Inari Sushi

I find inari sushi irresistible. Yet, I only eat them at restaurants or buy them pre-made at the Japanese grocery store. As I'm trying to expand my cooking repertoire, I decided it was high time to cross this one off the list. And... it turns out there's not much to it if you work fast and not think at all about making your rice look pretty.

But, you do need to carve out some time to make the steamed rice, start assembling the inari, take a tiny break to wonder why you started this whole endeavor, tell yourself to stop whining and soldier on until finally you have a plate of these stuffed fried tofu pouches (pickled radish are optional, but I love them so, so much). TRULY IMPORTANT: keep re-wetting your hands because otherwise, the rice will get unmanageable.

I bought my fried tofu pouches (with sushi rice seasoning and savory sprinkles of some sort included) at the Korean grocery store, but I did throw in some roasted sesame seeds to "make it my own." For my next inari experiment, I am thinking about adding something a little extra to the rice, such as kimchi, shiitake mushrooms or even cheese (okay, that last one could be going too far, but I'm probably going to do it anyway).