you like? Put it together, it. Just go for it. I like this a lot. I'm gonna, I'm totally gonna make it with, you know, the fillings that I like. I'm totally into it. In fact, my God, I was just thinking this morning.

Erin W (20:22)
I think so.

think so.

Ooh, awesome.

with possibly not tuna. Sorry.

Heather D (20:40)
that I have a big bag of shrimp in the freezer and I was like, maybe we'll do something with shrimp for dinner. I don't have any nori, but I could stop and grab some. Where did you end up finding it? Remember you had some trouble?

Erin W (20:45)
Ooh.

I bought two packages

and it's definitely more than I need. So I will deliver you a package of Nori.

Heather D (20:59)
⁓ well that's awfully nice. I think the kids would love it. We could do some, I even have sushi rice in my pantry.

Erin W (21:01)
How does that sound?

Heather D (21:06)
is fun. a great idea for dinner. Yeah.

Erin W (21:07)
Yay! Okay, there you go.

Everyone's gonna be happy in your house.

Okay, there you go.

Heather D (21:12)
Give it a try. All right,

thanks for doing that. Yum, yum. Okay, and remember before we turn this off, just a little reminder, next week is our last recipe episode. So be sure to tune in for our final recipe of the podcast.

Erin W (21:28)
What's Heather gonna make?

Heather D (21:31)
god.

Erin W (21:31)
Heather's in the kitchen. It's going to be good.

Heather D (21:33)
I love that faith you have in me,

Okay, good.

Heather D (21:57)
What if I go to Japan and I'm like, this just doesn't quite compare to Erin's.

Erin W (22:02)
only that white girl in central Alberta.