Tempura Prawn Rolls

This Tempura Prawn Rolls recipe is the 2^nd recipe in the Sushi Rolls Recipe Series, and the 2^nd most popular sushi in Australia. Similar to the California Rolls, it is an uramaki sushi and does not contain raw fish. The fillings in my Tempura Prawn Rolls are tempura prawns and shredded cucumber, with a small amount of mayonnaise.

Prawns are very popular among Australians, and they eat prawns at Christmas. No wonder Tempura Prawn Rolls made to the 2^nd place in the Popular Sushi Ranking. Interestingly in the US, Tempura Prawn Roll came in the 8^th place.

Although prawn tempura is a Japanese dish, the addition of mayonnaise in the filling makes this sushi roll somewhat more Westernised than it already is.

Prawn Tempura Suitable for Tempura Prawn Rolls

When you make a Tempura dish, you want to get large prawns to show off your gorgeous Prawn Tempura. But as a filling for sushi rolls, it is best to use small to medium size prawns with minimal tempura batter coating.

Thickness: Ideally the diameter of the prawn tempura should be about 2cm/¾”. If the prawn tempura is too fat, it becomes very difficult to roll the rice around the prawn.

Note: the diameter noted above is the tempura prawn diameter, not the peeled prawn diameter.

Length: The length of your prawns is usually determined by the diameter of the prawns. My prawns were about 10cm/4” long including the tail, so I used two tempura prawns per roll. If your prawns are smaller and shorter, you can use 3-4 pieces.

Tempura batter: The thickness of your tempura prawns can also vary depending on the thickness of the tempura batter.

In the case of Tempura as a dish, you probably try to scatter the batter when deep-frying to make the prawn look larger with a decorative coating around it. But for sushi rolls, you want to minimise the coating around the prawns.

Tempura served as a dish.

Shape: Prawn tempura needs to be straight. As per my Tempura recipe, you need to make a few slits on the belly side of the prawn to prevent it from curling when cooked. Curled up tempura prawns will not work for today’s dish.

Store-bought prawn tempura: You can use store-bought prawn tempura. You can even buy frozen tempura and defrost it (photo below). But these are made to serve as a dish and come with a lot of coating around them. You may need to scrape the coating from the store-bought tempura so that your prawn tempura is not too thick to roll.

What’s in My Tempura Prawn Rolls

To be consistent with the California Rolls I posted earlier, I made two long rolls that make 16 sushi roll pieces.

• Sushi rice
• Yaki nori
• Tobiko(flying fish roe).

Filling

• Prawn tempura
• Cucumber julienned
• Mayonnaise.

Tools

• Sushi rolling mat wrapped in cling wrap to prevent the rice grains from sticking to the mat (photo above).
• A small bowl of water with 1 tablespoon of vinegar to wet your hands when handling the rice.
• A sharp kitchen knife – preferably a thin knife so that the surface area of the knife is minimal when cutting through the rolled rice.
• Wet kitchen towel to wipe the knife before cutting through the rolled rice. This will prevent the rice grains sticking to the knife.

How to Make Tempura Prawn Rolls

The rolling technique is exactly the same as the way I showed you in my California Rolls post.

See the video.

1. Spread sushi rice over a sheet of yaki nori on a rolling mat.
2. Scatter tobiko over the rice.
3. Turn the rice with yaki nori over so that the yaki nori is on top.
4. Place the fillings on the rice.
5. Roll the rice with fillings using the rolling mat as a guide.
6. Unroll the mat and transfer the sushi roll to a cutting board.
7. Cut the tempura prawn roll into 8 pieces.

Yumiko

Watch How To Make It

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Tempura Prawn Rolls

Prep Time

15 mins

Total Time

15 mins

 

Tempura Prawn Rolls is the 2^nd most popular sushi in Australia. The fillings in my Tempura Prawn Rolls are tempura prawns (home-made) and shredded cucumbers, with a small amount of mayonnaise.

Recipe Type: Appetiser, Main

Cuisine: Japanese

Keyword: easy sushi rolls, sushi rolls, tempura prawn, tempura rolls

Serves: 16 pieces

Author: Yumiko

Ingredients (tbsp=15ml, cup=250ml)

• 240g/8.5oz sushi rice (note 1)
• 1 sheet yaki nori (roasted seaweed sheet), halved
• 1-2 tbsp tobiko (seasoned flying fish roe)

Fillings

• 4 prawn tempura (about 10cm/4" long, 2cm/¾" thick, note 2)
• 3 tbsp cucumber julienned
• Mayonnaise (I like Kewpie mayo)

Tools

• A sushi rolling mat (bamboo mat) wrapped in cling wrap (note 3)
• A cup of water mixed with 1 tablespoon of vinegar
• A sharp knife
• A wet kitchen towel to wipe the knife

Instructions

1. Remove the tail of your tempura prawns, but leave two prawns with the tail intact (note 4).

2. Place a piece of yaki nori on a sushi rolling mat.

3. Wet your hands with the vinegar water in the bowl, take ½ of the sushi rice and make an oval ball.

4. Place the rice in the centre of the yaki nori sheet and spread the rice in all directions, covering the entire yaki nori. Ensure that the rice evenly covers the yaki nori sheet, and do not press the rice down too hard.

5. Evenly spread tobiko using a spoon all over the rice.

6. Turn the rice with yaki nori over, facing the yaki nori up, and place it to the edge of the rolling mat closer to you.

7. Thinly spread the julienned cucumber horizontally in the centre of the yaki nori, pipe mayonnaise out along the cucumber.

8. Place 1 prawn tempura without tail and 1 with tail horizontally on the mayonnaise. The tail should stick out of the edge of the sushi base (see the photo and video).
9. Using the thumb and index finger of both hands, hold the end of the mat and lift it up.
10. Keeping the thumbs on the mat, place your fingers on the fillings firmly. While placing these fingers on the fillings, roll the bamboo mat away from you.
11. When the edge of the rolling mat is at the top, let go of your fingers on the filling and keep rolling slowly until the edge of the rolling mat reaches the other end of the rice.
12. By now, the mat should be completely covering the sushi roll. Don't roll the end of the mat into the rice!
13. Press the rolling mat around the sushi roll gently but firmly.
14. To completely roll the rest of the rice, hold the roll by placing one hand over the mat, then pull the end of the mat with the other hand a few centimetres away from you so that the sushi inside the mat rolls a further 90 degrees or so.
15. Using both hands, gently but firmly press the mat over the sushi, then unroll the mat.
16. Place the sushi roll on the plate/cutting board with the overlapping seam line down.
17. Wipe a sharp kitchen knife with a wet towel to give moisture to the knife. This will prevent the knife from sticking to the rice, resulting in a clean cut.
18. Cut the roll in half, then cut each half-length roll in half, then cut each piece in half again. You should have 8 small pieces.

19. Transfer the Tempura Prawn Rolls to a serving plate. For the tail-end of the sushi piece, face the tail up. Serve with soy sauce and wasabi paste (optional).

Recipe Notes

1. Please refer to Temakizushi (Hand Rolled Sushi) for how to make sushi rice.

2. Please refer to Tempura recipe for how to make prawn tempura.

Prawn tempura needs to be just the right size to go inside the sushi roll, ideally about 10cm long including the tail, and 2cm wide. I used 2 tempura prawns per sushi roll.

If your prawn tempura is much smaller, you can use 3 or 4 small prawns.

You could use store-bought or frozen prawn tempura, but they usually come with a lot of batter around the prawns. You may need to scrape off the coating to cut down to 2cm/¾" wide.

3. This is to prevent the rice grains from sticking to the mat.

4. I wanted one end of the roll to have the tail of a prawn sticking out, only to make it look attractive when the Tempura Prawn Rolls are plated. You can remove all the tails if you prefer.

5. The filling should be placed slightly closer to you.