Ebi Nigiri
Nigiri is where sushi began: a pressed finger of rice with one piece of seafood over it. No mat needed, no nori either, but there is one trick — the prawn is cooked on a skewer, or it curls into a ring and will never sit on the rice.
- Prep
- 25 min
- Cook
- 5 min
- Total
- 30 min
- Servings
- 4
- Level
- Medium
- Per serving
- 150 kcal
Ingredients
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What to use instead
If large raw prawns are not to be had, cooked frozen ones work: do not boil them, just warm them through for a minute in boiling water and butterfly them the same way.
Makes: 12 nigiri
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: Skewer the prawns
Push a skewer along each prawn from tail to head, just under the shell, so that it straightens out. This is the only way to cook one straight: without a skewer it curls into a ring within ten seconds.
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Step 2: Boil for 2–3 minutes
Lower the skewers into boiling salted water for 2–3 minutes, until the shells turn bright red and the flesh is opaque. No longer: an overcooked prawn goes rubbery and lies on the rice like a piece of plastic.
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Step 3: Straight into iced water
Move the skewers straight into a bowl of water and ice for a minute. Cooling them fast stops the cooking inside and keeps the flesh springy.
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Step 4: Peel and butterfly
Pull the skewers out and peel the prawns, leaving the tail on if you like. Make a shallow cut along the belly without going right through, and open the prawn like a book, pressing it lightly flat with your palm.
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Step 5: Shape the rice
With a wet hand take 20 g of rice and press it into an oval as long as the prawn. Two or three squeezes, no more: nigiri should hold together in the hand and fall apart in the mouth, not the other way round.
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Step 6: Put them together
Dab a little wasabi on the inside of the prawn, lay it over the rice and cover it with two fingers, pressing gently along the whole length. The prawn should wrap the rice rather than sit on it like a plank.
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Step 7: Serve straight away
Arrange the nigiri on a plate, seafood upwards. They go into soy sauce fish first, never rice first — rice soaks the lot up and falls apart in the dish.
Tips & variations
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Tip
20 g of rice a piece is about a slightly heaped tablespoon. Nigiri larger than the prawn look clumsy, and the seafood gets lost on them.
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Variation
The same technique makes nigiri with lightly salted salmon, eel or tamago omelette — only the top changes. Cut a slice of fish at 45°, 5 mm thick and a little longer than the finger of rice.
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Swap
If large raw prawns are not to be had, cooked frozen ones work: do not boil them, just warm them through for a minute in boiling water and butterfly them the same way.
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Storage
Nigiri is the quickest thing in the whole sushi repertoire and the least suited to keeping: the rice is pressed while warm, and an hour in the cold sets it hard. Shape them just before serving.
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Tip
Wet your hands with water and a spoonful of vinegar, then shake the excess off. Hands that are too wet make the rice slippery and the finger will not hold its shape.
Nutrition
| 1 serving | Whole dish 4 servings | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 150 kcal | 600 kcal |
| Protein | 11 g | 44 g |
| Fat | 1 g | 4 g |
| Carbohydrates | 24 g | 96 g |
Approximate values calculated from standard ingredient data.
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