Matt stayed home yesterday, and I fully expected him to veg out and maybe watch a few movies. And who knows, maybe he did. But when I called him on my way home, he told me he had a surprise for dinner… and boy, did he!
Yum, sushi. Always nice to come home to!
But I didn’t come home to prepared sushi. Oh, no. That’d be too easy. Instead, I came home to nori sheets, sushi rice, and some sliced veggies, all set for stuffin’ and rollin’ our own sushi rolls!
… the hell happened?!
But it didn’t turn out as badly as I thought! We ended up rolling some pretty awesome sushi rolls, and as we sat at the dinner table and enjoyed the work of our own hands, we couldn’t help but high-five to each other’s sushi-making skills. Mad sushi-making skills.
The only real “cooking” involved was the rice!
Ingredients
* 1 1/2 cups sushi rice (yes, there’s a difference!)
* 1 1/2 cups water
* 1/3 cup seasoned rice vinegar
* 2 tsp sugar
* 1 tsp salt
* a small bowl, a non-stick bowl (plastic works well), and a wooden spoon
Method
1. Combine rice and water in a pot over high heat, bringing to a gentle boil and stirring the whole time. When boiling, turn the heat to low and cover for 15 minutes.
2. Combine the remaining ingredients in a small bowl and allow the sugar and salt to dissolve in the rice vinegar.
3. After 15 minutes, remove rice (still covered )from the heat and allow to sit another ten minutes.
4. When rice is done, uncover and allow some moisture to steam out, stirring gently to “unclump” the rice. Add rice to nonstick bowl.
5. Slowly add the rice vinegar mixture to the rice, simultaneously fluffing the rice with a wooden spoon. The rice should have an even coat of rice vinegar mixture and should start to stick to itself, not the bowl.
Now you get to make the sushi!
Keep a cup of water next to you while you do this, and a Santoku (or other sharp, non-serrated knife) in the water. Lay out a sheet of nori on a wet paper towel. Spread a thin layer of rice on 2/3 of the nori, then arrange your veggies in the middle of all that rice. We had cucumber, avocado, asparagus, and carrots. With wet fingertips (remember that cup of water!) and the 1/3 of the nori facing away from you, gently use the paper towel to help the nori start to roll. Make it kinda tight, but not so tight that the veggies bust through! The remaining 1/3 of the nori will seal the roll together.
All done! Using the wet Santoku in a long sweeping motion, cut the sushi into bite-sized pieces. (Shorter cuts may mean that you don’t get through the nori. Go slowly, let the knife do the work.) Arrange all pretty-like, preferably on a fishy plate (which just adds irony if your sushi is, like ours, entirely vegetarian). Then try your hardest to get to the dinner table with your plate of homemade sushi before devouring the whole thing.
Yum! Best sushi I’ve ever had, and that’s no exaggeration! 
Matt’s coworkers argue that we made maki, not sushi. I think they’re parsing words there.
Aren't these food picks adorable! I bought them years ago, and they always feel appropriate with sushi.
I didn’t even know you could have a vegetarian version…
Oh, yes!
I get vegetarian versions at sushi restaurants all the time, though obviously that doesn’t make it “official” sushi as it lacks fish. My admitted favorite is avocado.
Hey! I stopped by LJ to catch up today and your account is deleted. Did you just get tired of the place, or is something wrong? I don’t know where else to contact you, since I always went through the LJ inbox. =)
Hey there, hon! I got all your messages, no worries. As for LJ, just time to move on! I’m enjoying putting more time into my blog, so I hope you come back. And keep LJ together for me while I’m gone!
And thanks about the picks — I actually bought them off LJ.
Go figure!
Also, those picks are adorable!