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| Sushi Rolls |
1.) Lots of internet research. Google 'sushi roll recipe' and you'll find all kinds of helpful tips.
2.) Went to the grocery store with the vague hope they'd have all the ingredients I needed. I didn't think they'd have the nori - dried seaweed sheets - but they had everything! Color me shocked.
3.) Cooked stuff.
What you need to make sushi at home:
- 1 cup short or medium grain rice - sushi rice
- 1 cup water
- 1 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar (it's got sugar and salt added to it)
- nori - dried sheets of seaweed. (I found them in the world cuisine aisle next to the soy sauce, the rice vinegar, and hey, the sushi rice! My grocery store is so smart.)
- fillings - I used avocado and imitation crab meat (I got the long stick kind)
- soy sauce (and wasabi and ginger if you're into that.)
Directions:
Scoop yourself up a cup of rice, and drop it into a large-ish plastic bowl (I mean, pick the bowl you'd think would work, and then grab one that's a little big bigger than that). Fill the bowl with water until the rice is covered, then give it a swish with your hand. See how the water gets all cloudy? Yeah, we've got to get rid of that. Swish, swish, swish. Carefully dump out the water (I just used my hand to keep the rice from escaping the bowl, but if you've got a colander that will keep the rice captive that would probably be easier). Water gone? Good. Do it again. And again. And again. Keep rinsing and soaking your rice until the water is clearer. Some of the websites I read told me to soak the rice for anywhere from 20 minutes to four hours, but I am not that patient. So I just rinsed my rice about 8 times and got on with it. (Nothing bad happened.)
Pick a medium sauce pan with a lid, and put your rinsed rice in there with a cup of water. Bring the water/rice to a slow boil, and then drop the heat down to low, and cook your rice for about 15-20 minutes. The websites told me to keep the lid on my rice and to let it sit there, but if I'd done that my rice would have burned, so I stirred occasionally and kept checking to see if it was done. (Guess what? Nothing bad happened.) It's supposed to be done when the top of the rice starts to look dry, but since I stirred I had to taste test. I cooked it for 15 minutes, and it's kind of al dente. I'll go for longer next time.
Take your rice off the heat, replace the lid, and let it sit there for 10 minutes.
Get out your fillings, and slice them up into thin strips if you haven't already.
Grab that plastic bowl you used earlier to rinse your rice off, and put your freshly cooked rice in there. Now get your rice vinegar, and sprinkle a tablespoon or so over the rice. (Be careful!! I very nearly ruined mine by adding too much.) Get a spatula and fold the vinegar in. Get another dish cloth and cover the top of the bowl to keep the rice from cooling off too fast.
If you have a sushi rolling bamboo mat, then get that out, but if you're like me you'll need a clean dish cloth, and a bit of saran wrap. Put the saran wrap down on the dish cloth, and put a piece of the nori on top of the saran wrap. This is your sushi making station. Arrange your fillings within reach.
Now you're going to put your rice on your nori. You can do this with your hands or with a spatula. If you go the hand route, get a small bowl and put some water in it. The rice is very sticky, and wetting your hands often will lessen your frustration. Wet your hands, and grab a little bit of rice, drop it on your nori, and pat it down. Make your rice height about 1/4 of an inch. (Just imagine that you're going to have to roll it all up with a bunch of stuff inside of it, so don't go overboard.) It's easiest to do the edges of the nori before you do the middle. Don't forget to leave about a 1/2 inch strip of one of the nori's sides free of rice - this is where you'll seal the nori to make the roll.
All covered? All right. In a line down the middle of your sheet o' rice put your fillings. Don't put too much. When you've got it all arranged, take the side of the nori that is opposite the 1/2 strip that you didn't cover, and start to carefully roll it up. You'll need to use your fingers to hold the fillings in. Once you get it rolled, wet your fingers and seal the empty 1/2 strip of nori to the body of the roll. Then wrap the saran wrap around your roll and smooth it out. Don't press too hard or you'll break the nori. It's super delicate.
Does it look like food yet?
With 1 cup of rice I was able to make two sushi rolls, and I had a little bit of rice left over. So make your second sushi roll. Learn from any mistakes you made with the first one.
With your rolls made, put them on a cutting board. Get a very sharp knife, run it under some water, and cut your sushi rolls in 1 to 1 1/2 inch pieces. (Too small and the rolls will fall apart, too big and you won't be able to eat them easily.)
Admire your handiwork. Lament that they aren't cold enough to eat yet.
Refrigerate!
Eat!
Sadly, I think I discovered I have an avocado allergy. I've never had an allergic reaction to any foods before, so I could be mistaken. The internet says that people with avocado allergies are often also allergic to bananas, and I am not. I haven't had avocado for a long time, so maybe my body is just like, "WTF is this?"
Next time I'll try using different fillings. First on the list is smoked salmon and cream cheese... that sounds amazing, doesn't it?
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