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RECIPE: Neal Santos' Spam musubi
Dear Friend of Meal Ticket Neal Santos, CP's immensely talented staff photographer and co-proprietor of Farm 51 in Southwest Philly, is a fellow Filipino — which means he possesses an unshakable genetic affinity for sodium-laden canned meat products. Here he shares his very own recipe for Spam musubi.
RECIPE: Neal Santos' Spam musubi
Dear Friend of Meal Ticket Neal Santos, CP's immensely talented staff photographer and co-proprietor of Farm 51 in Southwest Philly, is a fellow Filipino — which means he possesses an unshakable genetic affinity for sodium-laden canned meat products. Here he shares his very own recipe for Spam musubi.
Spam is in my blood. Long before I considered myself a photographer or "urban farmer," I was eating Spam for breakfast, lunch and dinner. My Filipino parents stockpiled our pantry with cans of the good ish: Vienna Sausage, Ligo Sardines, BumbleBee Tuna and, of course, Spam.
I'd eat Spam and egg, Spam and rice, Spam sandwiches, Spam spaghetti, Spam salad, Spam pizza, Spam and cheese. We'd have it raw, fried, deep-fried, boiled and microwaved. There wasn't any combination of Spam plus something else that we haven't tried.
That was until my older sister (Spam is in her blood too, obviously) took a trip to Hawaii, a journey that turned her on to Spam musubi, a specialty of the state that consists of Spam and vinegared white rice bound with nori, in a similar fashion to sushi. (It's Shane Victorino's favorite dish.) I quickly added the following recipe to my ever-growing list of ways to eat this wonderful canned meat product.
Neal Santos' Spam Musubi
(One can of Spam yields about 6-8 musubis, depending on how thick you slice your Spam)
Go Get This:
1 can of Spam (low sodium if you're worried about your salt intake)
1/4 cup of soy sauce (hence the low-sodium Spam suggestion)
1 package nori
1 tbsp. sliced ginger
1 tbsp. garlic
3 cups sushi rice
2 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
1 tsp. sugar
1 tbsp. brown sugar
1/4 cup water
Toasted sesame seeds
Now Do This:
Slice Spam to about a quarter to a half-inch thick. Save the can to use as a mold. (They sell molds specifically designed for Spam musubi, but for this recipe the can will work just fine.) Marinate the slices for an hour in a mixture of the soy sauce, water, ginger, garlic and brown sugar (more or less than a tablespoon, depending on how sweet you want it).
Meanwhile, prepare your sushi rice. Make about 3 cups according to the package instructions; a rice cooker helps. Less water yields tighter, stickier rice. More water yields looser, wetter rice, which is harder to work with. After rice is cooked, mix in the vinegar and a little sugar (optional). Lay a piece of wax paper down on a baking sheet, sprinkle it with toasted sesame seeds and spread rice tightly and evenly over it, about 1.5 to 2 inches thick. Sprinkle top of rice with toasted sesame seeds, too.
Cook marinated Spam slices on a griddle or in a pan until caramelized, about 5 minutes on each side over medium to high heat. For extra flavor, you can cook down any leftover marinade to use as a glaze.
Take your empty Spam can and turn it upside down. Get a can opener and carve out the bottom — this will leave you with a useful mold. Dipping the mold in a bowl of water regularly it to keep the rice from sticking, press it down on the rice-spread baking sheet to create the musubi-shaped cut-outs. Press out the rice portions onto a dry surface with wet fingertips to help keep the shaped rice together and top with cooked Spam.
Portion the nori into strips long and wide enough to completely wrap around both the rice and Spam. Lay out the strips horizontally and place the Spam and rice vertically along one edge. Carefully wrap the nori around the Spam and rice, sealing the opposite edge with a dab of water. Repeat for as many slices of Spam you have.
I love when there are recipes on Meal Ticket! Neal, who is that adorable Spam-craving dog??— MLF- I'll second this. Also, this post makes me very happy, especially the paragraph before the jump. — jreyes
- MLF, that happens to be Miss Violet, she's a little piglet and snorts at the sound of a can opening in hopes of it being some type of canned meat. — Neal Santos
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