Heart Shaped Salmon & Shrimp Maki

As a child I had a true affinity for eating things shaped liked other things. Dino Nuggets? check. Peeps? check. Star shaped fish sticks? check.

I must confess that my affinity hasn't gone away, but luckily for all of us I've progressed to less processed, more tasty foods shaped like other things. My latest attempt? Heart Shaped Maki, of course.

Ok, ok. So they may look like the hearts you drew in grade school when you couldn't quite get the shape right. ...but, they're still cute don't you think?

These rolls are filled with a combo of sauteed shrimp & salmon and topped with a dollop of sweet chili sauce. Some households may fly through bottles of condiments such as ketchup or mustard, but in our house we consume sweet chili sauce for sustenance. Mae Ploy is our personal fav.

Back to the heart shaped sushi. My Mom (uh, and me) are kitchen gadget freaks. I mean, the Magic Bullet is still one of my favorite kitchen toys. In any case, she sent me a Sushi Maker she recently saw a demo of. Consisting of a series of plastic molds and guides, the sushi maker allows you to make the traditional round maki, square shaped maki, and the lovely heart maki you must be oohing and ahhing over.


I think we still need some practice to get the rice / filling amounts right in the molds, but this is an addicting new hobby. Rolling sushi with a mat isn't difficult, but stuffing molds is oh so much fun!

Though we've used different sushi rice recipes in the past, I tried out Pioneer Woman's and was quite happy with it. I did end up with way more sushi rice seasoning (su) than I needed, so use it judiciously and don't saturate your rice.

See this previous post for filling & rice cooking ideas!