Uramaki with seared tuna and crispy onions

Uramaki with seared tuna and crispy onions. Versione italiana. Uramaki are those sushi rolls with stuffing and seaweed on the inside and rice on the outside. It does not necessarily have to be prepared with raw fish and, in this case, I used very quickly seared tuna in a pan. I then added some vegetables: carrots and cucumber. And finally, topping with Sriracha Mayo sauce (or mayonnaise with the addition of spicy sauce) and crispy onions.

To obtain excellent Uramaki the secrets, in addition to the manual skills that are acquired over time, are:

A perfect sushi rice. Find here the recipe to obtain a perfect sushi rice without rice cooker.
High quality Nori Seaweed. If you don’t like seaweed or if you just want to experiment with variations, there are also soy sheets of various colors, I sincerely prefer seaweed, but I like them. Otherwise I have also seen variants of rolls wrapped in a thin sheet of cucumber cut with a knife, or from a cabbage leaf. But in these cases the taste changes quite a bit compared to the original version.
Excellent downed fish. We often read around that it is also possible to freeze fish in the home freezer for 96 hours, which is equivalent to chilling it in terms of food safety, but the result in terms of consistency and taste is no longer the same.
Have good tools at your disposal:
- Sushi kit with bamboo placemat and scoop to arrange the rice
- A good sharp knife. Usually Yanagiba knives are used for sushi / sashimi. Otherwise, I am also fine with well-sharpened butcher knives.

Uramaki with seared tuna and crispy onions

Ingredients (1 roll – 8 pieces):

120g cooked sushi rice
1/2 nori seaweed
Carrot to taste
Cucumber to taste
30g tuna
White / black sesame seeds
Crunchy onion
Sriracha Mayo (or mayonnaise with tabasco or other hot sauce)
Soy sauce (optional)

Directions (ingredients preparation):

To prepare sushi rice, follow this recipe. The 500-gram raw rice doses are good for making sushi for 2-4 people, depending on how much sushi you usually eat.
Then move on to preparing the other ingredients, cutting both the fish and the other vegetables. When you take the fish out of the package, it will probably be moist on the surface. In this case, dab it with absorbent paper before cutting it and using it.
Then spread out the bamboo placemat, cover it with cling film and then place half of the seaweed on top of it. You can get half the seaweed from the whole seaweed by folding it in half along the longer side. Fold it a few times back and forth and then it should be easy enough to divide with your hands, as you usually do with sheets of paper, in the absence of scissors.
Place the shinier side of the seaweed down so that it stays on the outside. Then wet your hands in slightly acidulated water, lightly dab your fingertips on a cloth, if they are dripping, and then take a portion of rice of about 120 grams.

Directions (Uramaki with seared tuna and crispy onions):

Arrange the rice evenly over the whole seaweed, better if it comes out slightly to the outside, rather than leaving a part of the seaweed empty. Then sprinkle the central part with white and / or black sesame seeds.
Then turn the seaweed over so that the rice is now placed on top of the cling film. Take a few strips of carrots, cucumbers and fish and place them on the seaweed, about 1cm from the edge that is towards you.
At this point, with the help of the mat, start rolling your uramaki, putting pressure on the filling with your fingers, in order to close the roll on itself more easily.
Then compact the roll a little more and make it more cylindrical, pressing lightly with your hands around the cylinder you formed with the mat. Let the uramaki compact for about ten minutes inside the film before cutting it.
When cutting, be careful to use a very sharp knife with a wet blade in acidulated water. If the knife blade becomes dirty with rice or stuffing between cuts, clean it and wet it before continuing with the next cuts. Cut the roll first in half, then in 4, and finally in 8. By doing this you will be more sure of getting uniform pieces.
Then arrange it on the plate where you want to serve it and then move on to prepare the topping. Place some Sriracha Mayo sauce or mayonnaise mixed with Tabasco or other hot sauce on each roll. Finally, some flakes of fried onion. Both the Sriracha Mayo with a spout suitable for this type of preparation, and the crunchy onion can be found ready in Asian shops.