Sushi for Me? Sushi for You!

This month's cooking challenge...Sushi! Ok, so it's not really something you cook, besides the rice - but it was definitely a challenge. My friend Lana (who took these awesome pictures for me) was over for the weekend, so we decided to tackle this one together. I was very grateful, because if you've ever made sushi rice - you'd know that it's very easy to give up. It takes f.o.r.e.v.e...r! We clocked it.. 10:00 am is when we started - and we were eating sushi rolls by 1:30. Yowsa. If you're interested in trying it yourself, click here for detailed instructions. [Let me know if you have troubles opening the link]

The rice requires much attention. You have to strain it a few times (at least 5), soak it for a half hour, cook for 10-15 minutes, set for 10 minutes, then ventilate it for about 20 minutes w/ a flat spatula and your side-kick fanning it.. it's just absolutely ridiculous.. but it's worth it.

For our 'fish' ingredients, we used tempura shrimp (shrimp fried in a tempura batter, which can be found at your local grocer) and smoked salmon. Our vegetable ingredients included cucumber, yellow zucchini, celery, radishes and carrots.  One of the rolls required six ingredients, that's why we used so many. Most times, I would just stick with cucumber and/or carrots... it's just what I'm used to.

Typically, sushi rolls are made with a bamboo mat to hold everything in while rolling. Unfortunately, I couldn't find one anywhere in Brattleboro. Walmart and Target weren't interested either, so I cleverly used place mats.  I just put a piece of Saran Wrap over the mat and it worked perfectly - saved my wallet too!

We made three kinds of rolls, or sushi including; Tiger roll, Dragon roll and Nigiri. The rolls were fabulous - anything with avocado is typically good.  The Nigiri was pretty simple and is like a mouthful of rice once you shove it in your mouth.  I chose not to use raw fish for any of these dishes. I don't trust bringing/serving raw fish at my own home.  I'll go out to a restaurant for something like that.

I ended up having some extra ingredients once Lana and I were done making the 'required' sushi for my challenge, so I saved it for the next day when Lucas came home.  He was so excited that I could make restaurant quality sushi rolls.  And really, with that recipe, it's almost hard to not make it look good.
So, give sushi a try! You'll be glad you did.

Sayonara!