Tuna Sashimi

And last but definitely not least, one of our friends went fishing the day before and caught some awesome fresh tuna and was kind enough to bring some to share with us. How amazing is that?

It was so fresh and delicious. Just a little soy and wasabi. It doesn't get any better than that...

Thanks Ryan!!!

Inari

As a kid, I called these little guys Japanese footballs, so I figured they'd be nice to serve during our Super Bowl party. Plus they make great finger food. Don't they look like little footballs to you?

Anyway, Inari is a great "sushi" for beginners. It's very simple, there is nothing raw, and the flavor is mild and sweet. It's just fried tofu pockets and rice - very non-threatening.

They're also super easy. Just buy the already seasoned tofu skins in a can like above and stuff them with rice. Ideally you should stuff it with seasoned sushi rice, but the skins already have so much flavor that if you don't season your rice, you'll still be fine.

Ingredients:
- Seasoned tofu skins (aburage - pictured above)
- White rice
- Rice vinegar to taste (optional)
- Sugar to taste (optional)

Directions:
- Cook the rice and season it (the seasoning part is optional).
-To season the rice, you can either be lazy like me and dump vinegar and sugar to taste, into the water while the rice is cooking, or do it the right way - cook the rice and then spread it out on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle the vinegar and sugar on the rice and mix until combined.
- Open the can of tofu skins and take them out. If you'd like, you can also use the liquid in the can to season the rice.
- Carefully open the pocket of each tofu skin, they are very delicate.
- Stuff some rice in. You can put as much or as little as you like. You can also sprinkle some sesame seed or furikake on top if you'd like, but traditionally, they're served plain.
- Pop them in your mouth and rub your tummy with delight!

This is about 2 cans worth of inari, minus a few that I accidentally ripped while opening and had to eat them myself :)

Sushi revisited

The hubz had a craving for sushi the other day, and I could ALWAYS go for some sushi, so I was more than happy to oblige. I dug around the freezer, fridge, and pantry and found imitation crab, eel, fish roe and cucumber, but no avocado. What a shame...I loooove avocado. But I'm also lazy, so I made due without it instead of making a trip to the store.

You can see the directions and more pictures here. So, like I was saying, this time I made 2 kinds - one with crab, cucumber and fish roe. The other with eel, cucumber and fish roe. Dee-lish!

Sushi Part II - Nigiri

So in addition to the sushi rolls, I also made some sushi nigiri with the salmon that I skinned for the salmon skin rolls.

Did you know that there are no real government regulations for "sushi grade" fish? To make raw fish safe for consumption, you just need to be concerned with parasites. All you have to do to kill the parasites is to freeze the fish at -4°F or below for 7 days or -31°F for 15 hours. Of course freshness and proper handling is important to avoid bacteria as well.

So now that our fish is safe to eat, let's make some!

Take the fish and slice at a slant into bite size pieces. For the rice, flavor it with rice vinegar and sugar to taste like you did with the rolls. Wet your hands to keep the rice from sticking to your hands and squish it in your hands to shape it into rectangles. Place the fish on top, dip in soy and wasabi and pop it in your mouth. Yum! If you want, you can also cut some thin strips of nori (seaweed) to wrap around the fish and rice and glue the ends together with a grain or two of rice.

I highly recommend making your own nigiri if you have can find good fresh fish. This was sooo much sweeter and more tender than most restaurants. And the few restaurants that do taste this good are always outrageously priced.

I hope you enjoy yours as much as we enjoyed ours!

Sushi! Arigato gozaimasu!

Sushi night! I love Japanese food.

So with sushi, you can really put in whatever you want, so I don't have an ingredients list and measurements or a real "recipe" for you today.


The first thing though, is the rice. You can use plain rice (short grain is better if you have it because it's stickier) and even better (and more traditional), you should flavor your rice with sugar and vinegar. The way I do it is to just add the vinegar and sugar (to taste) straight into the water that I'm using to cook the rice (rice vinegar is best if you have it, but any old vinegar will do). If I forget or decide to add more, I stir the sugar into the vinegar and let it dissolve, then mix it into the rice. On a side note, make more rice than you think you'll need. I'm always surprised by how much rice I use per roll.

Now on to assembly. The first thing to do is to spread the rice on the seaweed. Use room temperature rice because hot rice will make the seaweed mushy and rip and cold rice is too stiff and won't adhere to the seaweed. I like to use the rice spatula to help smush and smooth the rice onto the seaweed. If you find the rice sticking to the paddle or your hands, just wet them a bit. Not too much though, otherwise it'll make the seaweed soggy/rip through it.


As you can see, the rice doesn't cover every single inch of the seaweed and that's perfectly fine. Just make sure that it covers one of the edges. This edge will be the edge opposite of where you put your filling and will act like a glue to keep the roll from unraveling.

Line up whatever fillings you want across the bottom. Sliced cucumbers, avocados and imitation crab for california rolls. Mix the imitation crab with mayo and sriracha sauce for spicy california rolls.


This one is actually salmon skin (just salted and lightly dredged in flour and then deep fried), cucumber and fish roe.

Here's a closeup of the salmon skin that I fried up.


I also made some with unagi (eel), cucumber and avocado. (I bought the unagi, already marinated, in the frozen seafood section of an asian market. This is what it looks like)


After spreading the rice, it's time to roll! A bamboo mat will help, but is not necessary. If stuff starts smooshing out the sides, just shove it back in and don't squeeze so tight.


After rolling, use a sharp knife to cut it into pieces. Don't cut until you're ready to eat to prevent the rice from drying out. If it gets difficult to cut, dip the knife in some water (and wash off the rice that's stuck to it). The edge pieces are a bonus for the chef since they're not very "presentable", so just pop 'em in your mouth!

*BONUS: If you want to do inside out rolls, wrap your bamboo mat in plastic wrap so that the rice won't stick. After smooshing the rice onto the seaweed (you'll probably want to be more meticulous about getting a nice, pretty, even layer of rice on contrary to before where only the outer edge mattered), flip it over and put the line of filling in. Roll it as you would normally, except this will be more difficult, sticky and messy, but your rolls will get prettier with practice. After rolling, you can pat/roll sesame seeds, fish roe on for extra flavor and decoration. Wrap each roll in plastic wrap to prevent the rice from drying out. When you're ready to serve, unwrap, cut and eat!