cooking adventures: sushi!

My husband and I both have a long weekend! That means… togetherness. Specifically, at mealtimes. It’s been a while!

Then I came up with the Best Plan Ever. We could go together and visit two food stores: United Noodles (the Midwest’s largest Asian grocery), and Coastal Seafoods, which is just across the street. Nori, short-grain rice, a Japanese cucumber at one, a slab of salmon at the other, and we had the makings for sushi. Yum.

Sushi: Taste and Techniques gave good directions, because the sushi turned out really well. There are much better resources (book included) with sushi-making instructions, so I won’t attempt to give them. I’ll just show photos and tell you my favorites!

Now, I have never made sushi before. My host mom in Japan only made it once (tempura was requested more). The hubby got me a sushi book, rice cooker, and rolling mat a few years ago for my birthday, but only the rice cooker has been used. Until today!

My first sushi roll! Nori (seaweed), sushi rice, scallion, and salmon. Nice and simple!

This one has salmon, wasabi, and cucumber.

This was my absolute favorite! Salmon, avocado, scallion, wasabi, a drizzle of chili oil, and sesame seeds. So. Good. OMG.

We did a few other ones that were only veggies which were also tasty. A few nigiri (just a pillow of sushi rice with a slice of salmon on top) rounded out the meal. We hardly used up any of the ingredients we bought! Estimating based on what we used, I would say we ate for about $10. Granted, we had limited choices, but it’s a rare occasion when we spend less than $75 on sushi at a restaurant.

So while this was our first attempt at homemade sushi, it was definitely not the last! I have all sorts of ideas for other types of rolls. Yummm.

Have you made sushi at home? What’s your favorite roll?

Tagged as: asian, cooking adventures, sushi