The Shrine

Last weekend, I invited my parents over to make some sushi. My sister, Shellie, and I had tried it out a week before with some good success, so we tried this venture. The sushi was really good, and I'd like to pass out some of my knowledge that I've learned.

First, you'll need to go to a Japanese grocery store to get some of your ingredients. Most of what you'll find can be in a regular grocery, but you can only find the following in a Japanese grocery: nori sheets, a bamboo roller & cooling fan, Japanese mayo. Don't knock the mayo; you should really get the real stuff, as it works as both a dip and mixing in other stuff. (It comes in a clear bottle that is packaged in a bag.)

I found out that you can make a really good spicy "orange" sauce (the stuff they put in spicy rolls) with Dynasty's Thai Hot Mayo (looks orange already) mixed in with Japanese mayo. You can find the former in the regular grocery. You could also mix the standard red rooster sauce (sriracha) with Japanese mayo, but it's not nearly as good. The sushi chef at my favorite sushi place has the best orange sauce, but he's not giving up the recipe.

We used both cooked and raw salmon and tuna (straight from Krogers), as well as tiger shrimp and imitation crab. You can use just about anything you want in sushi, but be sure to get some variety. (We probably got too much stuff, but it was worth it, anyway.) We were experimenting with cream cheese, goat cheese, roasted peppers (in a jar), avacado, cucumber, cooked beef strips, etc.

You can fry them in oil (sesame seed oil if you can find it, but we used canola oil), but make sure that it's as hot as you can make it. Oil that isn't hot enough will just soak the oil in the rice. A spicy tiger shrimp roll fried with raw salmon on top was a really good one that I made. We were also using the deep fryer to make crab rangoon and other stuff with wonton wrappers. (You can find that in the freezer section of the Japanese store, or a regular one if you're lucky.)

Some tips:

* Read up on this stuff first. I'm not telling you everything just in this one post.

*1/3 to 1/2 cup of sushi vinegar to 3 cups of cooked sushi rice. This is sushi vinegar, not rice vinegar. Sushi vinegar already has the sugar and other stuff added.

* Always wet your fingers when you mess with the rice. Wet your fingers once every 20 seconds or so, or whenever you need it. Otherwise, the rice will stick to your hands pretty quickly.

* I have experimented with wetting the nori sheets (if the rolls end up being too chewy on the nori), but if you do, do it very lightly. Oversoaked nori sheets will turn into seaweed fairly quickly.

* Always use some plastic wrap over your bamboo roller. Replace with a new sheet every two rolls.

* Making sushi can be hard work, so teach your guests on how to make them. Even with two people (my sister and I) making rolls for 5, my feet were getting tired from standing around.

* Tiger shrimp (pre-cooked, devained, but cold) makes really good sushi rolls. First, completely detail them (if you can, save as much meat as possible), and then cut them in half longways. You can put one piece on each side of a roll.

* Figuring out the right amount of rice on a roll and how to roll them takes practice. I'm still trying to get it right. However, it doesn't matter how you fuck it up, it still tastes good.

Aww...no sushi lovers here? Surely somebody else is addicted to sushi like I am!

I can't stand to eat anything that lived primarily in the sea... so obviously if I don't like cooked fish I won't like raw fish

There's still some good cooked fish rolls, too. An "Italian Bagel Roll" is made with cooked salmon, cream cheese, roasted pepper, and minced garlic.

We were also making rolls with stir-fry beef strips, so even if you don't like seafood, there's still other things you can try with sushi.

SineSwiper wrote:Aww...no sushi lovers here? Surely somebody else is addicted to sushi like I am!

I LOVE sushi, but like with all my meals, I eat out.

As you can probably imagine, veggie sushi isn't filling. I like it, but I generally don't bother.

Sorry, Sine. I'm a COOK. I cook things. I've had some good (and BAD) sushi, but it doesn't especially appeal to me.

Tonight I made roasted pork tenderloin with a sherry cream mushroom sauce, roast vegetable medley and sweet potato mash. That's more my style.

Black Lotus wrote:Tonight I made roasted pork tenderloin with a sherry cream mushroom sauce, roast vegetable medley and sweet potato mash. That's more my style.

Oh, you son of a bitch! That sounds good.

It was better than good.

If it's meat and it ain't cooked, I don't eat. It's like these crazy blood-thirsty animals who eat blue-rare steaks. What the FUCK is the point? You've just singed the outside.

Besides, raw fish, especially sashimi and oysters, have a texture far too similar to when you breath in when you're nose is stuffed up and you swallow a gallon of snot. It's just not appealing :-)

Don't tell me you're a well-done steak guy. I don't think we can be friends anymore.

Black Lotus wrote:Don't tell me you're a well-done steak guy. I don't think we can be friends anymore.

Medium. I don't like it rare but I do like it pink in the middle

Black Lotus wrote:Tonight I made roasted pork tenderloin with a sherry cream mushroom sauce, roast vegetable medley and sweet potato mash. That's more my style.

Hey, I can cook just fine, too, but sushi has been one of my passions ever since I've discovered it. It's one of those things that is rare to see at home, so I'm just passing out some tips to anybody that cares to make them. I was just surprised that nobody here really liked sushi.

Kupek, I didn't know you were a veggie. (Avacado, roasted pepper, cream cheese, cucumber, deep-fried.)

Zeus, I don't like raw scallops or squid, though I've never tried oysters. (You can still try out cooked meat sushi or fried rolls.)

Ishamael, eating out all the time is pricey and unhealthy. Friend of my wife's had a heart attack at 30 because they were stupid enough to be eating fast food everyday. (Wife and two kids are all fat, just like him.)

I love sushi and all seafood. It sounds like it takes some effort to make at home, it could be a good stay at home date idea.

It wouldnt take much for me to go pescatarian... i think i'm going to do it.

Flip wrote:I love sushi and all seafood. It sounds like it takes some effort to make at home, it could be a good stay at home date idea.

Yeah, if you have two or three (or more) people around, it's a good dinner idea. I'm going to make some tonight to get rid of the imitation crab that I have. (Mmmmm...spicy crab rolls.)

It just takes a little practice, and an open mind to experiment with different rolls.

Actually, I also like sushi (and like Flip I like all seafood). It might be a Maryland thing since I'm accustomed to eating me some steamed crabs each and every summer.

I had some sushi on my honeymoon and loved it. I'll eat raw oysters so why not other stuff if it's safe. I need to find some people who are also into it so I can make my wife try it out someplace.

Lox, as somebody in Maryland, I'm going to troll you at every post until you watch the entiretly of The Wire.

Imitation crab ain't crab, but it's great stuff. I was shocked at how good it was but it makes for a great seafood salad

Black Lotus wrote:Lox, as somebody in Maryland, I'm going to troll you at every post until you watch the entiretly of The Wire.

I'll check out the thread on it. I have no idea what it is as of this post.