Sushi Night

We live in an area you could safely call a “sushi desert”, so if you want sushi takeout, you have to make it yourself! While there were certainly a lot of specialty ingredients I needed to purchase, and a fair amount of preparation, I was so impressed by the deliciousness of what we made. Though we are limited in the quality and variety of fresh fish where we live, we found some good options around which we designed our rolls. We selected a half-pound of tempura shrimp, an ahi-grade tuna steak, and white lump crab meat (canned). We also happened to have some leftover cooked beef filet, so we decided to cube and marinate it in teriyaki for a very special roll (see menu below). Here are the groceries we got for our sushi night:

• Specialty: sushi rice, nori sheets, rice wine vinegar, wasabi, pickled ginger, tamari, gomaiso (seasoned sesame seeds)

• Veggies: avocados, carrots, green onion, cucumbers

• Fish: ahi tuna, crab meat, tempura shrimp

• Extras: miso soup mix, frozen edamame (in a steamable bag), assorted rice crackers snack mix (for the sushi chef)

After prepping and staging all the ingredients for sushi assembly, the last step was to make the rice. I don’t have a rice cooker, but the stovetop method turned out perfectly.

Sushi Rice

• 1 cup sushi rice

• 1/4 cup rice vinegar

• 1 tablespoon sugar

• 1/4 tablespoon salt

Rinse the rice until the water runs clear and allow to drain. Add 1 1/4 cups of water to a medium pot and add the rice. Bring to a boil and allow to boil for 4 minutes. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, cover with lid and allow the rice to stand for 15 minutes. Next, pour into a large bowl and add the next three ingredients and stir. Keep the bowl covered with a damp kitchen towel until you’re ready to use the rice.

We used a sushi-making kit that made it especially easy to create our rolls. What was so helpful was the rice guide which framed the nori sheet and showed you how much rice to pack on. The flexible mat and form to make the rolls also has slicing guides to make perfectly-portioned cuts. I highly recommend this kit for beginner sushi chefs!

I wrote out our menu so we could refer to it at the table and know what we were enjoying. We made too much and were so glad we did!

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