Gunkan-maki (軍艦巻き, battleship roll)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Hangiri (wooden sushi rice tub), or a wide shallow nonreactive bowl
• •Shamoji (rice paddle), or a flat wooden spatula
• •Uchiwa fan, or a folded piece of stiff paper
• •Sharp knife or kitchen scissors for cutting nori
• •Small spoon for filling the gunkan

Instructions

1. 1

   Wash the rice

   Put the rice in a bowl, cover it with cool water, and stir with your fingers. Pour off the cloudy water, then repeat until the water is nearly clear. You're washing off loose starch so the cooked grains shine and separate instead of turning pasty. Drain well for 20 minutes.

2. 2

   Cook the rice

   Cook the drained rice with the measured water and the konbu, if using. Remove the konbu as soon as the rice is cooked. Let the rice rest, covered, for 10 minutes so the moisture settles evenly through the grains.

3. 3

   Season the rice

   Warm the rice vinegar, sugar, and salt just until dissolved, then let it cool. Turn the hot rice into a hangiri, the wooden sushi tub, or a wide shallow bowl. Sprinkle the seasoning over the rice and fold with a shamoji, cutting through the grains rather than mashing them. Fan as you fold. The cooling gives the rice its gloss and keeps the grains distinct.

   The rice should be body-warm when you shape it. Cold rice turns hard, and hot rice softens the nori before it reaches the table.
4. 4

   Prepare the toppings

   Keep the ikura and uni chilled until the last moment. For negitoro, mince the tuna with a sharp knife until soft but still textured, then fold in the scallion and 1 teaspoon soy sauce. Don't pound it into paste. The knife should loosen the tuna, not erase it.

5. 5

   Cut the nori

   Cut the nori into strips about 3cm wide and 15cm long. Keep them dry under a clean towel while you work. Nori is crisp for only a short time once it meets rice, so this is a dish to assemble close to serving.

6. 6

   Shape the rice

   Wet your fingertips lightly with the vinegar water, then take about 18g of sushi rice and shape it into a small oval. Press gently. You want the grains to hold together, not become a brick. A good gunkan-maki is one bite, with room for the topping to matter.

7. 7

   Wrap with nori

   Wrap one nori strip around the rice, shiny side out, with the lower edge level with the bottom of the rice and the upper edge rising above it. Seal the end with one or two grains of rice. The snug wall is the whole point: it holds the soft topping without squeezing the rice.

8. 8

   Fill and serve

   Spoon ikura, uni, or negitoro into the nori cup, filling just above the rim. Serve at once with grated wasabi and a small dish of soy sauce. Dip from the topping side only if the piece can bear it, or brush on a little soy with a clean fingertip. Drowning it in soy is a small tragedy, and a preventable one.

Chef Tips

• •Ask your fishmonger directly what came in today that they would eat raw. Labels help less than a person willing to tell you no. For uni, look for intact tongues with a clean sea scent, not bitterness or iodine harshness.
• •Ikura is most naturally an autumn pleasure, when salmon roe is at its shun. Good frozen ikura can be very fine, but it should thaw glossy and separate, not sticky or broken.
• •Use a hangiri if you have one. Its unfinished wood absorbs extra moisture from the seasoned rice. A wide glass or enamel bowl works, too. Avoid metal for seasoned rice, since vinegar and metal make a poor friendship.
• •Cut nori only shortly before serving and keep it dry. Once wrapped, gunkan-maki should be eaten soon, while the seaweed still has a little snap.
• •If raw seafood is not right for your table, don't pretend imitation is the same dish. Make honmono vegetable gunkan with lightly salted cucumber dice, simmered shiitake, or mountain yam with wasabi, and name it honestly.

Advance Preparation

• •The sushi vinegar can be made several days ahead and kept covered at room temperature.
• •Cook and season the rice up to 2 hours before serving. Keep it covered with a damp cloth at room temperature, never refrigerated.
• •Cut the nori and prepare the toppings shortly before assembling. Finished gunkan-maki is best within 10 minutes, before the nori softens.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 38g)