Ehomaki 恵方巻き is a traditional Japanese maki sushi roll that is meant to be eaten on Setsubun day, which is the day before the start of spring in Japan. As we saw in the article on setsubun food specialties, it is customary to eat ehomaki standing up, making a wish for luck or good fortune. These maki are easy to prepare and delicious, so why not try one today?
During the setsubun in Japan, ehomaki must be eaten in one go, in a very precise direction, dictated by the calendar of the current year, in order to bring luck and happiness. However, for your parties you can of course slice it if you wish.
Japanese utensils for ehomaki
Makisu, sushi mat
All you need to make beautiful and delicious sushi is a makisu, or sushi mat. Makisu are woven from bamboo and cotton, two materials that are naturally healthy for food. They are also very durable, so you can keep them for a long time.
Hangiri, round wooden tray
The hangiri is used to cool the Japanese rice which has just been cooked. It is an authentic traditional equipment which is still a must in Japanese cooking.
Rice spatula
The sushi rice spatula is essential for preparing vinegared Japanese rice. Use it to aerate, spread and mix the sushi rice, or to place it carefully on the nori. Remember to moisten the spatula before touching the rice so that it does not stick to the spatula.
ehomaki recipe, long maki sushi for setsubun
Equipment
- 1 makisu
- 1 hangiri (If you don't have one, you can arrange the rice in a wide dish or a wooden board moistened in advance).
Ingredients
Vinegar rice
- 300 g hot rice
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
Ingredients
- 1 surimi you can replace with raw salmon
- 1/4 cucumber
- 1 sheet nori
Dashi Omelette
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp mirin
- 2 tbsp dashi
Boiled shiitake mushrooms
- 3 shiitake mushrooms
- 1 ml water
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp kitchen sake
- 1 tbsp mirin
- 1 tbsp shoyu soy sauce
Instructions
Prepare the vinegared rice
- If you want more details, you can see our recipe to make shushi sumeshi rice. In a saucepan, heat the sugar, salt and rice vinegar over low heat until the sugar and salt are dissolved.
- Run your hangiri and rice spatula under cold water. Place your hot rice in the hangiri and add the previous dressing. Mix with your spatula while cooling it with a fan. You will see your rice become shiny and sticky. Then put a wet cloth on it and keep it aside.
Prepare the dashi tamagoyaki
- Mix the egg, dashi and mirin in a bowl.
- If you know how to make tamagoyaki, you can follow these instructions, otherwise you can refer to our tamagoyaki recipe. Using a square tamagoyaki pan, make thin omelette pancakes that you will roll on itself, until you get a roll. You can then press it into the makisu so that it holds together well. Cut 1 cm wide strips lengthwise.
Prepare the boiled shiitake mushrooms
- Cut off the stems of the shiitake mushrooms.
- Put water, sugar, sake, mirin and soy sauce in a saucepan and boil for a few moments over low heat. Boil for about 10 minutes until the shiitake mushrooms have absorbed the juice.
- Cut the shiitake mushrooms into thin slices.
Prepare the cucumber and surimi
- Cut the cucumber in half, then into 1 cm wide strips and remove the seeds with a knife or spoon.
- For the surimi, cut it into 1 cm wide strips.
The assembly of the ehomaki
- Place the nori shiny side down on your makisu.
- Wet your fingers and spread your vinegared rice on the nori sheet. Leave about 2 cm on top without rice so you can close the roll afterwards. On this free nori strip, you can put some of the sushi vinegar you made at the beginning to make it stick.
- Add your ingredients, cucumber, surimi, shiitake mushrooms, omelette…
- Roll up thanks to the makisu until the end by tightening well. The maki roll will be formed, you just have to cut the edges and your ehomaki is ready!
The ehomaki is greedy, sweet, fragrant and crunchy thanks to the ingredients inside. It is served with wasabi and the shoyu soy sauce. Have fun changing the ingredients inside according to your desires, moreover in Japan there is a version “fish” where is inside tuna, salmon, tobiko (fish eggs), shrimp … In short, treat yourself!
