Day 11 - Sushi!

First can I tell you about a cool blog I heard about today on 'A' Morning Ottawa?  It's called Would Rather Gather .  It's a local woman who blogs about cooking vegan recipes and they all look amazing!  I love how she knows what to throw in to substitute any animal products in a recipe.  I'm definitely going to try a few recipes listed!!

Now... on to dinner:

Today I decided to pick a recipe based on the ingredients that had to be used up for fear of rotting!!  I typed 'avocado' and 'cucumber' into the allrecipes.com search engine and 'sushi' came up as the response.

I love sushi!  But I remember making it once before and I think I had an issue with the rice.  I have major issues with rice in general but sushi rice is special.  Still I went to the store and picked up a bag of Kokuho Rose Premium Rice .  I recognized the bag a friend from university had once told me I had to buy.  Plus it said sushi rice on the grocery store tab below the shelf.  I also picked up some artificial crab meat and a package of nori (seaweed wrappers).

When I got home I had this feeling that the friend who taught me how to make sushi before had told me something special about preparing the rice but I couldn't remember what it was.  I remember the rice being too vinegar-y once but couldn't remember where the vinegar came in.  Do you think I made any attempt to answer those questions?  A call to my friend or a simple search online?  No.  I did not.  Instead I followed the diagram on the back of the rice package (I didn't even read the written instructions) and rushed to get the dogs outside for a bit of play time.  I was tired and I had run around Bells Corners trying to find the nori.

What I'm trying to say is I don't think I made the rice correctly.  Just now I googled 'rice' and 'sushi' and came up with this link that answers all those nagging questions in my mind.  There was something else I was supposed to do with the rice and vinegar was involved somehow.
My rice didn't turn out bad it just wasn't technically correct.  While it was cooking I sliced up the avocado, cucumber and crab meat.  When everything was done I went to grab some rice to put on the nori and realized it was very hot!  Duh!  So I put it in the fridge to cool down - also not technically the correct thing to do.

I laid out a sheet of nori on to of some saran wrap.  When the rice was cool I pushed a layer of it on the nori with my fingers.  I laid the veggies and crab out in the middle and used the saran wrap to wrap up the roll tightly.  I even kept the wrap on while cutting the sushi - something I had seen at my favourite sushi restaurant in Ottawa.  Watching an expert sushi chef make sushi does not make one an expert themselves.

What I ended up with were a little light on the filling and a little heavy on the rice.  To make up for it I piled some avocado and crab on top of each slice before taking a bite.  They were very tasty and one roll filled me up easily!!  Which is surprising considering how much we tend to order when we go out.

It wasn't perfect but now I know what I did wrong.  The next step is going to be learning how to make tempura shrimp so I can make R's favourite rolls of all time.  I have a feeling once I learn how to do that - it might be all sushi all the time!!

Oh - and one other thing I have to do is to buy more kitchen gadgets.  Seriously, if I had more money and a bigger home I think I would have one of everything.  Things I would have liked to have tonight:

-A wooden rice mixing bowl
-A rice cooker
-Bamboo rolling mat
-A set of knives sushi chefs have
-Something that cuts vegetables in the 'julienne' style (not a knife)

But clearly you can actually make sushi without any of those items!  I'm not living proof.

I even wrapped up an extra roll for lunch tomorrow.  I think tomorrow might have to be a leftovers day!!  My fridge is getting a little full.  That - and I have to put some leftovers in the freezer for another day.

Now... sleep.