Sushi Night!

Thanks to my friend Laura, plus two assistants who actually knew what they were doing (unlike self), last Friday the "Sail to Japan" class I teach in our homeschool co-op knocked their own socks off making sushi for lunch. Even the girls who refused to eat a bite -- and the girls whose sushi consisted of nori and just plain rice -- all took a turn to roll up some creative combinations.

Inspired by a) the fun, b) my newfound skill, and c) all my leftover ingredients, I decided we'd try it at home on Saturday night. We used these directions for making the sushi rice. (I bought the Calrose rice at an Oriental Market, mostly to give my kids an educational experience and let them feel like a minority once in a while, but I think you can find it elsewhere.) It's vastly preferable to cook your rice a few hours (or a night) ahead of time so it's at room temp when the magic hour of family enchantment arrives.

For fillings, we offered dishes of cucumber and blanched carrots sliced lengthwise, imitation crabmeat, plain omelet, avocado, and smoked salmon. You can find oodles of other ideas online or by checking out the premade sushi at the market. These toppings offered a good variety for our crew, however.

(As usual, neighbor kids were over, and this one wanted to try her hand at sushi chef-dom.)

We wrapped all our sushi in sheets of nori (seaweed), which is easy to find at virtually any market (in our case, Central Market). The rolling mats are quite cheap -- I think I paid about $2.00 for one.

For specific, step-by-step instructions, check out this site, which walks you through it with cute pictures.

Oh, one more thing. When we did this at co-op, Elsie (remember her, the genius?) brought some sweet soybean wrappers into which the girls could stuff sticky rice. We found that the sushi-shy among them were more likely to eat the plain, sweet pockets they made with the soybean wrappers. Something to think about when you're grabbing things off the shelf in the Asian section at the store.

Now, can someone just tell me how to say "Bon Appétit" in Japanese?


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