Roll it up

Although Persian, my friend 'Koover' can cook Asian food like a pro. If there was anyone I would attempt to roll sushi with for the first time, it would absolutely be him. So when he was in town visiting a couple weeks ago and we happened to pass by the Japanese market I'd noticed so many times before (and have always desperately wanted to go inside), we spontaneously made the decision to make sushi for dinner that night.

My sis, Koovs, and I shopped around the small market for all the essentials: Koover, of course, guiding us with what we needed and taking charge of reading the directions on the sushi rice so we got the right vinegar and other essentials. When we left the market we had rice, fresh sushi grade tuna, ebi, seawood, avocado, vinegar and green tea ice cream in hand. We stopped on our way back to my apartment for the bamboo roller, some mango, basil and tomatoes. We were really excited to break the seal and roll sushi for the first time as none of us had done it before.

I left the rice making to Koovs. He's a rice making pro although he usually make Jasmine rice and not the sticky rice required for sushi rolls. Regardless, the rice was perfect and we tried to stay true to the directions by using a small battery operated fan while pouring in the vinegar and stirring. Pretty funny image to see my sister with a light up fan next to this big pot of rice; I'm sure that's not exactly the way they did it back in the day. Anyways...while the rice was cooking, Koovs and I cut up all the ingredients to go in the rolls: Avocado, mango, tomatoes, basil and the tuna and shrimp. We set up a station on my kitchen table with little bowls that contained all the fillings and started to create our sushi masterpieces.

Once you put the seaweed on the bamboo mat, you take the sticky rice and spread it all over; using water on your hands to 'un-stick' the rice. In the center of the mat (topped with your seaweed and rice), you put your ingredients. We started simple with tuna, mango and avocado and ended up using all the ingrediants at once by the end. All of it tasted delish. Then you roll it up. We tried this two different ways--once with the rice on the outside (not so successful,) and then ended up continually using the rice on the inside after my sis of all people gave it a go.

Once the sushi was rolled up, we cut the sushi into slices and arranged on the plate.

I think what most people are scared of when rolling their own sushi is the quality of the fish, but the tuna we got from the Japanese market was extremely fresh and tasty. Also it was extremely cheap comparitively to what you recieve in restaurants. A piece of tuna sushi at a restaurant could cost you $4 a piece; but a relatively big piece of tuna used in 3 rolls costs about $4 for the entire piece at the market. I would probably recommend getting the fish at a speciality shop though; super markets just won't cut it.

(roll with ebi, mango, avocado, basil)

(roll with tuna, mango, avocado)

It all proved to be a scrumptious and great experience. It was really fun to roll your own sushi and be proud of your creation. Even my sis (who's not from the cooks) was having fun ; and I mentioned that rolling sushi is similar to rolling a joint; needless to say she was rolling some pretty tight rolls. She got the mvp for the night.

So...I'm definitely considering having a sushi rolling party...and maybe we can roll a few other things too. Whose bringing the fillings?