While everyone is busy planning and making holiday meals and baked goods, I decided to get a head start on Japanese New Year special meals.

Cucumber Wrapped Sushi

Ingredients

• 2 Persian/Japanese cucumbers (or English cucumbers)
• 3-4 cups sushi rice (Recipe) (or regular Japanese steamed rice)

Toppings of your choice:

• 4 oz Sashimi grade salmon
• 4 oz Sashimi grade yellowtail
• 4 ozsalmon roe Sashimi grade tuna
• 4 Tbsp Ikura (salmon roe)
• 10 Sashimi grade shrimp (amaebi)

Garnish:

• 10 Shiso leaves (Ooba)
• 1 green onion/scallion
• 1 lemon
• Kaiware radish sprouts (for garnish)

Instructions

1. Gather all the ingredients.
2. Slice the cucumber with peeler to make long thin strips.
3. Place shiso leaves on a serving platter and put the cookie cutter on top of a shiso leaf. Stuff sushi rice into the cookie cutter about half way and remove the cutter gently. Roll the sushi cylinder with one strip of cucumber slice to measure the circumference of the circle.
4. Make slits at the end of cucumber slice with knife as you see below. Now you can interlock the strip around the rice.
5. Fill in the cucumber wrapped sushi with your favorite toppings. Here I diced tuna and lightly marinade the tuna with scallion, soy sauce and sesame oil. Place the tuna mixture in the cucumber cup.
6. For shrimp (amaebi), I place a couple pieces from outer edges to center in the cucumber cup, so it looks like a flower.
7. Slice the sashimi-grade fish perpendicular to the muscle (the white line you see in the fish) and place a few slices in the cucumber cup.
8. Garnish with lemon and Daikon radish sprouts. Serve immediately.

https://www.justonecookbook.com/cucumber-wrapped-sushi/