Sushi!

I know with all the Japanese food we've been making around here, you've all been wondering when we would try sushi.  Well, you can finally rest peacefully.

Some of the ingredients we chose to have on hand:

cucumber, Japanese fish sausage, avocado (not typical Japanese)

Imitation crab (that's the best we could find...)

Tamagoyaki (basically just egg.)

This is what the fish sausage package looks like

We decided to use this powdered vinegar packet for the rice, since neither of us has made sushi before and it seemed easier.  It was easy.

This is the dried seaweed (Nori) we used, though there are a bajillion different ones to choose from.  I don't think it matters which you pick...

I love the ingredient list.

We bought the sushi mat for a few dollars at an Asian market- the two sides were not the same and we weren't sure which was the top.  Both sides seemed to work equally well, so I guess it doesn't matter.  (We are professionals and our expertise should definitely be trusted.)  Then you put on the nori and spread out the rice.  I think it's better not to let it be layered on too thick, or your roll gets really fat.

This one has cucumber, fish sausage and tamagoyaki (egg).

The only tricky part is just making sure you tuck the end under so that it gets rolled up.  Make sure you press and squish it all together rather firmly.

Iris's first sushi roll!  **sob**

We started out taking pictures of every one so we could remember what we used, but I quickly forgot to do that, and we just threw all kinds of things in there every time with no real system.  This one is fish sausage, cucumber, avocado and crab.

After awhile, we started getting a bit more creative and rummaging around in the pantry and fridge.  I got out a can of tuna and we put some lettuce in this one as well as Japanese mayo.  (though you could use regular mayo just fine...)  We decided the ones with mayo in them were our favorite.  I wonder what kinds of flavoring things they do at restaurants?

My first sushi roll :)

I discovered that it's easier to cut them cleanly if you have a cup of hot water handy for dipping your serrated knife in.

Here's the cut roll..

Minus the ends.  They never look pretty so I just ate them. (all of them... let's just say I didn't really have any room for sushi by the time we were done...)

Oh, and we saw these at the Asian market and decided to get them (again) because we really like them.  It's just breaded shrimp that you fry up in hot oil until golden.

Iris got some Japanese cartoons up on Youtube to entertain the kids.  There was no talking in this particular one and The Frog thought it was hilarious.

 The finished product!  (We made way too much FYI.  iI's much better on day 1 than day 2.  I think we ended up cooking 6 or 7 cups of rice and did probably 12 rolls.)

Both of the kids liked the sushi!

Peach tended to unroll hers and eat the insides first.

I think The Frog liked to dip them in soy sauce (but I thought the soysauce was over-powering)

By the end, we got a little crazy with our insides.  We did one with egg and cream cheese and some fish thing (that one was really good).  We also did a kimchi one (i know, it's Korean, but Iris loves the stuff) and we used Iris's very last pickled plum.  When her mom sent them, she shared them with Jay and I.  She just popped hers in her mouth and said, "I love these!!" So Jay followed suit, while I timidly took a small bite.  After an amazing look on Jay's face, (that looked something like below) he spit it out in the garbage, and I commented on how there was no way I could finish mine because it tasted like someone had just poured salt on a cube of salt and asked me to eat it.  I'm telling you, this thing was SALTY!!!

So anyway, she took her last one and cut it up small and put it in a sushi roll.  It still made Jay do this:

I quite agreed, but at least he didn't spit it out this time :)

I love that Peach transfered her stickers from herself (you can see them above) to Iris and how they are still upside-down.

We decided that some more color would have been pretty... maybe some red or yellow bell pepper or slightly cooked carrot?

Anyway, it's official!  We like sushi :)