Sushi Night!

Sushi Night: A Tutorial 

I learned how to make sushi from the infamous Craig Baxter (my husband's best man at our wedding). 

If you are ever in the market for a best man you should definitely pick him; he flew out the salmon he caught and cooked for us (more than once)! And he's a pretty great guy in general. 

Sushi mat and paddle purchased at Fred Meyer for about $8. I appreciate that Michelle and Craig talked us in to buying them while we were hanging out in Portland for a craving on Michelle's part - because now we have them for homemade sushi whenever we want! I also don't know that I ever would have gotten into it otherwise. 

For making sushi for 4 people I cooked 3 cups of sushi rice with 3 1/2 cups of water in my rice cooker. 

I love this thing! You just set it to cook, it cooks, and pops up when the rice is done. 

When the rice was done I mixed together 1/3 cup rice vinegar, 2 Tbsp sugar and 1 tsp salt and added it into the rice. 

I generally figure you need about 1-1/2 rolls per person. So I used 6 or 7 sheets of Nori total - I don't really remember. I use 3 when I make sushi for just Ross and myself. Also from Fred Meyer - Haggen and Trader Joe's don't seem to carry them. 

While the rice is cooking you can gather your other ingredients - and this is where it gets fun! We almost always use smoked salmon, a cucumber, an avocado, cream cheese, and a pepper of some sort (I particularly like jalapeños!) You can use whatever ingredients your heart desires! For my birthday a couple years ago Ross made a mushroom bacon swiss roll - though it wasn't worth a repeat because it was too salty. 

You want to prepare all your veggies and other ingredients by slicing them into pretty thin slivers.

Slicing also helps you find and pick out some bones of the salmon. 

One the rice is done and your ingredients are prepared, use a spoon to spread the rice out over the majority of the Nori. Leave about 1/2 inch on one side to account for rolling. Also, it is helpful to keep a bowl of water nearby to dip the spoon in as you are making sushi to help manage the super sticky rice. 

Sprinkle some sesame seeds on the rice and lay out your ingredients along one side of the Nori. 

Then roll it up like you are rolling up a sleeping bag - nice and tight. 

Use the mat to assist in rolling, and then squeeze the roll to make everything stick. 

Then you need a cool plate to serve your sushi on. We bought this at the Saturday Market in Portland . If was Ross' find (as I've mentioned, looking at pottery is one of Ross' favorite things to do.) 

Then slice your rolls about 1/2 inch think - maybe thinner. I use a serrated bread knife as it seems to work best. This you will also need to dip in water or rinse off every roll or so as it gets all sort of stickiness on it. Also - the ends of each roll will most likely be a sacrifice - and by sacrifice I mean the bits that fall apart and you get to eat while you are preparing the sushi! 

And there you have it. 

Next step: take lots of pictures. 

From many angles. 

Put the camera in the digital macro setting. 

Yeah - it was sunny, because our Sushi night was last Friday Night. I'm a bit behind perhaps? Oh well. Unfortunately, it has been raining ALL day. Not just raining though, torrential downpours reminiscent of the aguaceros I experienced in Costa Rica. 

____________________________________________________

The occasion for the Sushi Night was a viewing of the movie 127 Hours with our friends Chris and Lauren from our Basic Climbing course. 

SPOILER ALERT: 

source

The guy freakin' cuts his arm off!!!!!!!!! Ah - it was a bit weird with all the Hollywood movie effects and such, but an incredible TRUE story about spending 127 Hours trapped under a rock. Highly recommended - but save it for after a rock climbing trip like we did.