Every now and then I love to shake up our regular snack and mealtime routine, and this recipe for Beefy Cali Roll helps me to do just that. Beef sushi (AKA Beefshi) is my latest cooking obsession. It’s an innovate sushi-style concept made with prepared beef products including corned beef, sausage, pastrami, and roast beef. Beefshi is a playful twist on traditional sushi, and with a few kitchen tips and tricks, you and your kiddos can easily make it at home.

For this recipe, video, and post, I partnered with The North American Meat Institute (NAMI), a contractor to the Beef Checkoff. All opinions are my own. 

Beefy Cali Rolls can be served up for an afternoon snack, party appetizer, or dinner. The recipe calls for sushi rice and rice vinegar, nori—the Japanese name for edible seaweed— convenient deli corned beef, avocado, and cucumber. The Piquant Sauce—defined as a sauce with a “sharp” flavor—is made with plain yogurt, mustard, horseradish, and smashed avocado.

So many great flavors wrapped up into one delicious Beefshi roll!

So where did Beefshi come from? Well, the concept and recipes were created by a chef at the Culinary Institute of America. While using prepared meats for sushi may sound “out there,” contrary to popular belief, sushi doesn’t mean raw seafood. The term refers to the vinegared rice that’s paired with many ingredients including fish, veggies, or prepared deli meats. In other words, as long as there’s vinegared rice in the recipe, pretty much anything goes! As a longtime fan of deli meats, the re-imagined Beefshi recipes—everything from these Beefy Cali Rolls made with corned beef to playful Hiker’s Roll made with beef jerky—really wow me.

Meats like roast beef, sausage, salami, corned beef, and beef jerky are “prepared” at a plant, but on a larger scale than say, your home kitchen. They are cut, chopped, seasoned, and cooked, so it’s correct to say that they are “processed.” But that’s a good thing. Prepared meats are safe, and every ingredient used in their preparation has to be approved by the FDA and inspected by the USDA.

Crafting your own homemade sushi requires a special (but very inexpensive) bamboo sushi rolling mat. Other than that, the recipe is pretty straightforward. (Read on for the complete recipe.)

Once the ingredients are layered over the nori sheet, everything gets rolled up.

It’s then sliced into pieces, topped with the sauce, and garnished with spicy wasabi peas and chopped chives. I hope that by watching the video you’ll feel more confident when you try the recipe. And speaking of recipes, if you head to the Beefshi website, you’ll find over a dozen more Beefshi recipes and video tutorials. Making Beefshi is easier than you think!

5.0 from 2 reviews

Beefy Cali Roll

 

Author: Adapted from Beefshi.com

Nutrition Information

• Serves: 2 rolls, 16 pieces

• Serving size: (2 pieces)
• Calories: 90

• Fat: 2g
• Saturated fat: 0g
• Carbohydrates: 16g
• Sodium: 190mg
• Fiber: 1g
• Protein: 3g

Recipe type: Snack

Cuisine: California

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I love the combo of corned beef, creamy avocado, and crunchy cucumbers in this recipe. But you can certainly change things up. Instead of corned beef, you could use pastrami. And if you don't have cucumber in your fridge, try thinly sliced bell pepper or carrots.

Ingredients

Hand vinegar:

• 1 cup water
• ¼ cup rice vinegar

Piquant Sauce:

• ½ cup plain yogurt
• 1 tablespoon mustard
• 1 tablespoon horseradish
• ½ avocado, mashed until smooth

Maki:

• 2 sheets nori
• 2 cups prepared sushi rice
• 6 thin slices corned beef
• ½ avocado, cut into slivers
• ¼ cucumber, cut lengthwise into thin strips

Toppings:

• Chopped chives
• Wasabi peas, for serving

Instructions

1. In a small bowl, stir together the hand vinegar and set aside until needed.
2. To make the sauce, in a small bowl blend together the yogurt, mustard, horseradish and avocado.
3. Lay a bamboo sushi mat on a clean surface. Moisten hands with hand vinegar and shake off excess. Place a sheet of nori on the mat, shiny side down. Spread half the rice across the nori, leaving 1 inch empty at the end farthest from you.
4. Lay half the corned beef, avocado and cucumber crosswise along the rice, covering half the surface closest to you.
5. Securing the corned beef, avocado and cucumber with your fingers, use your thumbs to push the end of the mat up and over the filling, until the edge of the nori meets the rice on the other side. Press firmly on the roll.
6. Lift up the top of the mat and roll firmly until tight and round. Squeeze gently to shape the roll. Press the ends in carefully to secure any loose rice. Remove the bamboo mat and set the roll aside.
7. Make the second roll in the same manner. Use a very thin, sharp knife to cut each roll into 8 slices. Arrange on a sushi platter and sprinkle each some chopped chives and a few wasabi peas. Serve with piquant sauce.

3.5.3251

Let me know if you try this recipe or the other prepared meat rolls over at Beefshi.com