Sushi-rama

I had purchased a bunch of sushi-making stuff two weeks ago and tonight I finally got around to trying my hand at sushi.

I was really hoping that this nori would be good. I have had homemade sushi that used seaweed wrap that tasted like they had picked it up off a hot beach. NASTY!!

The rice wasn't too complicated. Rinse one cup rice. Add one cup water and simmer in a tightly covered pot until all the water is absorbed.

Add some sushi vinegar to the rice and fluff in.

While the rice was cooling I made a sushi omelet (tamago). That's just egg whipped with a little water and sugar cooked like a crepe. I put the heat REALLY low and let the egg cook slowly. It is really hard to flip, but it doesn't need to look perfect. There. I said it.

I got a phone call while making the rice and omelet so they probably didn't turn out exactly right.

The rice was VERY sticky and hard to spread out on the nori. I found that using a fork worked pretty well at getting it to spread out. Spread out the rice leaving ~1" clear at on end.

A couple of sites suggested using plastic wrap on the sushi mat to keep rice from squishing into the crevasses, so I heeded their advice.

I cut the omelet into 1" wide strips. I also sliced up an avocado, a cucumber, and baby carrots into strips. I placed a small amount of each on the layer of rice opposite the rice free end.

Use the nori straight out of the package.


Rolling was pretty self-explanatory. Roll toward the rice-free end. I moistened the rice-free end a little once rolled to get it to stick down on the roll. You need to roll a couple before you get the hang of getting the roll real tight.

This roll was my first one.
Not bad, huh?

Then it is just a matter of slicing the roll into uniform sized pieces.

Here is a plate of my finished sushi pieces. The middle ones are my first ones, the fatter outer rolls are my later ones. If you look close you can see a difference in the density of the rice and the neatness of the roll.

The nori was delicious! It was mild and nutty. There was no fishy flavor at all. I would highly recommend this brand.

I didn't find the sushi much more difficult to make than tacos. I will definitely consider having this in our quick-meal rotation! It was fabulous!

By the way, for those of you not in the know - BEWARE THE WASABI!!!
I love spicy, so wasabi and I are good friends, but when you aren't expecting it, it can be very painful. A minute amount goes a long way for those who aren't spice-fiends.

Piña Colada Kabobas

My friend made kabobs for us when we visited her last weekend. I thought that would be a good thing to try myself, as we often get good deals on boneless skinless chicken breast, but it can grill up kind of tough and dry.

And sure enough, the very next time that we went grocery shopping after having the kabobs, there was a sale.

I was planning on doing the Marmarumalade marinade but, alas, the Captain was on vacation. But I did have a half bottle of Malibu (stop that snickering - it's good stuff!) so I decided to do a Piña Colada marinade.

Really simple:

1. get a large bowl
2. cut the chicken into skewerable pieces and place in the bowl
3. pour the Malibu in until the chicken is covered half way
4. pour thawed pineapple juice concentrate in until the chicken is covered
5. let marinade for 20-30 minutes, stirring every so often




6. skewer the chicken and selected veggies



7. and then grill!

We did one package of chicken in the Piña Colada marinade and one package in an Asian pepper sauce marinade. The Piña Colada Kabobas were great hot, but weren't quite as good once they cooled off. The Asian Pepper Kabobs were good either hot or cooled. I think that the Piña Colada Kabobas could be better with a little tweaking - like maybe coating with grated coconut, using a little brown or demerara sugar, or adding a little cayenne pepper to the marinade.

Mixed Veggie Pakoras

Mmmm... Indian food! Most Americans have made some Italian food, Mexican dishes, and possibly even tackled a French or Chinese dish or too - even if they were highly Americanized. But I don't know too many people that have tried Indian food, let alone tried to make it themselves.

So, when I got my new favorite cookbook, probably my favorite recipe book of all-time, I marked the pakoras on my list of recipes to try.

I made them last week, and as usual, I didn't have all the right ingredients, so I improvised. Maybe that is a talent.

Here's the recipe as is in the book:

• 6 TBS gram(besan) flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1-1/2 tsp white cumin seeds
• 1 tsp pomegranate seeds
• 1-1/4 cups water
• 1 TBS finely chopped cilantro
• your choice of vegetables
• vegetable oil for frying
  

Well, I thought I had besan (gram flour), which is a flour made from chickpeas/garbanzo beans; but alas, I did not. SO, I took some dried chickpeas and ground them into a powder with my blender. Only realizing afterwards that taking canned chickpeas and grinding them up would have been much easier! Oh well, NEXT TIME!

First you add everything but the cilantro and vegetables. Using a grinding mixer (I used a hand mixer), blend until smooth. Instead of white cumin seeds, I used cheap-brand cumin and PLENTY of it! 1-1/2 tsp my ass! I used cayenne pepper for the chili. You can use any kind of chili pepper you want. Some pepper may be too distinct for this dish, but off hand none come to mind - so just use what you want. I also threw in extra gram and some regular flour because the batter was so soupy. I figured that the batter should have the consistency of onion ring batter.

I also threw in extra pomegranate seeds. This is my first run in with a pomegranate. Interesting fruit. I will have to find more uses for it. But it is SO expensive! I figured since I had gone through so much trouble getting the sucker open and really didn't know what else I would use it for, I should throw extra seeds into this recipe. I think I used about 3-4 TBS.

Once the batter is the way that you would like it, mix in the chopped cilantro. Once again, I threw in extra because I LOVE cilantro!!

Start heating a few inches of oil in a heavy pan. The pakoras should be able to float. Or if you have a deep fryer you can use that too. I used peanut oil.

Once the oil is hot enough to fry, mix the vegetables of your choice into the batter. I would suggest using fresh vegetables. I used frozen mixed veggies with the beans, peas, corn, Lima beans, and carrots - but we all agreed that even though the pakoras were very good, they would have been great if I had used fresh veggies.

Cauliflower is a good one to use for this. I also chopped up potatoes and added this to the frozen mix veggies. That was really good. Just use what you like. I do have to say that this batter makes Lima beans delicious (well, probably as delicious as Lima beans can get anyway).

Using a slotted spoon, spoon the veggies out of the batter and into the hot oil. Be careful the oil isn't too hot or the batter will burn and the veggies won't cook. Turn the pakoras once they appear to have browned nicely on the underside. Fry the other side until it is also deep brown.

Using another slotted spoon, take the pakoras out of the oil and place onto a plate lined with a paper towel to drain the excess oils.

The finished pakora pictures didn't turn out that great, but the pakoras sure were tasty!

Serve these hot on their own or you could make a yogurt sauce for them. They are also very good reheated later.