Crispy Rice Spicy Tuna Yum Yum

One of my current favorite sushi items is spicy tuna served on crispy rice.  I first had it at Koi in Las Vegas a few years back.  It isn't served at my regular sushi bar and I haven't seen it too many other places.  It appears it might be an L.A. trend - and Las Vegas lucks out because Koi has a restaurant here.

While we were in L.A. this past weekend we went to The Little Izaka-ya in Sherman Oaks and had several orders of the yumminess.  I decided it was time to make it for myself and I started with this recipe.  I stayed pretty close to the tuna component but left out the green onions.  I cooked the rice the day before, not following the sushi rice instructions but just making it 2C rice with 3C water that had some salt, a little soy sauce and red pepper flakes in it..  After it cooled, I patted it into a rectangle about not quite 1/2" thick and refrigerated it over night. Thanks to BFD for that great idea. Today I mixed the tuna and then cut out small bites of rice which I browned in butter, sesame oil and a little soy sauce.  I topped the rice patties with tuna and then put a couple of slices of shishito pepper on each one.

The presentation isn't as nice as it might be and I hope I'll improve with practice.  The patties were also a little bit greasy so I either need to make the oil hotter or use less.  And next time I'll make the rice bites a little thinner.  Overall they were delicious and I'll be making them often.