This Is How I Roll

I make an effort not to repeat topics for posts.  No one wants to hear me blather on and on about the same thing.  If I have already blogged about it, there should not be that much more to say on the subject.  Tonight I made sushi for the first time, and although I recently posted a blog about how much I enjoy cooking, I decided to since I did not actual cook anything in the process, that the subject was safe to broach.

I have been told that my ideas can sometimes be a touch "outlandish". I see nothing wrong with driving four hours to L.A. to shop at Ikea, getting dressed up to go eat at On Top Of The World on a Tuesday night, or sitting in line for eight and a half hours just to pick up my new iPhone 4.  When I had mentioned that I wanted to learn how to make sushi, my idea was called outlandish and was predicted to be a pain in the rear.  Despite this, I still kept the idea alive like a glowing coal in the back of my mind.

Faced with an opportunity to cook for a party, I considered making my long talked about tarts.  I went to Williams and Sonoma and picked up the tart pans and everything.  While I am still excited about making tarts, I decided since I had already made a sweet dish this week (lemon raspberry cake) that I should do something savory instead.  With the idea of making sushi at the fraction of the cost of going out to sushi, a quick trip to Whole Foods to pick up the sushi mat and seaweed, and I was off to make my outlandish dreams come true.

With having eaten sushi only once, I was going to have to do a touch of research before I could embark upon this endeavorer.  While most of the recipes looked easy enough, I was unsure about using the raw fish without guidance.  Since the California roll uses crab meat that is ready to use, I figured this was a safe bet the first go around.  Shopping list in hand, I head back out to the store.  

Back in my kitchen, armed with my Mac, I got to work.  First, let me say, every last one of the "tips" I read on line was spot on.  If you decide to make sushi yourself, listen to them, they know what they are talking about.  The first tip was, "make more rice than you think you need, because you will need even more than that".  I made five cups of rice, which is as much as my rice maker would hold and still had enough supplies to make another two rolls had I not run out of rice.  

With all the veggies cut, the crab unwrapped, the rice rested and tossed with the vinager (which I am nervous about, and convinced if the rolls suck, it will be because of that), I was ready to roll.  Great tip number two, wear gloves.  I was not prepared for how much the rice would stick to EVERYTHING.  Turns out it is called "sticky rice" for a reason.  I pulled out a pair of gloves from my first aid kit and used Pam instead of mayo like suggested to keep them slick.  I cannot imagine making sushi without them.

The next great tip is to make a log with the rice.  This helped to keep it from sticking to the gloves so much and it made it easier to spread with just my fingertips once it was on the seaweed.  When I ate sushi, I was not a huge fan of the seaweed and had the chefs spoke a word of English, I would have asked them to make it without it.  Now I see how impossible a request that would have been.  Maybe I will just have to invent a tastier thing for rice to stick to.  Then I can sell it and be a millionaire, and no you can't borrow a ten spot.

Once the rice was evenly coated across the seaweed, you lift it up and flip it over.  This step was surprisingly easy due to another tip; cover your sushi mat in clear plastic wrap.  Not only did it make the flip easier, but it was amazing for the clean up.  I stacked inside each wrapper three avocado slices (peeling those was a touch of a nightmare), a crab stick cut in half and an entire strip of cucumber.  This part was rather easy, but I cannot even imagine what a nightmare cream cheese must be to put in there.

Once all the ingredients are in there, and there is less than a pound of rice sticking to your gloves, you just use the mat to roll it up.  This picture is of my first roll which was quite a disaster because I did not follow two other tips, don't use to much rice, and don't overstuff.  It was huge and hence not very cohesive.  Another great tip that came in handy when I was working with the correct proportions was do not squeeze to hard or everything will come gushing out the ends.  How true that was, and only needed for it to happen once before I was more carful.

After each roll is completed you cut them into six slices.  You are supposed to trip the edges so they all look the same, but that felt like another cut and a waste of good product.  These are the overstuffed ones, and you can see how they are trying to come apart.  I made eight rolls total, and have tons of crab left over that I can use in another recipe because I counted on each roll using two sticks, instead of one.

Not including the rice, which I already had, or the sushi mat, which is a one time investment, I spent a total of eleven dollars on crab, cucumber, wrappers, avocado, and rice vinegar.  Taking into account I have one and a half packages of crab left, I say that I made 48 sushi for approximately $8 total.  I looked up how much a California Roll is at a local restaurant, and at $8 a roll, I saved $56 dollars by making them at home.  Not to mention, I got the enjoyment of making them myself.  Turns out, I love to cook.  Like I mentioned, my next project is tarts.  I will see if I can rationalize blogging about them too.