Sushi Canapés are the simplest form of sushi, and they are a pretty finger food. Simply by putting your choice of sushi toppings on rolled rice, you can create a stunning crowd-pleaser. I can guarantee you that everyone will...

Sushi Canapés are the simplest form of sushi, and they are a pretty finger food. Simply by putting your choice of sushi toppings on rolled rice, you can create a stunning crowd-pleaser. I can guarantee you that everyone will be very impressed with how pretty (and tasty, of course) they are.

 

It is not very easy to make nigiri sushi properly. Similarly, you need to apply a bit of technique to make neat and tidy Sushi Rolls (Noroimaki) with the fillings in the centre. But you can easily make Sushi Canapés without any trouble at all.

The beauty of today’s Sushi Canapés is that it looks as if you went through so much trouble making them and beautifully plating them. But in fact it does not require much effort at all.

Rolling rice on nori sheets without fillings is easy. The sliced rice rolls don’t have to look neat because they will be covered by toppings.

You will need a very small amount of topping per piece, and you can be creative with the kind of toppings you put on the rice. Anything that can go with sushi rice is fine for a topping to decorate this simple sushi. The combination of toppings is endless.

What’s in My Sushi Canapés

Yakinori (roasted nori sheets) Sushi rice

Unlike my recipes Sushi Rolls (Noroimaki) and Take Away Sushi Rolls, you will use a full-size nori sheet to make the rolled rice.

For each roll of rice, I used about 150g/5.3oz of sushi rice. If you use more/less rice, you will make larger/smaller canapé bases.

Toppings

(From top clockwise)

Salmon sashimi, thinly sliced Seared tuna sashimi, thinly sliced Thinly sliced cucumber Cooked prawns Scallop sashimi, halved horizontally Chopped takanazuke (in the middle)

Garnish

Ikura (salmon roe) Leaves of sprout pea shoots for garnish (forgot to include in the photo, sorry)

I bought a small tray of salmon sashimi and seared tuna sashimi from the fish shop. I had frozen scallops that can be eaten raw after defrosting. My prawns were medium size, so I halved them.

Takanazuke (photo below) is the pickled Japanese mustard greens that I introduced to you in the post Fried Rice with Pickled Mustard Greens (Takana Ch?han).

You don’t need to have all of them, and you can use other toppings. I listed other topping suggestions in the last section of this post. You might be interested in using some of those instead of the toppings above.

How to Make Sushi Canapés

Since you can make the rice rolls ahead of time, I divided the steps into two sections. See the video.

Rice Rolls

Place a sheet of cling wrap on a workbench and place a nori sheet on it. Spread rice on a sheet of nori, leaving about 4cm/1½” border on the side furthest from you. Starting from the end of the nori sheet closest to you, roll the rice with nori tightly to the end. Wrap the rice roll in the cling wrap and twist both ends to secure the edges of the rice roll. Leave it for 5-10 minutes for the rice and nori to blend. Unwrap the cling wrap and slice the rice roll into thin discs. Place the rice pieces on a large serving plate, evenly spaced out.

As you can see in the photo above and the video, unlike standard sushi rolls, the rice is sparsely spread, so you don’t fill up your stomach.

You can make rice rolls 1 day earlier, although the rice becomes slightly hard. My recommendation is to leave the rice rolls in cling wrap without slicing, and keep them in the fridge.

Toppings

In no particular order until you put ikura on some of them.

Place one set of prawns on each rice base. It looks better if you place the tail on top. Place one piece of scallop sashimi on each rice base. Place one piece of seared tuna on each rice base, folding the slice so that the tuna just covers the rice base. Place one piece of salmon on each rice base in the same way as the tuna. Place about 5 slices of cucumber on each rice base. Taking a small amount of takanazuke at a time, squeeze the liquid out of it, then make a small ball. Place it on each rice base. Put several ikura (salmon roe) on top of the salmon and cucumber. Put leaves of pea shoots on the scallops. Serve with soy sauce and wasabi to dip in.

I find it easier to put the same toppings on at once, scattering as evenly as possible. You can also cluster the same toppings together if you want, but I think scattering them looks stunning on a round plate. If the serving plate is square or rectangle, you can group the same toppings together and line them up neatly.

Additional Toppings and Combinations

As mentioned earlier, you can use almost anything that is used for nigiri sushi and sushi rolls. The following is not the complete list, but you may not have trouble getting these ingredients.

Toppings

All sorts of sashimi slices, e.g., kingfish, tuna, snapper. Cured mackerel per my recipe Shime Saba. Kingfish Tataki (can be tuna, yellow tail/horse mackerel). Negi toro (minced tuna) as in my post Negi Toro Don. Smoked salmon. Teriyaki Chicken, cut into small pieces. Sautéed pork cut into small pieces. Grilled eel as in Unadon (Grilled Eel on Rice Bowl), cut into small pieces. Roast beef, cut into thin small pieces. Blanched asparagus, a few short sticks per serving. Avocado diced or sliced. Takuan (pickled daikon), julienned. Simmered Shiitake Mushrooms, whole if very small, or quartered.

If using sashimi slices, you can either slice them thinner than standard sashimi and fold them to put on the rice roll or slice them thick and halve the pieces to make them square.

Topping combinations

You can also put two toppings together.

Avocado and salmon/smoked salmon Cucumber and prawns/tuna/salmon Cream cheese and smoked salmon Canned tuna with avocado as in my post Take Away Sushi Rolls. Julienned perilla and umeboshi (pickled plum)

You may not be familiar with the combination of perilla leaves and umeboshi, but most traditional sushi shops make sushi rolls with them as fillings. It is a refreshing sushi piece.

Garnishes

By adding a small garnish on top of the main topping, you can decorate the dish to be more colourful.

Ikura (salmon roe) Tobiko (flying fish roe) Micro greens Sprout pea shoots (only the leaves) Sesame seeds (black and/or white)

I served Sushi Canapés on a couple of occasions recently. It certainly wowed people at one glance, then all the sushi pieces disappeared quickly. On both occasions, people asked if I made it myself. What a compliment!

You might have struggled to make normal sushi rolls neatly since the filling needs to be in the centre of the roll with the right balance of rice and the filling. But Sushi Canapés are so easy to make with more tolerance for mistakes. Even if the rice rolls are slightly uneven, it doesn’t matter because the rice rolls are hidden beneath the toppings!

Sushi Canapés are a great finger food and perfect for upcoming festive gatherings.

Yumiko

Watch How To Make It

 

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