Inspiration for Crafting

We made homemade sushi rolls the other night for dinner. They are delicious and quite easy to make. This time we used cooked salmon, but we've also used crab meat and canned tuna. We also enjoyed our sushi rolls with a Japanese drink called Ramune.* Brent had the Lychee or Litchi (according to the FDA) flavor and I tried the Peach (It was absolutely tasty!)

Ingredients:

• Roasted Seaweed (We always get this at an Oriental Market)
• Fish: cooked salmon, crab, or tuna
• sliced avocado
• sliced cucumbers soaked in vinegar salt water
• sushi rice (it's very sticky and holds the roll together the best) (also found at Oriental Markets)
  
• Kewpie mayonnaise (optional)

Instructions:
(The easy part is that all the packages of roasted seaweed I have bought or seen in the store have diagrams and instructions right on the back! So convenient.)

• Prepare the sushi rice: We usually make three cups of rice (precooked). In a saucepan over medium-high heat, mix 1/3 cup rice vinegar, 1 tsp salt 1 tbsp sugar. Heat until sugar is dissolved. Pour mixture over rice and fold in using a flat wood or plastic spoon/paddle.
• Place one sheet of seaweed on a bamboo mat. Ladle a heap of rice onto the seaweed. Wet your fingers in a bowl of water and spread the rice to the left, right, and bottom edges. Leave a couple inches space at the top edge.
• Once the rice is evenly spread, add the filling. We like to layer the fish first, then the avocado above it and then the cucumbers above that. If using Kewpie mayonnaise, squeeze a line across the top of the filling from left to right.
• Roll the sushi! Lift the mat to start the roll using your fingers to make sure the roll folds over the filling and curves under to make a roll instead of folding in half. Then use the mat to tightly roll the sushi to the end of the seaweed. If the roll is not perfectly round, put the roll back to the center of the mat and fold the mat over it. Use the mat to roll the sushi roll back and forth until it is round. This also helps to make the roll tight so it won't fall apart when it's cut.
• Once the roll is round and tight, transfer it to a cutting surface. Dip the blade of the knife in water to help cut more smoothly. Cut the roll into slices about 1/2" thick.
• Arrange on a platter and serve with a bowl or plate of soy sauce for dipping.

*More on Ramune: It is popular not only for its taste, but also for its packaging. The bottle has a narrow neck that opens again at the top (kind of like an hourglass). It is sealed with a marble that you have to pop down into the bottle in order to drink the Ramune. The marble inside is like a prize that most people find impossible to attain. I found this website on the Ramune Conundrum with instructions on how to remove the marble. Who knew it was so important??

Posted by Amber P. at 9:37 PM    

Labels: food, recipes