Easy Unagi Nigiri

Eel rolls are my absolute favorite! My husband and I love sushi so much but it’s crazy expensive over here in Missouri. I think it’s because we’re land locked. Beef and other red and white meats are super affordable here but fish is limited and pricey.

So we have an awesome huge Asian market we go to over in Kansas called the 888 International Market. It is the most amazing and enormous Asian market I’ve ever been to in my life. If you live in our area you have to visit. You’ll never shop anywhere else again.

To save, we make our own sushi all the time. In fact we ate sushi every night last week except 2. Eel rolls are easy. All the work is already done for you when you buy the pre char grilled BBQ eel.

>>> Ingredients <<<

1 giant fillet package BBQ cooked eel

1 cup sushi rice

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

Wasabi sauce or paste

>>> Directions <<<

First you are going to prep your rice. Rinse the sushi rice until the water runs clear. This is to get off all the extra starch that makes the rice too sticky. Mix the rice with 1 and 1/2 cups of water in a rice cooker and set to cook. After it’s finished mix in the rice vinegar and cover with a wet paper towel and a clean kitchen cloth to keep it warm.

Heat up the eel covered in the microwave for 3 minutes. To slice the eel lay the entire fillet out lengthwise on a cutting board. Slice at about a 30 degree angle and in 1/2 inch to full inch slices down the entire fillet. Work from left to right down the entire length of the eel. You’ll end up with anywhere from 12-20 slices depending on how large you cut and how large your fillet is. Set aside.

To roll your rice keep a bowl of warm water nearby. Wet your hands with the water and grab a heaping tablespoon of sushi rice. Place it in your palm and squish and roll and squish and roll into an oval ball that is slightly flattened on the top and bottom. When the rice is nice and tight, set aside. Repeat the entire process for all of the rice.

When you’ve rolled all of your rice balls add a light swipe of your wasabi. When working with BBQ eel it’s much cleaner to swipe the rice then the actual eel.

Then place a piece of eel on the top of each roll. That’s it! If you want to take it a step further for presentation purposes, you can use a 1/4 inch thick and 2 inch long strip of nori to wrap the eel onto the rice and a dash of toasted sesame seeds on top.