Making Sushi
It’s an art form, watching a sushi chef apply their trade behind the bar. The delicacy and precision they handle their knives, slice their fish and creating edible art work to be consumed. It’s an impressive skill that isn’t easy to master, but making sushi looked to be a challenge that was calling me.
The last few days I have tried something new in the kitchen, making sushi. It was the first time that I had attempted this Japanese delicacy. The difference this time, no fish was used in any of the rolls I created. I have enjoyed sushi since 1987 when I was introduced to Shien of Osaka in Rancho Bernardo, CA. I am sure everyone who enjoys sushi has “their place” this one was mine. Hiro was our sushi chef and he knew everything I liked, which made going to lunch or dinner a taste experience.
Now, being plant based I had read a few articles on vegetable sushi, but I have always avoided it because of the difficulty making sushi rice. Come to find out, it really wasn’t hard and while my rice might not have been perfect sushi rice, it did have that flavor I was looking for.
I was cook for myself and wife, so I tried to push the brown sushi rice through, but she said it was “too hard” so I agreed to make white sushi rice. I was surprised not to find any in the pantry, so I bought a 5 lb. bag of Calrose. I rinsed 4 cups of rice and added 7 1/2 cups of water to a pan and brought it to a boil before turning the heat down.
While the rice was cooking I used 1 cup of rice vinegar, 1/4 cup of sugar and mixed it together until the sugar dissolved. It wasn’t until after the fact I realized I had left out the mirin wine out of the Sushi su mixture. I also found that it should be a 4 part rice vinegar, 2 part sugar, 1 part mirin wine.
When the rice was done, I transferred it to a large metal bowl and poured in the Sushi su and mixed it around. I then spread the rice out on a 9×13 Pyrex pan in order to cool the rice. Here’s a good article on perfect sushi rice.
So what would go inside our rolls? I decided on shitake mushroom, sliced cucumber, sliced carrots, asparagus and chickpeas. Yes, chickpeas, stick with me here. After meticulously chopping vegetables, I decided to saute/steam the mushrooms, asparagus and carrots. As a kid I was told that shitake mushrooms were “expensive Japanese meat” by my parents. It wasn’t until years later I realized I had been duped!
Making sushi was something I had always wanted to try, fish or no fish. There were plenty of rolls I used to order that didn’t include fish and I figured I would have enough variety but decided to add chickpeas. Now this isn’t something you typical think of when sitting down to eat sushi. I first read about Cathy Fisher using chickpeas in her Tu-No Salad Wraps. I was amazed at the flavor of the chickpeas and added ingredients. It tasted like tuna salad!
Instead of using Cathy’s recipe for making sushi I decided to search the Internet further and found a few variations of her recipe that could be used as spicy (un)tuna. I started with a can of chickpeas, which I rinsed and mashed. While I don’t frequent Veganaise, I decided to buy a jar specifically for sushi. Added about 2 tablespoons to the mashed chickpeas and chopped cucumber to the bowl followed by a few squirts of Sriracha. I mixed this together and let it chill while the rice was cooling.
Just for sushi I purchased a bamboo mat and covered it with cling wrap, which I laid out on the counter. I laid down a piece of nori and grabbed a handful of rice and spread it out. I then placed a stalk of asparagus, some cucumber, carrot and shitake mushrooms. Rolling it was the real challenge, but was able to get the filling rolled up quite well for my first attempt. I took my knife, wetted the tip of my ceramic blade and sliced into 8 pieces.
The first round went to my wife, who thought the taste was really good, she wasn’t fond of the “expensive Japanese meat” and if I would have thought about it, I would have left those out and added avocado, her favorite. After this successful roll I went on to make a cucumber and avocado roll followed by a spicy (un)tuna roll. All of it seemed to taste wonderful!
As for wasabi, I wasn’t sure if I should have bought paste or the dry mix. I decided on the dry mix, which I added water to. It was cheaper and probably went further than the paste. I also used the Veganaise and added Sriracha to it for a “spicy sauce.” I then dipped and topped my rolls with both of these.
It was quite a bit of prep and work to get a single roll, but rewarding. I will definitely be trying some other forms of sushi the net time I decide to roll. Making sushi is now on my list of foods I could make weekly.
