Sense and Simplicity: Making Sushi

Have you ever made your own sushi? I know lots of people have, but I'm not one of them. I love trying new recipes, though, so I was keen to try.

Our son Malcolm suggested we make sushi for lunch when we visited them last weekend. Most of the ingredients are easy to get, but I wasn't sure about the raw fish. I was told at our local grocery store's meat counter that their salmon was not considered sushi-grade, but it was fresh from New Brunswick and had been received that day which seemed good enough for me.

I thought sushi making would be much more difficult than it is to make the rolls stay together and look pretty.

All you do is press some sticky rice on the seaweed sheets leaving about an inch along the top edge bare without any rice. You have to use sticky rice so that the grains will stick together - regular rice won't work.

Then you add your choice of thinly sliced vegetables (we had cucumber, carrots, and avocado), crab meat, or raw salmon along the edge nearest you.

When you have all the ingredients you want, then you roll the log starting from the side nearest to you. The bamboo mats help you make a tight roll. The inch of seaweed wrapper at the top edge of the sheet is used to seal the log together. It helps to have a bowl of water to dip your fingers into if they get too covered in rice or if you need to help the seaweed wrapper make a firm seal.

Then, using a sharp knife you cut the log into bite-sized pieces and put them on a plate to ~~admire~~ eat.

We started our meal with miso soup so we would have the energy to make our sushi lunch. Miso soup is very easy to make and a great addition to a sushi meal. We modified this recipe and it turned out to be so tasty.

To make miso soup, boil together:

4 cups water

1/2 cup chopped green onion (or more if you want)

1 package firm tofu (it must have been about 2 cups)

3-4 tablespoons miso paste

2 sheets of nori (dried seaweed), crumpled