make sushi

Took two months to get around to, but I finally did it! Last night we made sushi (maki rolls) and they are delish! Except for being sort of a lengthy process, it really wasn’t hard to do. A word of warning: I thought I’d be adventurous and buy some pickled radish to add yellow to our sushi centres, but oh my! It is an extremely smelly product!! Our whole house stunk, so I sealed it in a zip bag & stuck it in the fridge. Now the fridge stinks, so I threw the stuff out on the porch to take to the trash, and Marty said as he was leaving this morning that it was making the whole out of doors stink!! I won’t bother with that stuff again, not without a gas-mask, but otherwise this was an entirely enjoyable activity!

Popped in to the Oriental grocer yesterday, just to buy black sesame seeds and wonton wrappers to make a little crisp to go with dessert tonight. The gentleman behind the counter near the back of the store caught me looking at sushi rice, and hollered in very broken English my way: “you make sushi?”. I replied that I am going to try sometime soon. Well! That seemed to be music to his ears! He marched right over to me, grabbed me (gently) by the wrist and started speaking excitedly about all the ingredients I would need. I’m sure he was giving me really sound instructions too, but I truly couldn’t understand most of what he was saying. I couldn’t help myself though – I just followed behind his warm, friendly eyes and enthusiastic smiles while he piled more and more stuff into my arms. He then looked at the front door, said something to the effect that I was lucky, it was the right time of day, and he would give me a lesson in rolling. He directed me to the back counter where I had originally spied him spying me. He then demonstrated how to wrap the mat in plastic wrap, how to smush down the rice with pinched-together fingers, and how to squeeze and roll at the same time.

By the time I left his store, I had 2 bags of 16 items, a bill that totalled $27.10, and a loooong walk home with my heavy purchases. But, I felt happy, enriched, and eager to try my hand at sushi rolls.

I thought I might invite Ma over to make sushi with me… not only would that force me to actually do it, but it would be FUN!! Plus, we can share the yummy results together. Nope, no down side!!

Some time ago, my mom gave me the most beautiful, easy-to-follow book of creative and ALL-VEGGIE sushi recipes/instructions, but I haven’t made one single attempt yet! That is partly because I’m afraid that my efforts won’t yield the same visually-appealing results that are pictured in the book (seriously – they have sushi rolls that, once rolled and sliced, display a “lily” in the centre – cleverly constructed of julienned yellow and green peppers!! OMG!). Also though, I put it off because I am so often filling up my time with crap I “have to” do or “just want to get out of the way” rather than spending time doing what I WANT to do…
So, I hereby commit that by next weekend, I will have made at least one sushi roll! When it’s done, I’ll post a photo :+)