Spicy Tuna Maki

When my family gets together in San Diego we always have sushi night.  We throw a big icebox into the trunk and drive to the Japanese supermarket where we buy tons of fresh sashimi, fish roe, pickled diakon, and pink ginger.  It may seem strange that my family puts together a sushi dinner at home.  For many, sushi is a take out or dining out kind of cuisine.  However, making sushi or putting together a sashimi plate is not all that complicated. Sure, it won’t be like having a meal at Nobu or Morimoto, but it definitely will be much cheaper.  It might even be cheaper than ordering from the Japanese place around the corner!

While I was browsing the aisles of M2M, an Asian supermarket in the East Village, I saw that they sold some sashimi and fish roe. They didn’t have a large selection, so I couldn’t serve a platter of sashimi like the picture from my family’s dinner, but they did have everything needed for spicy tuna makis.  I guess I could’ve gone to the cute Japanese supermarket called Sunrise Mart, which has a greater variety of sashimi, but I already had a bag full of groceries from Trader Joe’s so I decided to settle with M2M’s selection (yea, I was also being lazy).

My family’s spicy tuna is super easy and simple.  It doesn’t take a genius or culinary school graduate to know how to make it.  It’s also great because if your ingredients aren’t of the best value, it doesn’t matter a whole lot.  There’s absolutely no cooking involved and because we always go with the do-it-yourself method, it really is quite easy for the cook!  Along with the nori, dried seaweed, thinly slice some cucumbers, pickled daikon, and avocados and you have everything you need for a complete tuna maki!

  

  

I didn’t follow an exact recipe but just played it by ear.  This might drive some people crazy, but there’s really no way for it to go wrong unless you spill the whole bottle of hot sauce!

 

Spicy Tuna Maki

Serves 8, first coarse

Tuna sashimi, about 0.5 lbs
Fish roe, about 0.3 lbs
Tabasco, to taste

One package of nori
1 avocado
Pickled yellow daikon, 3 inches long by 1.5 inches wide
1 small cucumber

Dice the tuna into small pieces.  Mix in the fish roe and a couple of drops of tabasco.  Cut the nori in half and then in thirds.  Thinly slice the avocado, pickled daikon, and cucumber.  Place each ingredient separately on a plate and serve.