Sunday, June 30, 2013

Sunday Funday = Making Sushi with Sloane


A favorite girls only activity for myself and my daughter, Sloane, is making sushi.  The boys in this family are not so adventures in their culinary palette's, and consider sushi "gross", unwilling to even give it a taste!  Whatever!  More for us!!


Once you have sushi (calrose) rice, seasoned rice vinegar, nori (roasted seaweed) sheets,  and wasabi in your pantry, sushi becomes really easy to throw together.  We usually make ours vegetarian, by adding avocado, carrots, and cucumber, all of which are usually on hand at our house.  You could easily add some crab or salmon to the base recipe and make it more traditional, or more to your personal taste.

Calrose (sushi) rice is short grain rice, that gets slightly sticky when it is cooked.  don't try to swap out for long or whole grain rice, as it will be drier and won't stick together properly.

Sushi Rice

3 cups sushi rice
3 1/4 cups water

1/3 cup rice vinegar
3 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt


Put the rice in a colander and rinse it with cold water until the water becomes almost clear. 
Place the rice in pot, add water and bring to a boil.  Then turn temperature down to low, and let steam for 15 minutes.  Take rice off heat, and let rest for a final 5 minutes.
Prepare the sushi vinegar by mixing rice vinegar, sugar, and salt in dish, and microwave or heat in a pan, until the sugar dissolves.
Add the cooked rice to a large wooden bowl.  Only use a non-metallic bowl to prevent interaction with rice vinegar. I use a big wooden salad bowl, and wooden paddle.   Pour the vinegar mix onto the rice and combine it quickly but delicately to not smoosh the rice.  For even faster results, use a fan as you mix sushi rice (2-person job!) to cool and remove the moisture from the rice as you stir.


I took step-by-step pictures on spreading and rolling, but they turned out too blurry...sorry...google it if this doesn't make sense!
Place nori sheet shiny side down, on a bamboo rolling mat.  Spread out the sushi rice (about 3/4 cup)on the bottom portion of the nori sheet, leaving 1/2 inch strip at the top uncovered.  You can wet your wooden rice paddle, or your hands to help spreading the rice, without having it stick!  

Add a swipe of wasabi along the bottom end of spread out rice, and then add your veggies and whatnot on top of the wasabi.
Using the bamboo rolling mat (allows for even distribution of force) and starting at the bottom end, start rolling the sushi give the first roll a bit of a tuck to secure the veggies, and then continue to roll tightly away from you.
Once the roll is almost complete, with your fingertips apply water to the end of the nori with no rice which will act to help it adhere together, once you complete the roll squeezing it gently to compact the roll.
Remove the sushi roll from the bamboo mat, and cut on a cutting board using a very sharp, or skinny serrated knife.  Moisten the knife with water for a smoother cut.  Serve sushi with soy sauce, and additional wasabi for dipping.
Enjoy!

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