Gearing with my Bento-ing L plate, I'm hoping to create cute food to impress my son and maybe also my husband? LOL! Well, these Rillakuma Sushi is one of the cute food ideas that I have learned from the bento experts. Instead of making my sushi with spam, I'm making my sushi with my not-so-spam homemade spam. I called it the healthy spam because it is made with no artificial additive, less salt and 100% lean chicken mince! Sorry... I know that some bloggers have tried to replicate spam by using the rather fatty pork shoulders and ham but I would rather not.
We love love love these sushi and hope that you will like my version of healthy Rilakkuma sushi too.
My Rilakkuma Sushi made with Homemade Chicken Healthy Spam
To make these sushi, you need to make the "spam" at least one day before the sushi making day because the "spam" need sufficient chilling, preferably overnight to firm its structure. So on the day before...
These are the ingredients that I used to make the chicken spam.
Why chicken mince? Well, everybody except vegetarians and vegan eat chicken. It is more environmental friendly to eat than pork, lamb and beef :)
The seasonings that I have added in the spam.
Combine all
... into this gluey mixture.
Grease two 10 cm ramekins with cooking oil spray.
I'm using Alfa one rice bran oil one.
Fill the ramekins with the chicken mince mixture.
Cover the mince with a small piece of baking paper clinging on its surface.
Steam with medium gentle heat for at least 35 mins or until cooked.
It is important to have the mince thoroughly cooked as the partially cooked minced can fall apart easily.
Do not slice the spam after steaming.
Chill it in the fridge until firm, preferably overnight.
You can make the spam 2-3 days ahead if you wish as these can be stored well in the fridge up to 3 days.
On the day that you are making the sushi, you need to cook the sushi rice and ...
Heat up Alfa one rice bran oil in a frying pan.
Pan fry slices of the spam.
Then do these to shape the sushi into Rilakkuma.
The final touch... You can make either 1) the front of Rilakkuma by placing nori and cheese shapes on the spam to make the sushi looking like Rilakkuma or 2) the back of Rilakkuma by placing a small round spam on its bum to make the little spam looking like its fluffy tail. So cute!!!
Here I'm serving these Rilakkuma sushi with one Kiiroitori cheese sushi plus cherry tomatoes and cucumbers.
You might ask... What happened to the odd shaped spam that were cut out from the slices and doesn't look like Rilakkuma? My son and husband didn't want to eat any of those ugly looking spam and so me the "waste-bin mum" had no choice but to eat them all!!! *sign*
Oh well, call me a loser mom or wife. It was fun making these sushi anyway... Never mind!
Recipe: This is how I made these Rilakkuma sushi.Makes six Rilakkuma sushi by using standard Rilakkuma or any bear cutter which is about 6 cm in its length and you will need to make two ramekins of spamTo make two 10 cm healthy chicken spam:
200g lean chicken mince1 large egg (70g each with shell)
1 tsp cornflour
1 tsp all purpose flour
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt or more to taste
1/2 tsp five spice powder
1 tsp sesame oil
1/4 tsp white pepper
Alfa one rice bran oil cooking spray or 1-2 tbsp any cooking oil to grease the ramekins
To assemble and decorate the sushi:
1-2 tbsp Alfa one rice bran oil to shallow fry the spam1 cup (~200g) cooked sushi rice*
cheese slices to deorate
nori to wrap and decorate
* You need 100g uncooked rice to cook 300g cooked rice. See here if you need instructions to cook glossy Japanese sushi rice.
On the day before making the sushi, cook the chicken spam:
In a medium bowl, combine all spam ingredients and mix vigorously until the mixture looks gluey.
Use cooking spray or cooking oil to grease two 10 cm ramekins. Divide the chicken mince mixture into two and spoon each portion into each ramekin. Tap the ramekin gently while filling to remove any air bubbles.
Use baking papers that are cut into 12 cm rounds to cover the mince with the baking paper clinging on the mince surface.
Place ramekins into preheated steamer and steam with medium gentle heat for at least 35 mins or until thoroughly cooked. It is important to have the mince thoroughly cooked as the partially cooked minced can fall apart easily.
Once thoroughly cooked, remove the ramekins from steaming and allow the spam to rest and cool completely to room temperature. Use a knife to go around the edge of the ramekins to remove the spam out from the ramekins. Do not slice the spam at this stage.
Place spam into a container with cover or cling wrap and chill them in the fridge until firm, preferably overnight. You can make the spam 2-3 days ahead if you wish as these can be stored well in the fridge up to 3 days.
On the day that you are making the sushi:
Slice each spam into 3 rounds with about equal thickness and you will have 6 spam patties.Heat a flat frying pan with 1-2 tbsp cooking oil and pan fry the spam slices until both sides are golden brown and fragrant. Set aside to cool slightly.
To assemble:
Take a small handful of rice (about 1/6 cup) and place it onto a cling wrap or a mold to shape the rice into a small longish-looking rice ball and do the same for the remaining rice.Use a Rilakkuma or bear cutter to each spam slice into the shape of Rilakkuma and place each Rilakkuma spam on each rice ball. Use a thin strip of nori to wrap the spam onto the rice ball and decorate the Rilakkuma with either 1) a small piece of round spam to make it look like Rilakkuma tail to make Rilakkuma back facing upwards or 2) nori eyes, nose and mouth and cheese pieces to make Rilakkuma front facing upwards.
Serve and enjoy.
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