Baked Sushi Rolls
Baked rolls were not invented in Japan but in the sushi bars of California, and they are the ones that turn up most often in a delivery order. The cap is what matters: it has to brown rather than run across the tray, and for that there must be just enough mayonnaise to hold the filling together and no more.
- Prep
- 45 min
- Cook
- 15 min
- Total
- 1 h
- Servings
- 6
- Level
- Medium
- Per serving
- 430 kcal
Ingredients
The rolls
The cap
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What to use instead
No unagi sauce is no problem: mix 2 tbsp soy sauce with 1 tbsp honey and warm it for a minute until it thickens slightly.
Makes: 6 rolls of 8 pieces, 48 in all
Shopping list
The ingredients for the servings you chose — copy them or send them to a messenger. Tick what you already have at home: only the rest goes on the list.
Method
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Step 1: Prepare the filling and the cap
Halve the cucumber lengthways, cut out the seeded core and cut it into 5 mm batons. Slice the avocado 5 mm thick. For the cap, pull the crab sticks into strands and mix them with the mayonnaise and half the cheese — the mixture should hold its shape on a spoon, not run off it.
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Step 2: Roll them rice side out
Cover the mat with two layers of cling film. Spread 120 g of rice over half a sheet of nori right to the edges, flip it rice down, lay the cucumber and avocado and roll, squeezing along the whole length. Do the same with the other five.
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Step 3: Cut before baking
Cut each roll into 8 pieces with a wet knife now — a baked roll cannot be cut afterwards, the cap slides off. Move the pieces to a lined tray, leaving a finger's width between them.
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Step 4: Put on the cap
Top each piece with a heaped teaspoon of the crab mixture and scatter the rest of the cheese over. Do not smear it down the sides: whatever lands on the paper burns before anything else is ready.
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Step 5: Bake for 12–15 minutes
Into an oven heated to 200 °C for 12–15 minutes. The cap settles first and then starts to bubble, which is what it should do. The rice underneath warms through without drying, because it is covered.
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Step 6: Brown it under the grill
Switch the top grill on and give it 3 more minutes without leaving the oven. The crust should go patchy gold; from gold to black takes less than a minute here.
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Step 7: Serve them hot
Let the rolls stand for 2 minutes so the melted cheese sets enough to pick a piece up with chopsticks. Drizzle with unagi sauce and serve while the cap is still warm.
Tips & variations
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Tip
Rolls are cut before baking, not after. That is the one real difference from an ordinary roll: a hot cap will not hold on the knife and comes away with the filling.
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Variation
Prawns, scallops or a mixture go into the cap in place of crab sticks — that is what the original dynamite looks like. Cut prawns into three, or they will not heat through evenly.
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Swap
No unagi sauce is no problem: mix 2 tbsp soy sauce with 1 tbsp honey and warm it for a minute until it thickens slightly.
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Storage
Baked rolls are not kept and not reheated: the rice goes dry and hard meanwhile, and the mayonnaise in the cap splits. Make exactly as many as will be eaten.
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Tip
There should be just enough mayonnaise in the cap for the mixture to barely hold together. One spoon too many and it runs across the tray in the oven, leaving the pieces bare.
Nutrition
| 1 serving | Whole dish 6 servings | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 430 kcal | 2,580 kcal |
| Protein | 14 g | 84 g |
| Fat | 18 g | 108 g |
| Carbohydrates | 50 g | 300 g |
Approximate values calculated from standard ingredient data.
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