These elegant Smoke Salmon Rolls are made with marinated daikon and perilla leaves. Even if smoked salmon is not a traditional Japanese cooking ingredient, today’s dish has an authentic appearance and flavour. It is so easy to make.
Prep Time assumes that you use a slicer or a peeler. Slicing daikon sheets by hand with a knife or using katsuramuki method will take a bit longer.
Don't forget to see the section 'MEAL IDEAS' below the recipe card! It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and this recipe that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.
- 8 slices daikon (white radish), 1mm thick, 5cm / 2” x 15cm /6” rectangle (about 100g / 3.5oz, note 1)
- 120g / 4.2oz smoked salmon (thinly sliced)
- 4 shiso leaves (Japanese perilla), halved vertically (note 2)
- A pinch of salt
- 1 tbsp sushisu (sushi vinegar, note 3)
- 2 shiso leaves (Japanese perilla)
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Sprinkle a pinch of salt over the daikon sheets and leave them for 10 minutes to let them wilt. The water should come out of the daikon pieces.
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Squeeze the water out of the daikon pieces, then put them in a zip lock bag.
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Add sushisu to the bag and gently massage the bag ensuring that the vinegar coats every daikon piece. Leave for 5 minutes.
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Cut the smoked salmon slices into 5cm / 2” strips. The long strip should be shortened so that the length of the strip is about 1.5cm / ⅝" shorter than the length of daikon. Don’t discard the small pieces as you can still make use of them.
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Place a sheet of daikon on a cutting board vertically (see the step-by-step photo in the post).
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Put a piece of smoked salmon on the daikon sheet, aligning the edge of the salmon and the daikon close to you. You should see that the salmon is shorter than the daikon on the other end.
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Place a piece of perilla leaf (a half in my case) on the salmon, aligning on your end.
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Starting from the edge close to you, tightly roll the layered ingredients together until the end. You will notice that the salmon is gradually pushed towards the other end and the gap between the end of daikon and the salmon piece reduces a lot (note 4).
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Cut the roll in the middle to make two short rolls.
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Repeat the steps 5-9 for the remaining 7 daikon sheets.
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Place a perilla leaf on each serving plate. Place 8 pieces of Smoked Salmon Rolls on each plate, cut side up.
1. The traditional method of making thin daikon sheets is called ‘katsuramuki’. Please read the section About Katsuramuki Knife Technique in the post for details. If you can do katsuramuki, that would be great.
I can’t make 8 sheets of daikon using katsuramuki, so I use a slicer. Details of how I made daikon slices using a slice can be found in the section Alternative Method for Making Thin Daikon Sheets.
You can make skinnier rolls by using shorter daikon sheets, say 10cm / 4” long instead of 15cm / 6”. You can then reduce the quantity of smoked salmon to about 80g / 2.8oz.
2. I grow perilla in my backyard. They have overgrown and many of the perilla leaves are quite large. So, I used halved leaves. But if your perilla leaves are much smaller and the width is about 5cm / 2”, use a whole leaf per roll. You will then need 8 leaves.
It can be omitted if you cannot find perilla. Alternatively, you can make a thin stick from a green vegetable, such as cucumber or asparagus, and place it in the centre of the roll.
3. I had a store-bought sushi vinegar, so I used it. But you can make it at home with rice wine vinegar, sugar, and salt.
4. If the perilla leaf gets pushed too far, fold the end so that the leaf does not stick out.
5. Nutrition per piece and serving. Sugar and salt are overstated since the entire marinade is assumed to be consumed. In reality most of them are discarded.
Per piece:
serving: 15g calories: 11kcal fat: 0.3g (1%) saturated fat: 0.1g (0%) trans fat: 0.0g polyunsaturated fat: 0.1g monounsaturated fat: 0.1g cholesterol: 1.7mg (1%) sodium: 196mg (8%) potassium: 28mg (1%) carbohydrates: 0.5g (0%) dietary fibre: 0.1g (0%) sugar: 0.4g protein: 1.4g vitamin a: 0% vitamin c: 2.3% calcium: 0.2% iron: 0.5%
Per serving:
serving: 121g calories: 89kcal fat: 2.6g (4%) saturated fat: 0.6g (3%) trans fat: 0.0g polyunsaturated fat: 0.6g monounsaturated fat: 1.2g cholesterol: 14mg (5%) sodium: 1568mg (65%) potassium: 220mg (6%) carbohydrates: 4.2g (1%) dietary fibre: 0.8g (3%) sugar: 3.3g protein: 11g vitamin a: 1% vitamin c: 18% calcium: 1.6% iron: 4.2%