We Made Sushi!

Did you know that you can make sushi at home? I didn't, until I moved to Taranaki, where I've learned that not only is it possible, it's easy and quite common. Now, I am not sure whether home-made sushi is less popular in the States, or if my rather limited cooking experience had simply not included it, but suffice it to say that the discovery that I could make my own sushi was rather a shocking one for me.

I deeply doubt that sushi-making would typically fall under the category of "Kiwi Adventures," but for us it did, so here you have the story of J and I making sushi. 

I don't really know what this mix is, but it seems to include some powdered form of vinegar, and it made the rice a bit stickier as well.

Pickles, carrots, and cucumber. We also had shrimp, but I didn't like it as much. I think next time we'll try smoked salmon, and we will definitely get some avocado. I though about postponing the sushi-making when I discovered the lack of avocados in the supermarket, except that I was just fooling myself because in reality I was too excited to wait.

You get this sushi mat and some seaweed wraps, and you smooth the rice all over, leaving gaps at the top and bottom.

Then you put whatever ingredients you want in the middle. In case you can't tell by the picture, I think we overstuffed ours. Then you just roll up the whole mat and push the rice-less ends together.

Then you end up with this long sushi log, which you put on the cutting board with the seem-side down, so that the moister soaks through and makes it stick (J pulled this piece of knowledge out of who-knows-where, and I thought he was making it up, but it worked very well). After a few minutes, you can cut it into pieces, and it doesn't fall apart (mostly).

And... voila! Our very own, home-made sushi! I am not going to say that it was anywhere near as good as Sushi Ninja (our new favourite sushi restaurant), but it was yummy, and I think we'll get better with practice. My co-teacher Maree makes sushi with her kids, and I think she mixes some spices in with the rice, so I'll have to talk to her about how to make ours even more delicious.

Side-note: If you make the full pot of rice that the packet is measured for, you end up with over 60 pieces of sushi, which means that you better be happy to eat sushi for every meal for several days. Fortunately, I was thrilled to do so!