The Protein Drop #3: Sushi bake, four lunches, no rolling

Sushi bake went around the internet as party food, served hot in the middle of a table with a stack of seaweed beside it. Almost nobody talks about what it does in a fridge, which is a shame, because it is better prep food than party food.

Why it works cold and warm

Rolling sushi is a skill and a Sunday afternoon. This is a tray. Seasoned rice pressed flat, baked salmon flaked into a creamy spiced layer, furikake over the top, twelve minutes in the oven until the edges brown.

The reason it survives the week is that everything in it is already cooked and already dressed. There is no raw fish waiting to turn, and no crisp element to go soft. It reheats, and it is also genuinely good cold, which puts it in a small category of prep dishes that do not depend on a working microwave.

Cut into four, the salmon sushi bake is 40g of protein a portion.

The prep note: nori is not a topping

One thing will ruin this, and it is the seaweed. Nori is hygroscopic. Put a sheet on a warm tray of rice on Sunday and by Monday it has gone from crisp to leather, and by Wednesday it is a grey film stuck to the lid.

Pack the nori dry and separate. Squares in a small bag or a corner of the box, never touching the rice. You tear one off and scoop with it when you eat, the way you would at a table. It is the difference between a dish that feels composed on day four and one that feels like leftovers.

Cucumber goes in the same category. Slice it, keep it apart, and let it stay cold and loud next to a rich, soft bake.

Add it to your week

Every card at the bottom of this issue carries a calendar button. Tap it and the dish lands in your week, which pools everything you have added into one shopping list. Add all three from this issue and the list writes itself.

Something new to cook this week

Fish twice in a week is easier than it sounds when the second one takes fifteen minutes. Baked cod with lemon cottage cheese sauce is 51g of protein for 330 calories, the leanest big number in the bank.

A snack to keep the protein coming

And for the evening, the casein bedtime pudding parfait sets itself overnight and carries 34g of protein, the highest of any snack in the bank.

Cook one thing well on Sunday, cook one thing fresh midweek, and keep something in the fridge for the gap. Back next Saturday.