Yummy warm crab roll!
This fantastic crab roll is my version of a popular dish at Katsuya, a mini-chain of high-end, Philippe Starck-designed sushi restaurants here in Los Angeles. I ate a bunch of their rolls, dissected them, and then made numerous prototypes until I was confident that I’d equalled, if not surpassed, the Katsuya roll.
I find the Katsuya roll to be too rich in mayonnaise, preferring to adorn the plate with more spiced mayo as a dipping sauce. And I tend to make mine smaller, simpler, and tighter — less like a hand roll and more like your typical maki (cut roll). Also, I think at Katsuya they use a cheaper crab mixture of snow crab and perhaps (gasp!) imitation crab. I use only freshly cooked and picked Dungeness crab meat, sweet and delicious and briny.
The wrapper of the roll is soy paper. The rice is standard, short-grain sushi rice seasoned with sweetened vinegar. Into the crab meat I mix some thinly sliced scallions, a bit of kewpie (Japanese) mayonnaise, a pinch of sugar, and a couple of tablespoons of seasoned rice vinegar. I let this mixture sit for about twenty minutes and then drain off any excess liquid. Also in the roll is a nice dollop of kewpie mayonnaise mixed with a healthy dose of spicy sriracha sauce. I roll all this up and then heat the roll in a pre-heated dry skillet until the roll browns nicely.
Every time I make these people go crazy for them. They are addictive and delicious!
OMNIVOROUS 