Spam Musubi is a Japanese/Hawaiian dish of marinated and fried spam served on sushi rice with nori wrapping. I tried to research the history of this dish, and like many recipes it is murky. Whatever its origins, it so tasty and fun to make and eat. For those who think spam is gross, if you prepare it well, it is super delicious – trust me on this 🙂
For my musubi I fry the spam in a skillet (no oil needed) and right at the end of cooking, add a little sugar, soy, oyster sauce and sriracha which gives the spam a nice crispy, salty, lightly sweet and spicy flavor and texture. This goes SO well with the rice sprinkled with vinegar and salt. You don’t have to add the nori but it is typical and it adds a nice extra depth of flavor to this dish.
You can serve this as a little snack, appetizer or as part of a meal. We ate it with the kimchi sujebi I posted yesterday. There is a little mold you can use to get your rice into rectangles like this (my cousin sent me mine from Japan when she lived there but you can get on amazon too). If you don’t want to get the mold, you can shape the rice by hand. It won’t look as perfectly rectangular, but it will taste just as good. 🙂 See my recipe for cooking Asian rice on the stove top here.
Spam Musubi
Ingredients
- 1 can spam sliced into 8 pieces long ways
- 2 cups Asian rice cooked in a rice cooker or according to my method on stove top
- 4 tbsp rice vinegar
- sprinkle of salt for the rice
- nori sheets
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tsp sriracha
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp water
Instructions
- Cook the rice according to your rice cooker instructions or my stove top method instructions. Allow to cool for 10 minutes then mix and sprinkle with the vinegar and a little salt. Recover and allow to cool.
- Heat a skillet over medium heat and add the spam. Allow to slowly brown on each side. Flipping as needed so that it doesn't get too dark. You definitely want it lightly browned, but if it gets too dark it doesn't taste as good. While that is cooking, mix the soy sauce, sugar, oyster sauce, sriracha and water. When the spam is done, add this mixture and coat the spam and allow to fry a little more. Then set aside to cool slightly.
- If using a mold, press some rice into the mold then add the spam on top. Slice the nori sheets into strips and wrap around the rice and spam and seal with a tiny bit of water. If you don't have a mold, press some rice flat about 1 inch high and shape roughly to fit the spam. Wrap with nori. I like to toast my nori slightly over an open flame on the stove before cutting. Serve slightly warm or at room temp.
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