These snack balls fell from the sky last Monday. For years I have occasionally ventured into the art of making sushi, but I think it’s too much work to do it myself. And cooking rice is not really that I like. So we often prefer to eat fresh sushi in a restaurant, where you get it on the table quickly, it is always tasty and you do not have to clean up the mess in the kitchen. And yet I was really excited to make sushi balls with smoked salmon and different kinds of fish eggs! My favorite sushi is the Ikura, with salmon eggs, so I also chose special salmon eggs for this recipe.
You can have these deliciously fresh sushi pearls on your Christmas table in no time and everyone will love them. Do you not like fish or do you have vegetarians visiting? You can also make these pearls with pickled vegetables or peas!
Ingredients
For the rice balls
- 400 gr sushi rice
- 4 to 6 tablespoons of rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon of coarse salt
For the filling, of your choice - peas
- Sesame seed
- Black fish eggs
- Salmon eggs
- Smoked salmon, cut into pieces
Preparation
Cook the rice according to the package, drain and let it cool. In a small pan, combine the rice vinegar, sugar and salt and let it heat very gently. Stir this mixture a few times and taste it. Add a little more rice vinegar or sugar to your taste.
When your sushi rice has mostly cooled, add your mixture to your rice spoon by spoon, stirring it very gently with a wooden spoon. Do not stir too quickly or too much, otherwise the rice will become like porridge, and we want to prevent that.
Let your rice rest for a while while preparing the ingredients for the filling. Put 4 tablespoons of rice in a bowl and add your first filling. Gently mix it into the rice and then wash your hands with warm water. This is very important so that the rice does not stick while rolling the balls. Grab a pile of rice with filling, shape it into a ball and roll it further into the correct shape between your palms. Place the ready balls on a plate covered with aluminum foil. From 4 tablespoons of rice you get about 4 to 5 sushi balls.
Repeat this process until you have all kinds of sushi balls with different fillings. Cool the balls until you are ready to present them! You can add soy sauce and chopped spring onion, but I’m a lady who prefers pure flavors, so I didn’t add anything more to my balls.
The result
You can also use flat rice or risotto rice instead of sushi rice if you don’t have sushi rice. I used sushi rice from the Carrefour brand, which probably doesn’t mean much to you because Carrefour doesn’t exist in the Netherlands.
They were really delicious by Luis and my father, who also thought it was crazy when he learned that I can’t cook rice at all. This rice tasted so perfect he thought I was kidding. Sometimes I seem to be lucky with cooking rice and recipes. This dish was definitely worth repeating and I will certainly try out more flavored fillings!
Do you have a favorite sushi or rice recipe or have you tried this recipe? I’d love to hear from you if you have any photos or comments. I share the best photos of readers on Instagram, if you are allowed to.
