How to Make Sushi

Last weekend we threw a party. An 80s themed party. It was our last house party before we leave, so we wanted to go big, but I also didn't want to spend too much money on food. I was thinking of 80s-esque food and instantly thought of sushi (we had just watched Valley Girl). I needed to do something cheap that could sit out for awhile without being chilled, so I went with cucumber rolls and vegetable rolls with cucumber, avocado and carrots.

I went online to find instructions on how to make sushi and was surprised to not see a lot of very good recipes. In the end, I followed the instructions on the back of my Niko Niko Calrose rice bag for sushi rice and loosely followed the instructions on this vegetable sushi recipe on Epicurious. Luckily, my sister and her husband have made sushi a few times, so they were able to loan me their bamboo mats for rolling and the fan for cooling down the rice. Cooling down the rice is an important step as warm rice will create steam, which causes the seaweed to tear when you're rolling it.

And a little note on the seaweed. When I went to Uwajimaya to purchase it, there were a LOT of choices with prices ranging from $1.99 to $12. For seaweed. I chose to grab one that was on sale for just under $3. It worked. Don't lose sleep over this decision.

Mom helped me cut the vegetables into thin strips. I got a little crazy (not really) and threw in some cilantro leftover from her homemade salsa, just to see if the flavor would work well. It did. It gave a little extra freshness to the vegetable rolls.

This process was actually a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to doing it again. It is a bit fussy with all the steps, but I'm a baker at heart, so fussy is in my nature. 

Sushi Rice
3 cups short grain rice, such as Niko Niko Calrose rice, washed very thoroughly
3 1/4 cup water

Seasoning for rice
5 Tbsp rice vinegar (unseasoned)
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt

Vegetables, etc.
Nori (seaweed) sheets
English cucumber (I chose not to peel mine)
Carrots
Avocado
Small bowl with a half and half mixture of vinegar and water


Bring water and rice to a boil, turn to low, then cover and let cook for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, combine ingredients for seasoning in a small bowl until sugar has dissolved.

Cut vegetables into long, thin strips (they should be long enough to run the length of the seaweed sheets, with the exception of the avocado, clearly).

Once rice has finished cooking, transfer to a large bowl and add seasoning. Mix carefully until combined. Fan the rice until completely cooled.

Once rice is cool, cover the bowl with a clean, damp kitchen towel until ready to use. Place a bamboo sushi mat on a work surface with the bamboo strips facing you horizontally. Place the nori sheet horizontally, shiny side down, on the mat, aligned with the edge nearest you. Dip your hands into the vinegar-water mixture and spread the cooled rice in an even layer over the nori sheet, leaving the top one-fourth of the nori uncovered. Arrange the cucumber and carrot sticks and the avocado slices in a horizontal strip across the bottom portion of the rice (not too close to the edge or it'll start to slip).

Starting at the edge closest to you, lift the mat, nori, and rice over the filling to seal it inside, then roll up the sushi into a tight cylinder, being careful not to tear the nori. Use your finger to lightly moisten the outer edge of the nori with the vinegar-water mixture to seal the roll. Dipping a sharp knife in water before each cut, cut the roll in half crosswise, and then cut each half crosswise into 3-4 equal pieces.

Thanksgiving Recap

Just a few shots of some of my Thanksgiving day treats! I didn't take any pictures, I was too busy cooking for 14(!). Luckily my mom took a few. Thanks mom!

Appetizer: Spanish tortilla with aioli

Peanut Noodles and Tofu Salad Rolls

This past week I was lucky enough to host one of my favorite travel bloggers, Hannah from Further Bound. She was here for the annual World Domination Summit held in Portland and needed a place to stay for a night. In short, I'M SO FREAKING GLAD SHE ASKED!  It was such fun to finally have a conversation with someone I've admired for so long for her writing, honesty, and amazing accomplishments.

Updates

It's been well over a month since I updated the blog. I have been cooking and I've thought about blogging, but for the few readers I have who don't know what's been happening in my life, I'll provide a quick update.

Our Favorite Things

No, it's not raindrops on roses (although whiskers on kittens are pretty darn cute). However, this weekend I treated our household to our favorite dinners. Mine being sour cream enchiladas, Shawn's being chicken parmesan.

The Christmas dinner prep has begun...

Cornbread for my cornbread and sausage stuffing...

Sorry so blurry...

On the menu for Christmas Day

Spiral cut ham with mustard vermouth sauce
Cornbread and sausage stuffing
Cauliflower gratin
Roasted green beans
Buttermilk mashed potatoes
Grandma's mac and cheese (provided by Grandma, of course)
Apple upside down cake
Chocolate tart

I've got a lot of cooking to do since mom is still recovering from her shoulder surgery. Wish me luck!

A Very Spanish Thanksgiving

For our first Thanksgiving as Mr. and Mrs., we decided to go a little untraditional with Thanksgiving and give it a Spanish theme. We also ended up throwing it at someone else's house since I was housesitting for the weekend. As much as I wanted to celebrate in our own home, especially since we just moved in less than 6 months ago, who could pass up the chance to use a 6-burner gas range and two ovens?? I certainly couldn't. I'm going to let the pictures do the talking since there is so much to share.

Attempt #2 (?) at the caramel. Stupid epicurious.com recipe gave odd directions on how to make caramel, a way that was completely different than how I've made it in the past and look what happened...

...that's a cup's worth of sugar burnt onto the bottom of my pan from attempt #1. I eventually moved on from these directions 2 cups of sugar waste and 1 2nd degree burn later.

Using the Test Kitchen method and one I'm more familiar with, the 3rd time was a charm. Using 1/2 cup water and 1 cup of sugar, bring to a boil and simmer on medium-high heat until sugar is dissolved, careful not to let any of the sugar hit the sides of the pan as it goes in. Reduce the heat to medium-low when it starts to turn golden brown and stir slowly until a lovely shade of amber.

That's more like it.

The pumpkin flan right after coming out of the oven.

I added a few things to the spiced pumpkin seeds to adjust for the season. Shawn was such a fan, he thought they were a tapa, not just topping for the flan.

Toasting the pumpkin seeds in a little bit of grapeseed oil until they puffed.

My best attempt at burning the skin of the red pepper for making the sofrito for the paella. It sucks not having a gas range sometimes. Ok, all the time. Ideally, you should burn the skin until black, then wrap in a paper towel, wrap again in a dish towel and then into a plastic bag to sweat it so the skin comes off easily. Mine came off less than easily. Imagine that.

After peeling the pepper, I minced it and added to the minced onion that had softened in a bit of olive oil over medium-high heat, along with minced, peeled tomatoes (about 1/2 cup), and minced garlic. Mincing is important--can you tell? Let that soften up and absorb much of the moisture.

Just about done. You can skip seasoning this much as it will be going into the paella, which will be seasoned later.

A guest is featured here on the blog. Michael made some amazing sherry chicken livers.

Sauteeing the onions and pancetta. Yum.

Chicken livers hot off the stove. He brought some mini toasts to pick it up, but we had to upgrade to the slices of Little T baguette...just couldn't get quite enough on the little toasts.

New Seasons called these Segovia style mushrooms. I just called them delicious. Very simple recipe, but very good. Yesterday we combined the leftovers livers and mushrooms into the Cuisinart, hit the button, and ended up with some incredible pate.

My first tarte tatin. My brother and sister hate pumpkin and always insist on an apple dessert. I decided it was important to keep it in the European family, so I made this French tart. I couldn't find a good pot holder in the foreign kitchen, so it got a little crisper on top than I would have liked, but it was good.

Flipped over--not quite as pretty as the picture, but definitely tasty. I am going to try a different strategy with the apples next time I make this dish. I think I could have smooshed in more.

Not much cooking in this picture, but had to get a shot of some of the great tapas we had before the main event. Spanish tortilla in the background, Little T baguettes, and apples, manchego and olives. The garlic-paprika aioli I made for the tortillas went fast.

The paella and costra innards before they went in.

My mama does it a little differently than most. Her paella starts with cooking the chicken, then sauteeing the rice before adding the chorizo. Either way, it turned out great.

As with risotto and most rice dishes, make sure your stock is hot before adding to the dish. I made a quick fish stock, then added the saffron before adding to the paella pan.

Made almost simultaneously...the costra. A very similar rice dish to the paella, but made with meat and scrambled egg is added mid-way through cooking. I'm used to there being more egg, but the basic concept is there.

The finished paella and costra resting before we dig in. I think I bought a little too much shellfish.

And to top off a fantastic day of eating, 3 desserts for 12 people. From the top, tarte tatin, pumpkin flan with spiced pumpkin seeds, and pumpkin cheesecake.

What are your Thanksgiving traditions? Do you do anything to mix it up every year? We may change the type of food at times, but we stuck with a few traditions--a puzzle (care of my brother this year), great food, wine and conversation. I am very grateful for such a wonderful day with my family and friends. I hope your day was just as spectacular!

Fall Fest Dinner: Sopes, Pozole Verde, and Pumpkin Bread Pudding

Saturday, we hosted our good friends the Rices for our annual Fall Fest dinner. Each year, we go out to the Pumpkin Patch on Sauvie Island to do the Corn Maize, hunt for the perfect pumpkins, and pump ourselves full of sugar at the various food stands. After the patch, one of us cooks dinner and we enjoy a less-popular (read: crappy) horror movie, care of horror-movie aficionado Shawn.

It was our turn to host this year and rather than do our usual American comfort food, I opted to mix things up and do a more fanciful Mexican dinner. One day, I was listening to a story on NPR about an American ex-pat who lived in Mexico City and wrote a book about his experiences, including food, which is obviously a large part of Mexican culture. When he mentioned pozole verde, I knew I had to find a recipe for it. Unlike the traditional pozole I grew up with, this version uses a sauce involving tomatillos and pumpkin seeds. It sounded perfect. I set about my task of finding as authentic a recipe as I could find. Considering my mom was not familiar with this dish, it became a rather daunting task. I ended up settling on one from Epicurious, mostly because it sounded about right, was healthy, and didn't cost a fortune to make.

I made the pozole on Friday night since we wouldn't be getting back to the house until later in the evening AND these kinds of soups always end up being better the next day. I think the most surprising thing about this soup was that it was so spicy. To make the sauce, you use two whole jalapeño peppers, seeds and all, and then puree them with your tomatillos, cilantro, and onion. It turned beautifully. The color of the soup is so vibrant and then paired with all the toppings--cabbage, avocado, radishes, queso fresco--it was practically a piece of art.

Top with shredded cabbage, avocado, lime juice, radishes, fried, tortilla strips, queso fresco, sour cream...whatever sounds good!

I next went on to making the toppings for the sopes. The first time I had these, my mom made them with oysters and they were heavenly. I am not that good...yet. I opted for a refried bean base, chorizo and potato topping, and salsa de jitomate topping and queso fresco. You can get the recipe from the Food Network. I was not crazy about the masa cake, but I think in retrospect, I will not try to make the dough ahead of time. It was dry and crumbly, even though I wrapped it in a wet paper towel, let it sit at room temperature for a while before using it, and added a little more water before frying. Mom--I'm still the apprentice. You are still the master.

Without salsaWith the salsa (and blurry)

Finally, I made a pumpkin bread pudding with dark chocolate chips. I got the recipe from Epicurious, but altered a bit after reading the reviews. Normally, I wouldn't mess with a recipe my first time around, but the overwhelming opinion was that it was a necessity. At the request of Tobias, I added the chocolate chips (this is what happens when you give a sugar addict a choice between pumpkin and chocolate--he says, "both"). I cut down the amount of butter used to coat the bread, used about 1.5 times the amount of bread needed and threw in an extra egg, a little more cream and whole milk, and spices for good measure. I kept the sugar at just 1/2 a cup as I knew the chocolate would more than make up for it. I used Dagoba organic 70% chocolate chips throughout and spinkled more on top for good measure. I threw that together in the morning, wrapped it tightly, and threw it in the refrigerator. I don't know if you're supposed to do that, but I did, and it tasted good.

Le Creuset baking dish still holding strong despite the large crack on its side

Happy Fall everyone!

Birthday Cake

Of course I had to make my own birthday cake! I wouldn't have it any other way. Since my birthday is at the end of August, I don't usually want to turn on the oven. The weather has been rather kooky this week with 80-degree days mixed in with cool days of rain. The day I planned to make my cake, it was 90, so I made a frozen dessert.

This is a pop art raspberry cake that I found on Epicurious.com. Wish I had a better dish for serving it.

Everyone loved it and it was really simple to make. The best part was cutting into it.

I don't like to make changes to recipes the first time I make them, but in this case, I made one small adjustment. The combination of the sugar and raspberries was a little too sweet for me; I like my raspberries on the tart side, so I added about a 1/2 tsp. of lemon juice to increase the tartness. Next time I try this, I will probably cut down on the sugar--3/4 cup is too much, in my opinion.

I would also label this a low-cost recipe...unless you have to buy gelatin. Before I realized I had a few packets in my baking drawer, I bought a box of it, for $7.89. Why would anyone need 32 packets of gelatin? Fred Meyer really needs to stock a small box.

Entertaining in a foreign kitchen

I have been house sitting for the past two weeks while some friends of mine are in Africa. First of all, I'm terribly jealous that they are in AFRICA! Ugh...what a dream. I would love to go there. But I digress. That's a whole other blog.

Friday night I hosted a dinner party for a few of my friends, three of whom have March birthdays. I tried out a recipe for pot au feu, care of the Oregonian's Food Day column. It was a two-part recipe. The first night you make the pot au feu (basically slow-cooked meat with vegetables), and the second day you make another beef-centered recipe; I chose the beef ragu.

I failed to take a picture of the masterpiece that was my pot au feu. The meat turned out perfectly--moist, tender, flavorful. And the vegetables were cooked to perfection. I basically did a mix of root vegetables--carrots, fennel, parsnips, and rutabaga. It was really my last chance to make such a hearty and wintry dinner.

I was amazed at making such a delicious dinner, not only because it was my first time with this recipe, but I also was cooking in someone else's kitchen. My friend's kitchen is absolutely spectacular, though--every cook's dream. Six burner gas stove, lots of counter space and area to move around in, and a beautiful refrigerator to store all your delicious leftovers! But I felt disoriented. It was hard to find what I needed and my flow was off. I guess it doesn't matter what you have, it's more of how you use it. Either way, I got the job done and had many happy, full guests by the end of the night. We topped it all off with a lovely lemon cornmeal cake with blueberry sauce I found on Epicurious.

My beef ragu the next night, though, turned out spectacularly. After my short ribs had been cooking in the liquid for 4 hours the prior night, they got another 2 hours of simmering that evening when I made the sauce. I actually remembered to take a picture of it:

Bon Appetit!