Saturday, April 11, 2015

Making Sushi - One Epic Cooking Lesson

Bonney Lake, WA - With Mr. Voelker away on a weekend with the guys, the rest of us packed up the car and headed north for fun with friends and what turned into an epic sushi making session.


Five kids who love sushi! They wiped this table out.



We made this sushi!


Making sushi was super fun. A big huge thank you to Tana Davis for the lesson!

Step One: Collecting Ingredients

We bought our ingredients at the HMart in Federal Way. An immense store, full of just about every kind of herb and produce you can imagine, they also carry a full selection of sushi grade fish. In case you were wondering, sushi grade fish has been frozen either cold enough or long enough to achieve "parasite destruction guarantee". That's what in theory makes it safe to eat raw. However, pickled ginger is usually served with sushi because eating that kills parasites as well.


Sushi Corner at HMart, just one part of their sushi section.



We brought some helpers with us.


Step Two: Prep and Assemble Ingredients


From bottom left: avocado, shrimp, seaweed salad, unagi (eel), salmon, rice, beverages, pickled ginger, lemons, imitation crab mixed with mayo, sweetened fish eggs, ground up dried shrimp, assorted nigiri sushi cuts, including squid and tuna, wasabi, more avocado, roasted seaweed wraps, pickled radish (yellow)

To make sushi rice, cook short grain white rice at a ratio of 1 cup rice to 1 and 1/4 cup water. Mix in rice vinegar, salt and sugar and let cool to room temperature. For 4 cups of rice, we use 4 T rice vinegar and 2 T each sugar and salt. You will need a bowl of water nearby because wet hands are necessary for working with the rice.

Step Three: Roll Em


Tana demonstrates.



Lay out the seaweed wrapper on the rolling mat and pat down the rice on it. Water on your hands makes this much easier.



Add center ingredients. Make sure they are laid out in the correct direction for the rolling mat.



Roll it up!



Cut from the center first. Keep your knife and cutting surface wet.



Finley paid close attention to the whole process.



To make the nigiri, form small rice loaves with wet hands and gently press fish on top.



Voila! A sushi feast!

5 comments:

ruthyv said...

That's fantastic! What a fun lesson for the kids; exposing them to real food from different cultures. How beautiful it all looks, too!

Zoe B said...

Yummy! Or, oishii, as they say in Japan. I am totally addicted to sushi now. I want!

Liz said...

Thank you! They love it. I hope that will help them feel more comfortable when we go on our big trip.

Liz said...

Zoe, we should have a big sushi making party! Devon wants to learn. We could look at the photos from your trip.

Zoe B said...

That would be great! I just posted a few on my blog. You'll get a laugh out of the cheeseburger sushi. Oddly, one of my favs was the pickled eggplant with wasabe. No fish but intense and good.