Rainbow Roll

By Sprig Originals ✓ · cooked up in Sprig

An inside-out California roll — crab, avocado and cucumber wrapped in seasoned rice — then shingled with overlapping slices of tuna, salmon, yellowtail and avocado and pressed smooth with the bamboo mat. There's no cooking beyond the rice, so the whole dish rides on two things: properly seasoned, body-temperature rice and genuinely good raw fish. Buy the best fish you can find, keep it cold, and slice it with a sharp knife.

Ingredients

• 2 cups short-grain Japanese sushi rice (about 400 g)
• 2 1/4 cups cold water
• 1/4 cup unseasoned rice vinegar
• 2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 2 tsp fine sea salt

• 4 half sheets toasted nori (cut full sheets in half crosswise)
• 8 oz cooked king crab or good-quality kanikama crab sticks, shredded
• 3 tbsp Kewpie or other Japanese mayonnaise
• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 1 ripe but firm avocado, cut into thin wedges
• 1/2 English cucumber, seeded and cut into 1/4-inch batons
• 2 tbsp toasted white and black sesame seeds

• 5 oz sashimi-grade tuna loin (akami or chutoro), in a block
• 5 oz sashimi-grade salmon, skinless block
• 4 oz sashimi-grade yellowtail (hamachi), in a block
• 4 cooked butterflied shrimp (ebi), optional
• 1 ripe avocado, for shingling
• 1 tsp fresh lemon juice

• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tsp prepared wasabi
• 1/4 cup pickled ginger
• 2 tbsp tobiko or masago, optional
• 1 scallion, thinly sliced, optional

Instructions

1. Rinse the rice: put it in a bowl, cover with cold water, swirl with your hand for 20 seconds, and pour off the cloudy water. Repeat 4 to 5 times until the water runs nearly clear, then drain in a sieve for 15 minutes.
2. Cook the rice with the 2 1/4 cups cold water in a rice cooker on the white-rice setting, or in a heavy 3-quart pot: bring to a boil uncovered over medium-high heat, cover, drop to the lowest heat and cook 12 minutes, then rest off heat, covered, 10 minutes. Do not lift the lid while it cooks.
3. Meanwhile, warm the vinegar, sugar and salt in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring just until dissolved (about 2 minutes) — do not boil. Cool to room temperature.
4. Turn the hot rice into a wide non-metal bowl or sheet pan. Drizzle the vinegar mixture over a wooden spatula so it distributes, then cut and fold through the rice with slicing motions, fanning it as you go. Stop when the rice is glossy and just above body temperature, about 5 minutes. Cover with a damp towel and hold at room temperature; never refrigerate it.
5. Prep the fish while the rice cools. Keep the blocks on a plate over ice until the moment you slice. Trim any sinew or gray line from the tuna and salmon. With a very sharp knife held at a 30-degree angle, cut each fish across the grain into slices about 1/8 inch thick and 2 inches wide — you want roughly 6 to 7 slices of each. Return the slices to the cold plate, laid flat, and refrigerate.
6. Make the filling: fold the shredded crab with the mayonnaise and sesame oil. Slice the first avocado into thin wedges and cut the cucumber into batons. Slice the topping avocado into very thin wedges and brush with lemon juice so it stays green.
7. Wrap a bamboo rolling mat tightly in plastic wrap. Lay a half sheet of nori shiny-side down on the mat. Wet your hands in a bowl of water with a splash of vinegar, take about 3/4 cup of rice and spread it over the nori in an even 1/4-inch layer, pressing lightly with your fingertips and leaving no bare edges. Scatter with sesame seeds.
8. Flip the sheet over so the rice faces the mat and the nori faces up. Along the bottom third, lay a line of crab salad, then a row of cucumber batons and 2 or 3 avocado wedges. Don't overfill.
9. Roll: lift the near edge of the mat with your thumbs, tuck the filling under with your fingers, and roll forward until the nori edge meets the rice. Press gently along the length through the mat to seal, then roll the rest of the way. Squeeze the mat to square the roll off. Repeat to make 4 rolls.
10. Top each roll: overlap slices of tuna, salmon, yellowtail and avocado diagonally across the top like roof shingles, alternating colors, letting them drape slightly down the sides. Add a butterflied shrimp at each end if using.
11. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap over the topped roll, set the bamboo mat on top, and press firmly but evenly along the whole length for 5 seconds, then squeeze the sides to round the top. This is what makes the fish adhere and gives the finished roll its curved profile.
12. Leaving the plastic in place, cut the roll in half with a wet, very sharp knife using one long pull-stroke, then cut each half into 4 pieces (8 per roll). Wipe and re-wet the blade between cuts. Peel the plastic away.
13. Arrange the pieces cut-side up, garnish with tobiko and scallion if using, and serve immediately with soy sauce, wasabi and pickled ginger. Rainbow rolls do not keep — eat within an hour.

Chef's tips

Nutrition (per serving, estimated)

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