Nov 1

Nov 1 Grandma’s Musubi

Just rice, salt and love.

The backstory

How is it already November 1?

Living away from Hawai’i for 11 years now, I have gotten used to my patterns of homesickness. The onset of the holiday season is definitely one of those peaks in the highs and lows of missing home.

One of the things I’m most grateful for in 2020 is that while I feel physically distanced from all loved ones, I sometimes feel most connected to them. For example, pre-2020, I would call my grandparents maybe every month. No video. Just landline. Since April, I’ve now seen my grandma every week - thanks video calls. My cousin Jaymie set up a schedule for all cousins to FaceTime grandma once a week. Through that dedicated grandma-and-me time, I’ve come to learn more about her and she me.

Our weekly agenda usually consists of the weather, her health, my job, Camila, maybe a haircut or new top, the election and what’s for lunch/dinner - #timedifference. We just chat. And it makes me feel home.

My grandma’s greatest form of affection is through food. Her fridge is filled with a range of ingredients to make all of her greatest hits, but one of my favorite things she makes for me is the simplest - musubi.

Musubi can come in all shapes and sizes. It usually consists of three things: rice, nori and something savory. But grandma’s musubi is even simpler, just rice and salt. It was the perfect afternoon snack growing up. Us cousins would be playing cards, coming home from the beach or checking in on the store and grandma would be standing over the sink or cutting board preparing dinner. She’d say, “You hungry? I made musu.” Bliss.

Making a musubi is my quickest way of feeling connected to her. I’ll never be able to replicate hers because they were formed in her hands with her masterful musubi touch. All she needed was fresh rice, salt and some warm water to help shape the rice into its rounded triangle form. I can close my eyes and picture how the rice would take shape in her palms. Dabbing salt as she goes, she’d make it in seconds. Place it in my hand and I’d take a bite. Salty. Chewy. Warm. Comforting. Still standing there, right next to her, as if she were my personal musubi maker.

“You want another one?”

Mouth full, “Yes, please.”

The recipe

Shoyu Tuna Musubi
Makes 8
Time: About 20 minutes, not including time to cook rice

Tip: The fresher the rice the better. Also, have a bowl of warm water ready for assembly. Wet both hands while shaping your musubi.

Ingredients:
2 5-oz can of tuna
3 cups calrose rice
1 cup short-grain brown rice
2 tbsp shoyu (soy sauce)
2 tbsp sugar
3 sheets of nori

Instructions:
Cook your rice. We bust out our Zojirushi rice cooker for all of our rice needs.

Prepare the shoyu tuna…

In a medium pan, heat the tuna on medium heat. Add the shoyu and sugar, stirring continuously while breaking up the pieces of tuna so that it is completely shredded. Cook until the sugar is completely dissolved and the shoyu is no longer in liquid form. You don’t want to dry out the tuna, but you don’t want it to be wet in your musubi. Set aside.

Cut your nori in thirds, lengthwise.

Now it’s assembly time! It’s easy. Just wet, scoop, mold, dab and wrap.

Wet your hands with the warm water.

Scoop half a handful of cooked rice into your hand, spreading it across your entire palm, up to your fingers. Add a spoonful of shoyu tuna. Top with another layer of rice in you hand.

Mold the rounded triangle shape of the musubi using the base of your palms and middle fingers, to cup and turn the rice, gently pressing until it takes shapes. It may be easier to start with a ball first and then form it into the triangle. Don’t worry, no matter the shape, it will still taste good.

Dab with salt as you go. Grandma likes to put the salt on her palms, allowing it to stick to the rice as it gets shaped.

Wrap your musubi, place one end of the nori starting at one tip of the triangle, aligning the nori perpendicular to the base of the triangle pressing it lightly around to the back and meeting one end of the nori with the other at the tip. Press the corners to connect the nori if there is excess.

Repeat with the rest of your rice. Have fun!