Kanpyo Sushi Roll is a skinny Sushi roll which has Kanpyo, cooked gourd, inside and Nori, roasted seaweed, outside. The strips of dried gourd are cooked in a sweet and salty sauce until very tender. The sweet taste of cooked Kanpyo matches very well with tangy Sushi rice. Kanpyo Roll is more well known inside Japan, especially the Tokyo area, but it is not as common in the US. Kanpyo Roll may be hard to find on the menu at Japanese restaurants outside Japan, but they might be able to fix it if you ask. This casual Sushi is a great appetizer and good light lunch.
The dried gourd is made of gourd meat which is sliced into long ribbons, and then sun-dried. Rehydrated gourd strips are used to make Futomaki Roll, another Sushi roll with different cooked vegetables, and dishes like Kobumaki, strongly seasoned rolled Kombu sea kelp tied with gourd ribbons. When the gourd is cooked right, it becomes very tender. It is not an ingredient that shows up in everyday meals, but Kanpyo is an important vegetable in Japanese cuisine.
Kanpyo Sushi Roll is more popular in eastern Japan. In western Japan like the Osaka area, Futomaki, which contains Kanpyo along with other fillings, is preferred rather than the single ingredient Kanpyo Roll. Because Kanpyo Roll is so simple, it is very easy to make at home, and it doesn’t have to be a special day to eat this casual Sushi. Also, it doesn’t contain raw fish or other animal protein, so Kanpyo Roll works well for people who don’t eat raw fish or vegetarians.
The only tip for this dish is preparing dried Kanpyo well. Rub Kanpyo with salt until it becomes somewhat elastic, and soak and cook long enough to make it soft. If you’ve never made Sushi Rolls, we have many other Sushi Roll recipes and videos such as California Rolls and Tuna and Cucumber Rolls. Practice a couple of times, and you will get the hang of it in no time. This is not the Sushi a lot of people think of first, but the flavor combination is impeccably perfect. Try Kanpyo Sushi Roll, and you won’t regret it!
Kanpyo Sushi Roll
Ingredients
- 2 sheets Nori roasted dried seaweed 8"x7 1/2"
- 0.7 oz Kanpyo dried gourd strips
- 1 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup water
- 2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
- 2 Tbsp Mirin
- 2 Tbsp Sugar
- 1 1/2 cups Sushi Rice
Instructions
- Prepare Sushi Rice. Cut Roasted Seaweed sheets in half (4 x 7 1/2″ or 10 x 19cm). Set aside.
- Prepare Kanpyo. In a large bowl, wash Kanpyo in water. Drain water, and rub with salt very well. Rinse and soak in water for 10 minutes. Cook Kanpyo in boiling water for 10 minutes. Strain water. Then put Kanpyo, 3/4 cup water, Soy Sauce, Mirin, and sugar in a pot, and cook until the liquid is mostly gone. Let cool. Then cut Kanpyo into 8" long strips.
- Put a sushi mat flat on your work surface with the bamboo slats left to right, so you can roll the mat away from you. Place a piece of seaweed on the sushi mat with one of the seaweed’s long sides close to the front edge of the sushi mat (the edge near you).
- Spread about 1/4 cup Sushi Rice on the seaweed leaving a 1″ (2.5cm) space along the far edge of the seaweed. Place cooked Kanpyo strips on the middle of the rice. Holding the filling down, roll from the front end of the mat guiding with the sushi mat toward the other end. Tighten the rolls like roll cakes, pulling the mat to tighten. Make 4 rolls.
- Cut each roll into 8 pieces.
Video
