I love projects–especially the food kind. Some of these projects are a family affair. They offer everyone, no matter the age, something to make or do. Like the ravioli we made for Christmas a couple of years ago. Or the pot stickers for Chinese New Year.
Speaking of New Year’s, we needed to think about a special dinner to welcome in 2013. And with Jim on a vegan diet, there was to be no roast beast on the table.
The choice was made when, while reorganizing kitchen cupboards, I stumbled upon a forgotten treasure behind a jar of red lentils (so much for my housekeeping skills).
I bought a “sushi kit” at a major grocery store chain several years ago that just happened to get lost. Until now!
Not much to it–a bamboo rolling mat, wooden paddle and instruction booklet
Turns out, after preparing the sushi rice and prepping the fillings, there’s not much to making sushi either. It’s about as easy as rolling a burrito. And since you can customize your fillings, it can be vegan–or not.
Here are the basic ingredients we used. All can be found at well stocked grocery or natural food stores. We used tamari instead of the traditional soy sauce and found our pickled ginger (highly addictive) in the refrigerated section although it may be located with ethnic foods.
The first step involves preparing the rice. We bought ours at the local grocery store and followed this tutorial to make the traditional fragrant and seasoned sticky rice. This rice was so tasty that some party goers, who shall remain nameless (but you know who you are!), couldn’t stop themselves from plucking up little clumped balls of the savory/sweet rice and eating it straight from the bowl.
To see the whole process done properly check out The Good Food Channel’s great pictorial how-to tutorial for rolling sushi. Find it here.
Jim takes a turn.
Moistening our hands in a mixture of vinegar and water (in a 1 to 3 ratio) helped keep sticky rice where it belongs and not stuck to our fingers.
Fillings? We raided the fridge. I julienned a couple of carrots. My friend, Diana, steamed baby kale and made a very thin egg omelette which she later cut into thin strips. Jim chopped up cilantro, and Sam sliced the avocado.
We used carrots, cilantro, avocado, egg, steamed kale but didn’t put in the sun-dried tomato.
Each individual created their own “signature roll” by combining ingredients of their choice.
Sam is ready to roll.
Run a vinegar water dampened finger over the exposed nori at the top to help seal the roll.
Rolling and forming. Jim is a master!
According to my sushi kit instruction booklet, the sushi should be served with soy sauce for dipping. Sliced, pickled ginger and wasabi paste are also traditional. We didn’t bother making the paste from the dried wasabi powder I’d bought when Jim pulled a jar of Trader Joe’s wasabi mayonnaise out of the refrigerator. Not very traditional, but it’s our party!
The first examples. They got better looking after this, but didn’t last long enough to take pictures of…
We had a lot of fun preparing these. Don’t forget a good bottle of wine for the adults (or Japanese sake if you’re a purist) and sparkling cider for the kids. And don’t wait for next year either. Any occasion will do.
What food projects do you do with your family?
Table Talk 