Recipe: Yummy Inari-zushi

Inari-zushi. Inarizushi is a kind of sushi or rice ball. Sushi rice is stuffed in seasoned Aburaage tofu pouches. Inarizushi is technically sushi, but it is not something you order at nice sushi restaurants.

Along with the nori (black seaweed) sushi rolls, this is a cheap and popular type of sushi. I used store-bought seasoned Inarizushi pouches. See the post for details and photo. You can have Inari-zushi using 8 ingredients and 5 steps. Here is how you cook it.

Ingredients of Inari-zushi

1. You need of Sushi Rice *cooked from 180ml x 3 cups uncooked rice.
2. It's of 'Inari-zushi no Moto' (Seasoned Abura-age) 12 peaces.
3. It's of *Note: If you want to cook Abura-age by yourself, here is the list of the ingredients.
4. It's 6 sheets of Abura-age (thin fried tofu).
5. It's 1 cup of Dashi.
6. It's 4 tablespoons of Mirin.
7. Prepare 4 tablespoons of Sugar.
8. You need 4 tablespoons of Soy Sauce.

You can buy them at Japanese grocery stores. Squeeze out tofu pouch and stuff with sushi rice, then serve immediately. This is the easiest way, and you get an open pouch where you can see the rice (see my photo). Alternatively, you can fold the edges over the rice so the sushi rice is completely covered inside the tofu pouch.

Inari-zushi instructions

1. Cut Abura-age in half and open them carefully. Pour very hot water over the Abura-age to remove oil from them..
2. Place all ingredients in a saucepan and cook Abura-age until the sauce thickens. Let them cool in the sauce..
3. Alternatively use ready-to-use 'Inari-zushi no Moto'. I recommend to empty the contents into a saucepan to heat, then cool. You can alter the flavour by adding more soy sauce or sugar..
4. Cook Sushi Rice. See my 'Sushi Rice' recipe at https://cookpad.com/uk/recipes/1467168-sushi-rice.
5. Make small Sushi Rice balls and wrap with bags of seasoned Abura-age..

Named for the Shinto god Inari, Inarizushi is also known as "brown bag sushi" because the rice is packed in seasoned aburaage, or fried tofu pouches. Because the aburaage keeps the rice held together so well, and it's usually made with just rice inside, inarizushi is easy to eat, even when using your hands. Even within Japan, the Inarizushi in the Tokyo area and the ones in the Osaka area are different in shape! Inari-zushi is abura-age (thin deep-fried tofu) cooked in a sweet sauce, with a filling of vinegar flavored rice. The rice filling can be as it is, or mixed with other ingredients such as sesame, carrots, shiitake mushrooms and others.