Inarizushi Rice-Stuffed Fried Tofu Sushi Ideal to Bring Along on Summer Picnics

Yomiuri Shimbun

08-06-2025

The Yomiuri Shimbun
Inarizushi on a plate
The pleasant early summer weather makes one feel like going on a picnic. Culinary specialist Ryuta Kijima says the best food to bring along is inarizushi, or aburaage thin fried tofu stuffed with rice. The dashi stock used to cook aburaage adds a nicely mild taste to it.
Kijima's grandmother, culinary specialist Akiko Murakami who died in 2004, loved going to hanami cherry blossom viewing parties. Whenever she attended such occasions with her editor and business associates, she always made inarizushi, a vital part of the events. As a child, Kijima would cool the freshly cooked rice with an uchiwa fan. Soon, he was also given the job of stuffing the rice in aburaage.
'I was a granny's boy, so I would follow my grandmother wherever she went, and she happened to be always in the kitchen,' Kijima said.
The inarizushi made by Murakami was a little on the saltier side, but this recipe has a taste Kijima arranged to his liking. The use of coarse sugar and other ingredients adds a little sweetness and richness, and he makes the inarizushi when inviting guests to his home.
The most important step in making inarizushi is removing the excess oil from the aburaage.
'My grandmother would cook [aburaage] thoroughly in hot water and then wash the pieces with water. Doing so makes it easier to absorb the dashi stock well,' Kijima said.
To cook aburaage, arrange the cut aburaage pieces in the pan in the shape of a doughnut. By doing so, the boiling stock can mixture move evenly in the pan and be easily absorbed by the fried tofu.
'After cooking aburaage pieces, it would work even better to place them in a refrigerator overnight to let the dashi flavor firmly soak in them,' Kijima said.
Fried tofu pieces cooked in this way can be used as a topping for soup noodles and other dishes, so they are suited to meal prepping.
Add sushi vinegar to freshly cooked hot rice, and stir it like cutting the rice with a shamoji rice paddle while fanning with an uchiwa fan. This helps remove excess water from the rice, which prevents it from being watery.
Lastly, stuff the vinegared rice inside the aburaage using your hands, and the inarizushi is done.
'I am reminded of my grandmother's wisdom of wetting your hands with the stock mixture, which guarantees that the flavor [of inarizushi] won't get diluted,' Kijima said.
Biting into the inarizushi, you can taste the cooked juice seeping from the aburaage. It should make you want to eat more and more. Young ginger pieces pickled in sweet vinegar serve as a fresh palate cleanser. Busy yourself on a weekend making a lot of inarizushi, after which you'll be able to rest and relax.
Inarizushi
Ingredients (for 16 inarizushi):