You can't go wrong with a California maki. For Japanese food lovers that aren't initially enticed by the idea of eating raw fish, it’s the middle ground; it has seafood and sushi rice, and it’s served in the same shape as most sushi. But it’s packed with other stuff people are already familiar with: cucumber (veg—that’s good for you), mangoes (who doesn’t love it), and, in some iterations, avocadoes (another fruit, it’s pretty much healthy for you).
This California maki recipe has all that, sans the avocadoes. But what makes it different—or *extra*—is the addition of a kani salad topping. It doesn’t need it, but the loaded topping complements the roll’s flavors and solves the top problem of most California maki: not having enough crab.
Ingredients
Kani Salad
- 2 cups kani (crab stick), cooked and shredded
- 1 tbsp Japanese chili oil
- 1/4 cup Kewpie mayonnaise
- 2 tbsp tobiko
Sushi Rice
- 2 cups short-grain Japanese rice, cooked
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- ½ tbsp sugar
Maki
- 4 pcs nori sheets
- 2 cups sushi rice, prepared
- ¼ cup tobiko
- 16 pcs kani (crab stick), cooked
- 2 ripe mangoes, thinly sliced
- 1 cucumber, cut into sticks
Make the kani salad: Toss together the shredded kani, chili oil, mayonnaise, and tobiko in a bowl. Set aside.
Make the sushi rice: Toss together the shredded kani, chili oil, mayonnaise, and tobiko in a bowl. Set aside.
Lay one nori sheet onto a sushi mat.
Spread over a fourth of the sushi rice with wet hands.
Add a fourth of the tobiko and evenly spread over the rice, then flip the sheet.
Add two pieces of crabstick, sliced mango, sliced cucumber, then two more pieces of crabstick in a single line down the center of the sheet.
Use the sushi mat to roll tightly.
Slice the rolls then repeat until 4 full rolls are made and all the ingredients have been used.
Slice and serve with kani salad on top.
