American husband hugged by short relative is a dish (5)
I believe the answer is:
sushi
'dish' is the definition.
(sushi is a kind of dish)
'american husband hugged by short relative' is the wordplay.
'american' becomes 'US' (abbreviation for United States).
'husband' becomes 'h' (abbreviation).
'hugged by' means one lot of letters goes inside another (I've seen this in other clues).
'short relative' becomes 'si' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'us'+'h'='ush'
'ush' placed inside 'si' is 'SUSHI'.
'is a' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sushi that I've seen before include "Rice, seafood cuisine" , "Japanese rice and raw fish dish" , "Asian food" , "Japanese cuisine" , "'Dish of rice, vegetables and raw fish (5)'" .)