Saturday Sushi Party (part 1)

I have semi-weekly Saturday night "dinner dates" with some of my friends, and each time we have theme for our menu. In the past we've done taco/salsa bar, fondue, farmer's market cornucopia, but this week was sushi, and we were all excited about it because sushi is, well...awesome.

We decided on our ingredients ahead of time so we could split up the shopping responsibility. In the interest of time I made the rice ahead...this made me realize that I need a new rice maker. Aside from the rice being slightly overcooked, I still seasoned it with rice vinegar and it worked just fine. Keep in mind this was our first shot at making sushi. We also had Ahi tuna that we sliced up into sashimi and chopped small to make spicy tuna. Our incidentals included avocado, cucumber, asparagus, spinach, cream cheese, cilantro, wasabi and pickled ginger. I realize several of these ingredients aren't traditionally sushi-worthy, but the rolls turned out excellent! We ate a huge pile of sushi (pictured, and no we did not use a pairing knife to slice the rolls), maybe 12 rolls between 5 people...needless to say we were stuffed. That didn't stop us from going out for ice cream an hour later, though!

Here are some tips to make sushi-rolling easier:
-Have all your ingredients sliced and ready to be rolled (mise en place)
-Keep a bowl of water near you to keep your hands from sticking to the rice
-Press rice on 2/3 of the nori (seaweed wrap), and put your filling in the middle of the rice
-Wrapping your bamboo mat in plastic wrap keeps it from getting sticky
*Check out this site for everything you need to know about making your own sushi

This was so much fun that we're planning another sushi party, but we've decided on a few improvements for next time: more sushi mats (3 was not enough, everyone wanted to roll), rice that's not overcooked, and a little more variety in the proteins...maybe some unagi (BBQ eel) and shrimp tempura. We also agreed that beer would have been a much better accompaniment than wine, so we're going for Sapporo next time. -K