If you love the flavors of sushi, but don’t have hours to spend rolling it, you’ve come to the right place. This salmon sushi bake gives you all the flavors of sushi, in a fraction of the time. Simply pick your favorite sushi ingredients and layer them over rice. Then, instead of rolling each bite into seaweed, just slice the rice up onto nori (seaweed) sheets. In some ways, I like this dish better than rolled sushi because the seaweed stays crisp until you eat, rather than soaking up moisture from the rice and getting soggy. Read on for our full recipe and wine pairing with sushi bake.
Wine Pairing With Sushi Bake
Sushi bake is essentially a deconstructed sushi roll, so all of the wines that pair well with sushi are great here. The first and most dominant flavor to contend with is spicy. Chili overpowers pretty much all delicate aromatics in wine, except for sweetness. It also clashes with wines that are tannic or higher in alcohol. As such, an off-dry Riesling or Vouvray is perfect. It has the sugar to stand up to spice, the acidity to match the vinegar in the sushi rice, and a light, refreshing profile that compliments the dish’s fresh ingredients.
If you don’t like sweet wines, there’s an easy fix: skip the spicy mayo. Then, sushi bake (and sushi) will magically become compatible with a much wider range of dry white wines. Crisp, mineral-driven white wines such as Chablis and Albariño are an excellent match. Both have a salinity that marries nicely to salmon, raw fish, and furikake seasoning. Sauvignon Blanc, which on its own can be very grassy and tropical, softens dramatically next to scallions, avocado, and other fresh vegetables. And if you’re looking for a red wine, Pinot Noir pairs beautifully with the rich, earthy flavors of eel basted in unagi sauce.
A Few Tips for Making Sushi Bake
- Make as much as you want! This recipe is easy to double. A 13×9 casserole dish serves 4-5, while a large tray can feed a group. Alternatively, you can just mold the rice on a baking sheet as I did above. This method takes slightly longer to shape the rice, but is actually a lot easier for serving. I find that the rice sticks to the casserole dish, but is very easy to cut and lift away from a pan.
- Don’t skip the sushi rice! It is key for giving sushi its characteristic sticky texture. If you’re on a budget, you can save money by using a blend of white rice. I like to make sushi rice with a mix of two cups of Japanese short-grain white rice and half a cup of sweet (sushi) rice. After it’s cooked, add the seasoned rice vinegar, sugar, and salt. You’ll get the same flavor and glutinous texture, without having to use a whole bag of sushi rice.
- Unagi sauce is key. No substitutes here! This sauce is a mix of soy, mirin, sugar, salt, vinegar, and sometimes monosodium glutamate (MSG). This sauce recreates the same flavors you’ll get from dishes at a Japanese restaurant. I found my bottle in the ethnic foods section of Target.
Easy Salmon Sushi Bake
Ingredients
For the Rice
- 2.5 cups uncooked sushi rice (see note)
- 1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
For the Sushi Bake
- 16 oz protein of your choice: thinly sliced salmon, unagi, crab meat, or a mix of all of the above work great
- 1 avocado, sliced
- 1 scallion, chopped
- Unagi sauce, to taste
- Furikake seasoning, to taste
- Spicy mayonnaise, to taste
- Nori (Seaweed) Sheets, cut into quarters
Instructions
- Cook rice according to directions. Stir sugar, salt, and rice vinegar together until dissolved. Mix thoroughly into cooked sushi rice.
- Preheat oven to 375°F (traditional/conventional bake setting).
- Press sushi rice into a casserole dish, or shape it into a rectangle on a tray. Note: it takes more time to shape the rice on a tray, but it is easier to cut and lift the rice as squares. Take your pick!
- Top with salmon (or protein of your choice). Brush on unagi sauce. The sauce is a must to give it that sushi flavor!
- Bake for 10-15 minutes, until salmon is just cooked. You will need less time if your protein is pre-cooked, like crab or tofu.
- Drizzle with more unagi sauce and spicy mayo. Top with scallions, avocado, furikake, and other toppings of your choice.
- Slice the rice into small rectangles and serve immediately on nori sheets. Enjoy with an off-dry Riesling or Chenin Blanc.
Notes
If you're on a budget, you can make sushi rice with a blend of half a cup of sweet (sticky) rice along with two cups of short grain white rice.
Liked this pairing? Discover more easy food and wine pairings, along with tips and photos, here.