Sushi Victory

I love sushi. It is one of my favorite things to eat. It is, unfortunately, not the easiest thing to get in Lafayette. The best restaurant for it in town is called Kokoro, but it isn't cheap and you have to understand that the chef is an artist. He is well known for both perfectionism and temperamental outbursts (he will kick people out or bug out himself during service). The food is worth it, but if you want totally stress free dining, then it isn't really the place to go. The other option is supermarket sushi which may be tolerable, but is seldom delicious. Adam and I often go to a place called Wasabi on 82nd Street in Indianapolis for a fix. The sushi has always been excellent there, but it isn't exactly close by.

So what to do when we don't want to drive almost an hour, risk drama, or bank on the selection at Target or Marsh? Make it at home!

I have been thinking about trying it for awhile and last night I actually attempted it. I started with the rice. My wonderful rice cooker has a sushi rice setting so cooking the rice was a breeze. I added the seasoned rice vinegar to the rice, cut it in, and fanned the mixture a bit. I put the nori sheets in a 350 degree oven for a few minutes. And I prepared my ingredients. I wanted to start with a couple of easy rolls so I chose California and New York rolls.

For the California roll I spread the rice on the nori sheet, added avocado and cucumber slices, krab, and a bit of wasabi paste.



For the New York rolls I used rice, cucumber slices, cream cheese, and smoked salmon.



I have a tendency to overstuff and am not usually successful at rolling things like burritos or sandwich wraps. The sushi seemed to go much more smoothly. Maybe it is because you don't have the fold to deal with. The bamboo mat and the "jellyrollesque" roll makes it seem pretty easy. I can't claim that it was perfect, but it did the trick.

Here is my first roll.


After that comes the slicing. It took a couple of tries to get the motion down. I mushed the first one, but after that I think I was relatively successful. My finished rolls may not win any beauty contests, but I am mighty proud of them.

Mr. Bento contained a Japanese inspired feast today.



I filled two containers with sushi rolls, one with cherries and plums, and the last with a mixture of rice crackers and cute panda cookies filled with strawberry cream. Nestled in the upper container of sushi is a "soy pig"--a small pig shaped container filled with soy sauce. It is one of the line of cute bento accessories I splurged on.

The rolls turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. I need to work on balancing the flavors a bit more. I couldn't really taste the wasabi in one and in the other I have to watch the cream cheese or it overwhelms the taste of the other ingredients.

My first sushi experience at home was a lot of fun. I am excited to try new rolls and when I can get my hands on some sashimi grade tuna I will take the next step and try to work with the raw fish. Spicy tuna rolls here we come!