100th Post! Sushi!

My 100th post!  I can't believe it!  For this special post, I have a special meal - Sushi!  I have never tried to make sushi before and had always wanted to learn.  Luckily my sister, who's home from college, has recently learned how.  Last night we tried our hand at it and it turned out really well!

We set up three sushi making stations.  Our ingredients were avocado, crab, cucumber, cream cheese, shrimp, and carrots.  The good thing about sushi is that you can add whatever ingredients you want.

We were surprised to find that Wal-Mart had a nice selection of sushi making items, like the sticky rice and seaweed wraps.  The wooden spoons and bamboo mats were purchased at Whole Foods.

The recipe for how to make sticky rice is easy.  Combine 1 1/2 cups of Botan's Calrose rice and 2 cups of water.  Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 20 minutes.  Turn off heat and let the rice sit, still covered, for 10 additional minutes. DO NOT lift the lid or stir the rice.  While the rice is sitting, in a small sauce pan, combine 1/3 cup of vinegar, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  Stir on medium heat until dissolved and remove from heat.  When the rice is finished, transfer it to a large bowl and with a wooden spoon, gradually stir in vinegar mixture.  Now the rice is ready to be made into sushi!

This website is a great tutorial for learning how to roll sushi.  Make sure you have a bowl of water close by, because you'll need to get your fingers wet to work with the sticky rice.

Layer the ingredients in the middle of the seaweed, making sure not to layer it too high.

After rolling the sushi, take a wet knife and slice the roll in half first, then slice each half in thirds.

Here is my sister's finished product!

Here's Ben's sushi roll.  So professional!

 

And just for fun, we made egg drop soup (yea yea, I know egg drop soup is Chinese and sushi is Japanese, so what?).

Ingredients
4 cups chicken broth
2 eggs, lightly beaten
salt and pepper to taste

Bring 4 cups chicken broth to boil.  Add salt and pepper. Slowly add the eggs to the broth in a steady stream.  To make shreds, stir the eggs rapidly clockwise for one minute.  To make ribbons, gently stir eggs clockwise.

Thanks for sticking around to read my 100th post!  I'm so happy to have made it to this day!