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So you must all be biting your fingernails waiting for this post! This past Saturday night, we had a little sushi party for some friends of ours that went off without a hitch! Mei spent some time at a first birthday party during the day with her babysitter while we prepared the sushi and bits for the sushi – which was perfect! A chance to cook endlessly, focused solely on cooking without having to take any breaks to care for Mei? We got so much done!

At the request of our guests, since this was afterall a wedding gift, we made various American-inspired rolls as well as some traditional rolls that they had not previously tried. There were a couple of things we didn’t get around to making but at the end of the day we had more than enough food and didn’t miss the bits that I didn’t get a chance to make.

The pickled veggies from the other day went over very well and came out tasting slightly sweet but pickle-y which was a perfect pairing for the seafood – bringing out some great flavors and just adding to the overall effect of the dinner!

So what exactly did we make? A simple tuna roll, or tekka maki; cucumber roll or kappa maki; a veggie roll consisting of spinach, sweet egg, carrot and shiitake mushrooms; a California roll with crab, cucumber and avocado; a Philly roll with cream cheese, smoked salmon, and avocado; and a handful of inari sushi – basically little pouches, made of either bean curd or fried tofu, stuffed with sushi rice – many people like to put seasoned sushi rice with little bits of veggies in these as well but we were happy with just plain sushi rice this time around; and chicken katsu roll – strips of fried chicken, breaded with Panko, and placed in a California roll (inside out sushi essentially), the outside is then rolled in sesame seeds and once the sushi is cut, each piece is drizzled with tonkatsu sauce! Delicious! This was a special request from the groom…

We also set out some appetizers and little “in-between” bites with a variety of olives, cheeses, salami, and Carr’s nibbly crackers which were just too hard to avoid snacking on while we put them in their little dishes… actually a new chips and dip divided platter on a lazy susan!! YES!! It was an amazing Christmas present that is getting quite a bit of use in the first month…. if we could put dinner in it…

At any rate, while we were too busy rolling and cutting sushi and subsequently eating all of our hard work, I didn’t get a chance to take any beauty shots or spend hardly any time at all photographing the different rolls…. maybe next time. In the meantime, enjoy the photos and feel free to drool!!

How to Roll Sushi Rolls:

First, you need sushi rice and I have provided you with a previous recipe for sushi rice here. And then the fillings – whichever ones you choose, slice them into long, thin slices so that many fillings can fit into one roll without taking too much room. If you overstuff the rolls, then you will struggle rolling the sushi and keeping it together.

For the fillings, the veggies were individually simmered, once cut into the shapes that we want, in a simple udon soup broth, slightly sweetened with up to a tablespoon of sugar (to taste). Except, of course the sweet egg. Beat six eggs with six tablespoons of sugar and just a dash of soy sauce and fry into an omelet then slice in long, thin slices or little pats that you will place over a small oval round of sushi rice.

Once you have all that assembled and cooled, lay down a sushi rolling mat and a piece of nori – or seaweed. Have a small bowl of water and a towel nearby for your fingers. You will want to scoop out some sushi rice onto your piece of nori and dip your fingers in the water to avoid getting the rice all over the place, and push the rice around so that it is in a thin layer covering 3/4 of the piece of nori, starting at the edge closest to you and going 3/4 of the way down the piece of nori away from you. Then about half an inch in from the edge closest to you, lay down your fillings, as close together as possible, taking up as little space as possible, stacking them on top of each other if you like. (Next time I will take more pictures of these steps,… until then… there are many YouTube videos you can consult if these directions are confusing) Using the sushi rolling mat, lift up the nori and roll a very small, tight roll just over the fillings then release the mat and scoot the sushi roll back to the edge of the rolling mat and use the mat to roll the sushi the rest of the way until it is all secured. You can adjust the amount of rice adding more or reducing the amount or how far up the nori you put it, as you begin making rolls and notice that there is extra nori left once you have rolled the roll or if the rice is seeming to escape the nori.

Have a very sharp knife to cut the sushi rolls and a damp kitchen towel nearby to wipe the knife on to continue cutting the sushi. Your knife should get you through at least one roll but if it starts to feel sticky or the knife is not gliding easily through the sushi, wipe the knife down and go back to cutting. Cutting sushi will take some trial runs but it should be fairly easy to push the knife through and you want to avoid any sawing motions and try to make each cut in one or two smooth motions. This will help you to keep the shape of the sushi and avoid smushing the roll into not so pretty or flat sushi.

Arrange the rolls on a platter and serve with individual small plates with soy sauce and wasabi if you like. Enjoy and good luck in the kitchen!