Recipe for Kids: Sushi Bake

When the little ones are hankering for sushi but you hate rolling, here’s an easy solution to satisfy their cravings minus all the hassle. A sushi bake is basically a naked, layered version of the sushi popped into the oven for a few minutes to make a warm delicious snack or even a full meal. This is a hit with both kids and adults and is even perfect for parties.

Here’s what you need:

• 2 cups of freshly cooked steamed white rice
• 1 tablespoon mirin
• 1 tablespoon cooking sake
• furikake rice seasoning
• Sriracha
• 4 tablespoons Philadelphia cream cheese
• 4 tablespoons Mayonnaise
• crab sticks or surimi
• Japanese mayonnaise
• salt
• pepper
• seaweed / nori sheets

Optional add-ons:

• salmon sushi
• soy sauce
• wasabi

How to do it:

1. Make your sushi bake topping first while you cook your steamed white rice (if you haven’t done it yet). Start by chopping up your crab sticks.
2. Add mayonnaise, cream cheese and sriracha to your crab sticks. We have no specific measurement for sriracha but this is used for adding spice to your sushi bake so add as much or as little as you like to suit your taste. Add a dash of salt and cracked black peper, again to suit your taste.
3. If you want a more filling sushi bake, we suggest adding salmon sushi marinated for a few minutes in soy sauce (Kikkoman is a good brand for this) and wasabi. This is an optional step.
4. Prepare your rice. While still hot, mix in your mirin and sake. If these are not available you can use rice wine vinegar. Mix in your furikake seasoning.
5. Add a layer of white rice to your heat-proof dish or disposable foil baking pans — about half an inch to 3/4 inch thick layer would do. Flatten it out.
6. Add your sushi mix on top of your rice layer.
7. Swirl Japanese mayo and Sriracha on top and sprinkle with furikake.
8. Pop in the oven for about 10 minutes on broil right before serving.
9. Serve with nori sheets. Kids can spoon the sushi bake onto the sheets to eat directly.