Spam Musubi

Hubby decided to surprise me with breakfast this morning. So he locked me up in the bedroom while he prepared everything. The last time he did this, he made some Malasadas, a Portuguese style donut that is a favorite in Hawaii (and our family's favorite too). So it was pure torture when he made me wait in the room while I was able to smell whatever he was cooking.

He was finally done and to my surprise, he made another one of my favorite Hawaiian delicacy - Spam Musubi. I know that not everyone is a fan of Spam. But its quite popular in the Asian/Pacific Island culture. Especially in Hawaii. You see, in the old war days when food was scarce, food that was not perishable (like Spam) was brought into the islands for the soldiers. The locals had to find creative ways to make dishes out of Spam and the Spam Musubi was born. Its basically a Spam Sushi and it was a great, portable meal for a lot of the farmers in Hawaii.

So that was my brief history on this yummy dish. And hubby did a great job with it. It came out yummy. I'm glad he made this because I had been meaning to try to make it myself. I may have to ask him to make some again :)

1 1/2 cup uncooked glutinous, sweet rice

1 1/2 cup water

Nori sheets, cut in half

1/2 cup Soy Sauce

1/2 cup sugar (or more if you like it sweet)

1 Tbsp. oil

1 (12 oz) can Spam Lite, sliced 1/4 inch thick

Furikake

1) In a rice cooker pot or regular saucepan, pour in rice and water. Cook rice until done.

2) In a skillet, heat oil and lightly brown sliced spam on both sides.

3) Combine soy sauce and sugar in a small bowl. Pour in the skillet with spam. Cook until sauce begins to boil. Remove from heat.

4) To assemble the Musubi, use a square sushi mold. Place half a sheet of the Nori on the bottom. Place enough rice to reach about 3/4 up of the mold. Sprinkle with a little bit of the Furikake. Top with a slice of Spam. Fold the Nori over the Spam to seal. Serve warm.

*Note: you can also use a prepared teriyaki sauce in place of the soy sauce and sugar mixture.

**Furikake is a Japanese topping which is a mixture of dried fish, seaweed flakes and sesame seed, found in Asian stores