Temaki paulistano

As tradition built it

Temaki paulistano

Makes 10. About 1 hour.

Ingredients

The rice

• 700ml water
• 510g Japanese rice
• 120ml rice vinegar
• 2½ tbsp mirin
• 4 tbsp sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 3g monosodium glutamate

The filling

• 400g salmon, in small dice
• 75g cream cheese
• 3 tbsp spring onion, sliced

To roll

• 5 sheets nori, halved

Method

1. Bring the water to the boil over a high heat. Add the rice, stir carefully, and cook half covered 20 minutes, until the water starts to dry.
2. Lower the heat and cook 7 minutes more. Off the heat, cover the pan with the lid and a clean cloth and leave it 10 minutes. Turn the rice into a bowl.
3. Bring the vinegar, mirin, sugar, salt and glutamate to the boil over a medium heat. Pour it over the hot rice and turn it carefully with a spatula until every grain is seasoned. Let it cool to lukewarm.
4. Mix the salmon, cream cheese and spring onion.
5. Spread a layer of rice about 5mm thick on the matt side of a half sheet of nori, lay on some salmon, and roll it into a cone, pressing the bottom. Serve at once; the nori softens fast.

Notes

The paulistano roll moved well beyond raw fish and rice: regional Brazilian variants go further still, breadfruit in place of potato in Pernambuco, saltwater fish in place of freshwater in Pará, crab and aubergine building the roll entirely in Ceará.

The version of sushi culture that reached Brazilian palates arrived already inflected by North American roll culture, California rolls and hot rolls, rather than as a direct transplant of Japanese practice, part of why the everyday paulistano temaki bar reads so differently from an Edomae counter across the same city.

The recipe is Ajinomoto do Brasil's. Mundo-Nipo's salmon temaki, with wasabi and sesame, washes the rice until the water runs clear and starts it in cold water; it notes Brazilians want cream cheese, which Japan never puts with sushi. Telma Shiraishi, for Bunkyo, soaks the rice 30 minutes and warms the seasoning only until the sugar dissolves, never boiling it.

What a modern chef changes

Rice seasoned properly, nori graded properly

Ingredients

• 4 parts rice vinegar
• 2 parts sugar
• 1 part salt

Method

1. Season the rice properly, four parts rice vinegar to two parts sugar to one part salt worked through warm rice while it is still hot enough to dissolve them evenly, then cool under a fan rather than in the fridge.
2. Use A or A-plus grade nori rather than the coarser, cheaper B grade, for a thinner, glossier sheet that holds its shape and crispness through the roll.
3. Make the cream cheese filling properly cold and firm, a full block rather than a whipped tub, so it holds a clean line inside the cone instead of smearing.