Beggar-Spam Sushi

Sushi is famous Japanese cold rice cake wrapped with nori (seaweed sheet) and supposedly is a very healthy and elegant meal. It uses fresh uncooked seafood and vegetables, served with vinegar sauce, pickles, and Wasabi (Japanese horseradish). It is rapidly gaining in popularity outside Japan because of the wide range of delicious recipes available. Very little equipment is actually needed to make sushi. A special bamboo mixing bowl or wooden bowl is used to mix the hot rice. A sushi mat is another piece of equipment that one might need to shape the sushi rolls. A wide selection of sushi recipes typically uses a variety of fish, such as salmon, tuna, cod, eel, mackerel, and trout. It is very pricey even to make at home. The California sushi roll is another sushi roll which can be made at home within most everyone's budget, using imitation crab and an avocado. Asian people love to eat spam with rice, and this dish is so well known, especially among college students or families with tight budgets. I used this idea to create my own spam sushi recipe to turn inexpensive ingredients into a very elegant meal every day, using a little imagination to turn a tight budget meal into a magnificent one.
Ingredients:
Sushi rice:
2 cup sushi rice or short grain white rice
2  cups water
1 piece of kombu (seaweed)
Sushi rice seasoning:
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 tbs sugar
1/2 tsp salt
Japanese sauce for spam:
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup mirin (Japanese cooking wine)
2 tbs sugar
2 tbs lemon juice
Other ingredients:
1 can 8 oz spam, cut into matchstick lengths
1/2 avocado, cut into thin strips
1/2 cucumber, cut into batons
4 tbs mayonnaise
1/2 tsp wasabi paste
6 pieces nori sheets
3 tbs toasted sesame seeds

Directions:
To make sushi rice:
Wash the sushi rice under running cold water until the water running through it is completely clear, then drain the rice. Put the rice, water, and kombu in a rice cooker and press to start. When the rice is cooked, remove the kombu and quickly place hot rice in a wooden bowl and add the rice seasoning. At this stage, use both hands, one to mix the seasoning into the rice with a quick cutting stroke using a spatula, the other hand to fan the rice in order to cool it down as quickly as possible (do not break a single grain of rice). The sushi rice should look shiny and be ready at the room temperature.
To make sushi rice vinegar: Put all the ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to boil. Cook until sugar and salt dissolve.
In another-saucepan, put all the Japanese sauce ingredients and cook for 5 minutes. Reserve some of this sauce for dipping.
Slice spam into thick strips (about 5 inches long and 1/2 inch thick) and then pan fry them. Remove and place to simmer in the Japanese sauce for 5 minutes. Remove and set aside.
Mix wasabi paste and mayonnaise in a small bowl and place Avocados, cucumbers and spam along with sushi rice on a work station for assembling the sushi.
1) Divide the sushi rice into 6 equal portions.
2) Put a sheet of nori, shiny-side down, on a rolling mat with the longest end toward you.

3) Using wet hands, spread one portion of sushi rice in an even layer on the nori sheet, leaving 3/4 inch of nori visible at the farthest end. Sprinkle roasted sesame seeds evenly.

4) Spread small amount of wasabi-mayonnaise onto the rice at the end nearest you, then lay spam, cucumber, and avocado in a line beside each other.

5) To roll the sushi, fold the mat over, starting at the end where the ingredients are and tucking in the end of the nori to start the roll. Keep rolling, lifting up the mat as you go and keeping the pressure even but gentle until you have finished the roll. Moisten the top edge of the nori to seal the sushi roll.

To serve:
Cut sushi roll into 4 equal-size pieces with a wet-sharp knife. Arrange them on a plate and serve with sweet soy dipping sauce with a ginger pickle on the side.