Spicy Salmon Rolls
Spicy is not about heat but about balance: the mayonnaise should carry the fish, not bury it. The proportion decides everything, which is why the sauce is mixed on its own and tasted before it ever meets the salmon.
- Prep
- 35 min
- Total
- 35 min
- Servings
- 6
- Level
- Medium
- Per serving
- 330 kcal
Ingredients
The rolls
Spicy sauce
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What to use instead
Without sriracha, use 1 tbsp of doubanjiang or chilli sauce plus a pinch of paprika — a different kind of heat, but the same balance against the mayonnaise.
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: Mix the sauce
Stir the mayonnaise, sriracha and sesame oil together and taste it off the tip of a spoon. It should be clearly hot on its own: inside a roll it spreads through the rice and comes out half as strong.
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Step 2: Cut the fish
Cut the salmon into strips and then into a 5 mm dice. Do not work it to a paste: spicy salmon should still taste of fish rather than of sandwich filling. Fold it into the sauce and chill for 10 minutes.
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Step 3: Cut the cucumber
Halve the cucumber lengthways, cut out the seeded core and cut it into thin batons. The cucumber is not there for flavour but for crunch — against a soft filling it is what makes the roll interesting.
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Step 4: Spread the rice and flip
Cover the mat with two layers of cling film. With a wet hand spread 120 g of rice over half a sheet of nori right to the edges, scatter the sesame over it and turn the sheet rice side down.
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Step 5: Lay the filling
On the nori, towards your side, lay a line of the spicy mixture and the cucumber beside it. Keep it to one level: a cold mayonnaise filling slides, and a mound of it will spread across the rice the moment you start rolling.
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Step 6: Roll and squeeze
Lift the near edge of the mat with the film, fold it over the filling, squeeze along the whole length, roll to the end and go over it once more, straightening the sides.
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Step 7: Cut with a wet knife
Wet a long sharp knife and cut the roll in half, drawing back then pushing forward. Put the halves side by side and cut each into four, wetting the blade before every cut.
Tips & variations
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Tip
The sauce runs 5 spoons of mayonnaise to 2 of sriracha. More chilli sauce than that and the filling turns loose and runs out of the ends before the knife ever reaches it.
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Variation
The classic version is made with tuna. Lightly salted tuna is hard to come by here, so salmon is not a compromise but what is actually on the shelf; the result is fattier and softer.
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Swap
Without sriracha, use 1 tbsp of doubanjiang or chilli sauce plus a pinch of paprika — a different kind of heat, but the same balance against the mayonnaise.
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Storage
The filling can be mixed an hour ahead and kept in the fridge, with the rolls made just before serving. Finished rolls do not keep: mayonnaise softens both rice and nori.
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Tip
If you want to make spicy rolls with raw fish, ordinary chilled salmon will not do: what makes it safe is freezing beforehand — −20 °C for seven days or −35 °C for fifteen hours, the FDA requirement. A household freezer holds −18 °C and does not meet it.
Nutrition
| 1 serving | Whole dish 6 servings | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 330 kcal | 1,980 kcal |
| Protein | 13 g | 78 g |
| Fat | 12 g | 72 g |
| Carbohydrates | 44 g | 264 g |
Approximate values calculated from standard ingredient data.
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