Philadelphia Hand Rolls

episode #64 of 30-minute budget meals

Hello hello! We made it to the end of the week! Yesterday, I crashed, and my motivation was low, but today I’m back at ‘em, which is odd because usually Friday I begin to check out. But hey! We are leaning into it!

I just posted what I made for a beach day last week, and I’m laughing because I was so proud of the sandwich I made, but someone made sure to tell me it was “the worst beach meal ever.” Which, damn, I thought it was really good, but OKAY. I swear, people in the comments get wilder by the day.

Anywayyyyy… going to go back to cooking some disgusting meals today — I’ve got some pancakes on deck as well as some salmon, and they both involve peaches because ‘tis the season.

In the meantime, enjoy this week’s 30-minute meal!

RECIPE!

I love sushi more than any other food on this planet, but I’m definitely more of a purist. I’m not one to order a cut roll — I go straight to the nigiri. However, if I am going to eat a roll, it’s going to be a hand roll, and it’s going to be something that puts fish front and center (and it’s definitely not going to be a California roll because I really do not like imitation crab).

Hand rolls, also known as Temaki Sushi, are a Japanese dish made of nori sheets (seaweed), rice, and filling that are rolled into a cone shape. You can read more about traditional hand rolls/temaki in this blog post from Just One Cookbook!

The Philadelphia Roll is a great in-betweener — you get a nice chunk of salmon, but if you’re someone who is intimidated by sushi, you still have other flavors that blend in with it. It does feel a bit sacrilegious, but somehow, I forgive it. They’re usually made as cut rolls, but I like to make them as hand rolls.

Now, we are not using raw fish here, as this is a BUDGET series after all, but we are going to get comfy with the idea of using canned salmon just as we would canned tuna. Obviously, the taste of fresh salmon is unbeatable, but if we are trying to get in all those health benefits from salmon without breaking the bank, canned salmon is a fantastic option, and I encourage its use.

I have a few tips for this recipe to help you save time and avoid making this a 45-minute meal (unless you’re okay with that).

The main time suck in this recipe is going to be the rice if you make it from scratch. My suggestion here is to either buy quick cook rice, or ideally, a package of already cooked rice. This will save you oodles of time.

My other tip is to let your cooked rice cool before rolling your hand rolls. It doesn’t have to be fully room temperature or cold, you just don’t want it to be hot, or you risk your hand rolls falling apart.

My final note is that this recipe makes 8 hand rolls, which should serve 2 people and work out within the 30 minute window. You might have a little extra salmon mixture at the end, and if you want to continue making more hand rolls with it, be my guest. If not, eat it later with some crackers and sriracha or throw it into a salad.

Philadelphia Hand Rolls

Ingredients (makes 8 hand rolls, serves about 2)