Homemade Sushi

On Saturday night, Andre and Jen came over for some homemade sushi. Because they live 2 1/2 hours away, we don't get to see them as often as we'd like. As much as Dave and I look forward to seeing them, I think the girls get twice as excited as we do! Picture that fun aunt and uncle you always wished you could live with. In our family, that would be Andre and Jen.

Jen and Andre

Andre and Jen are so great with Amanda and Eva. They actually get down on the floor to play with the girls, and genuinely have fun doing it! They even willingly help out with the "dirty work" - brushing teeth, putting on PJ's, and reading bedtime stories. And if that weren't enough, they also reprimand our kids if they get out of line. How great is that?!

Preparing to roll the sushi

One of the things we love to make from time to time is homemade sushi.

If you enjoy sushi, I encourage you to try making it sometime! It's a lot of fun - and a great activity to do with friends.

The hardest part about making sushi is the rice. 

Ingredients:

• 3 cups Japanese sushi rice
• 3 1/4 cups water
• 1/3 cup rice vinegar
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt

Preparation:

After washing and soaking Japanese rice, cook and let it steam. Prepare sushi vinegar by mixing rice vinegar, sugar, and salt in a sauce pan. Put the pan on low heat and heat until the sugar dissolves. Cool the vinegar mixture. Spread the hot steamed rice into a large plate or a large bowl. Use a non-metallic bowl (wooden bowl is best) to prevent any interaction with rice vinegar. Sprinkle the vinegar mixture over the rice and fold the rice quickly. Be careful not to smash the rice. It's best to use sushi rice right away.
Makes 4-6 servings
* *
Once the rice has cooled, you can begin "assembling" the rolls. You'll need Nori, which is a thin sheet of seaweed that ends up being the "shell" for your sushi. (Nori can be found in the international foods section of most grocery stores.)

You will also need some type of "filling"- assorted vegetables and fish. This time around, we used: raw tuna, smoked salmon, imitation crab, avocado, scallions and cream cheese. (Other favorites of ours are cucumbers and thinly sliced carrots.)

Rolling and Cutting the Sushi

1. Put a sheet of plastic wrap over the bamboo mat.
2. Place Nori down on the bamboo mat. Typically, the shinier side is put face down.
3. With damp hands, grab the cooked rice and spread it onto the Nori. The layer of rice should be thin enough so that you can see the nori underneath.
4. Leave about half an inch of space at the edge of the nori furthest from you, and rub a bit of warm water on it. This will help the two sides of nori stick together.
5. Line up your ingredients in the middle of the nori.
6. Holding the closest edge of the bamboo mat, roll the sushi away from you.
7. Tighten the roll as you go, the same way you would a rug to minimize excess space. Be careful not to make it too tight, however, or fillings may start to fall out.
8. Once tightened, you should be able to unwrap the bamboo without the roll coming apart.
9. Cover your roll with the bamboo mat and press your hands over it to further pack the roll.
10. Move your full roll to a cutting board. Slice it first down the middle. From there you can cut it into sixths or eighths, whichever you prefer.

As you can see, we made quite a bit of sushi... and we only ate about half of it! It is very filling.


After dinner, Dave made "dessert sushi" for the girls: ice cream sandwiches cut into bite size pieces. (Pretty crafty, isn't he?) Although Amanda devoured hers, Eva was more hesitant. However, after some gentle coaxing from Andre, she finally dug in and enjoyed it.


After dinner, Andre snapped a family picture. It's quite a challenge to get all four of us to look at the camera at the same time, but I think it turned out great!


Thanks, Andre and Jen, for another fun night!