As a kid, I called these little guys Japanese footballs, so I figured they'd be nice to serve during our Super Bowl party. Plus they make great finger food. Don't they look like little footballs to you?
Anyway, Inari is a great "sushi" for beginners. It's very simple, there is nothing raw, and the flavor is mild and sweet. It's just fried tofu pockets and rice - very non-threatening.
They're also super easy. Just buy the already seasoned tofu skins in a can like above and stuff them with rice. Ideally you should stuff it with seasoned sushi rice, but the skins already have so much flavor that if you don't season your rice, you'll still be fine.
Ingredients:
- Seasoned tofu skins (aburage - pictured above)
- White rice
- Rice vinegar to taste (optional)
- Sugar to taste (optional)
Directions:
- Cook the rice and season it (the seasoning part is optional).
-To season the rice, you can either be lazy like me and dump vinegar and sugar to taste, into the water while the rice is cooking, or do it the right way - cook the rice and then spread it out on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle the vinegar and sugar on the rice and mix until combined.
- Open the can of tofu skins and take them out. If you'd like, you can also use the liquid in the can to season the rice.
- Carefully open the pocket of each tofu skin, they are very delicate.
- Stuff some rice in. You can put as much or as little as you like. You can also sprinkle some sesame seed or furikake on top if you'd like, but traditionally, they're served plain.
- Pop them in your mouth and rub your tummy with delight!
This is about 2 cans worth of inari, minus a few that I accidentally ripped while opening and had to eat them myself :)
Monday, February 9, 2009
Inari
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7 comments:
I've had these before, they are yummy! I've never made them myself though. I bet they are so much better than the packaged ones!
I love inari and usually use the skins found in the produce section of my local asian markets. I'll have to check out the canned version!
I am not aware that you can buy these tofu wraps in cans!
I love inari, but never realized that you can buy the skins already prepared. Now I'll have to hunt them down in one of the local asian markets
They may hold together better if you press the rice into little "footballs" with your hands before you put them into the skins. The skins are also super easy to make it's just aburaage (fried tofu), water, soy sauce, sugar and mirin boiled together until there's no liquid left.
Hey Marc, yup, I do squish the rice a bit to make it easier to stuff.
I've also heard that you can buy just the tofu pockets and flavor it yourself but have never seen (and never looked) for them because I'm lazy and like the pre-seasoned ones :)
I'm sorry but it still seems a little scary to me.
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