Recipe: Make your own California Maki at home

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MANILA, Philippines — Like most Filipinos, your favorite Japanese roll, or Maki, happens to be California Maki.

Seasoned Japanese sticky rice rolled with mango strips and kani sticks in nori sheets, California Maki has a mild sweetish taste that agrees with the Filipino palate.

So that is what you always order from the Japanese restaurant but why not try to make your own California Maki at home? You can even make a Temaki version by rolling the sushi rice, mango strips and kani sticks into a nori cone?

Here is a recipe from a teens’ cooking and baking camp of The Maya Kitchen:

California Roll

Ingredients:

Sushi rice*

Nori sheets

Mango strips

Kani (imitation crabsticks)

Japanese mayonnaise

Tobiko (orange-colored fish roe) for Maki

Kikkoman sauce

Wasabi paste

Procedure:

1. Lay one-half sheet of nori on a bamboo mat covered with plastic wrap.

2. Spread about 1/3 cup of sushi rice evenly on it, pressing down firmly. Line with mango and kani strips, lengthwise, on the nori sheet. Roll bamboo mat forward, pressing the ingredients inside the cylinder-shaped sushi. Press bamboo mat firmly with hands, then remove the rolled sushi.

3. To make California Maki, turn the sushi layer over so that the nori sheet is on top. Line with mango and kani strips, lengthwise, the same way. Roll bamboo mat forward, pressing the ingredients inside the cylinder-shaped sushi. Press bamboo mat firmly with hands, then remove the rolled sushi. If making California Maki, you need an additional ingredient, which is Tobiko, which are tiny orange-colored fish roe. Lightly rub a generous amount of Tobiko onto the Maki rolls and press lightly to make them adhere to the sushi rice.

4. Cut the sushi roll into bite-sized pieces.

5. Arrange on plate. Pipe a collop of Japanese mayonnaise on top of each piece. Serve with Kikkoman sauce and wasabi paste on the side.

To make the sushi rice:

3 cups Japanese rice

3 cups water

1/3 cup rice wine vinegar

3 tbsps. sugar

1 tsp. iodized salt

Procedure:

1. Wash the rice and soak in water for 10 to 15 minutes. Steam in a rice cooker.

2. Heat up vinegar, sugar and salt in a small pan over low heat. Cook until sugar and salt are dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool.

3. When rice is cooked, transfer to a wooden or glass bowl. Sprinkle the vinegar mixture over the rice and fold quickly with a spatula to spread it out evenly. Be careful not to mash the rice.

4. To cool the sushi rice, use a fan while folding in the vinegar mixture. Use the rice immediately.