November 2009 Daring Cook's Challenge: Sushi

The November 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was brought to you by Audax of Audax Artifex and Rose of The Bite Me Kitchen. They chose sushi as the challenge.  I was super excited to learn we'd be doing sushi as I've always wanted to try making it. The challenge had four components: first we prepare the sushi rice, then make a dragon roll, spiral roll, and 8 pairs of nigiri. I had some difficulty finding all the ingredients I needed and definitely need more practice, but I had a great time with this challenge.  Hubby helped a lot, which always makes a wonderful time in the kitchen. While I had some fears and anxiety going into the challenge, I must say we were quite impressed by our end product.  Not to brag, but it really was something I'd get in a restaurant (though my first roll was a bit loose). Most surprising is how well the rice was; not too sticky, not too vinegary. 


Now on to the photos!

Here we have our wonderful, tasty spread. From left to right we have the spiral roll, the nigiri, and the dragon roll.

The dragon roll was my first, and thus a little sloppy. The original recipe called for eel, which I could not find (so disappointing because it's my favorite). So, I used crab meat instead which worked marvelously.  It was my favorite of all we did.

The nigiri was fun because we got to choose whichever toppings we wanted. We had asparagus, shrimp, seared tuna, red onion, avocado, and mushroom. We had plans for two more pairs (egg and salmon) but ran out of rice due to technical difficulties (I burned the rice on the bottom and sides of the pot).

Lastly comes the spiral roll, which I feel is the most visually impressive. It's filled with cream cheese and roe, smoked salmon, asparagus, carrots, cucumber, and avocado.

After this challenge, I plan on making sushi again at home, but for special occasions.  For the rest of the time, I'll just go out.