Sweet Omelette for Sushi

4 eggs
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp water
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp soy sauce or equivalent
3 tbsp cooking wine (or, if you have it, sake)

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the eggs and salt.
2. Beat eggs a little, then add the tablespoon of water, and beat until frothy
3. In a small bowl, combine the sugar, soy sauce, and wine.
4. Add the wine mixture to the eggs, and stir.
5. Lightly oil a non-stick frying pan and heat on medium.
6. Pour half of the egg mixture into the pan. Let the bottom of the omelette cook pretty firm. If there's too much egg mixture, you can lift it up and let the runny part on top run underneath. Once the bottom is firm and the top is not runny, flip it over....good luck!
7. Cook until the other side of the omelette is firm, and repeat for the second half of egg mixture.

Blanched Carrots for Sushi

Cut a carrot into matchsticks. Bring water to a boil in a small pan. Drop the carrots into the water and boil for two minutes. Drain them immediately, and stick them in the fridge to cool. They should wind up being a little soft, and a little sweet!

Sushi-o-rama: Making the Sushi

After you cooked the sushi rice and, if you wanted, the cucumber salad, you can start making sushi! A lot of sushi making if finding the toppings you like and figuring out good combinations.  You do need some basic ingredients and supplies, though.

Necessary Ingredients

seaweed, in sheets, or rice paper (most are gluten free)
some kind of sushi rolling device, we have bamboo place mats that work great.
saran wrap
sushi rice (see my sushi rice post to see how to make it)

Then you need fillings.  There are tons of different foods you can use, here are the ones we use.

Fillings

--We have used these--
Cucumber sticks, plain or Japanese cucumber salad sticks.
baby shrimp (we buy them cooked)
avocado
fake LOBSTER- do not use fake crab, it has wheat! For some reason, lobster does not. *UPDATE: we recently bought gluten free fake crab!  Just check the label when buying fake crab/lobster*
smoked salmon
cream cheese
mango or papaya

--We haven't used these, but they would be yummy--
real crab
fish eggs
asparagus
shredded carrots
red bell pepper
Feeling adventurous?  Try raw meat, but it's not my fault if you get sick.

Again, decide on a few toppings that taste good so you don't have tons of shopping to do.

Making the Sushi

--Prep--
1.  Prepare sushi rice and cucumber salad.
2.  Put all the ingredients in little bowls for easy access.  Lay out the sushi rolling mats and cover with saran wrap.  Get rice vinegar to put in little bowls.  If you are handling the rice, you need your fingers wet with vinegar so it doesn't stick to you.

--Sushi--

1.  Lay out sushi seaweed (or rice paper, I am going to say seaweed) on the saran-wrap covered mat in front of you.  The seaweed has a shiny side and a matte side (I don't know how rice paper works).  Lay the matte side up.  Also, there are lines on the seaweed, make sure they are vertical.
2.  Get a spoonful of rice and put it on the bottom of the seaweed.  Spread it on the bottom 3/4 of the seaweed.  Leave a "groove" just above the first quarter.  The groove will be where you put the ingredients.  Try to spread the rice more than squish it.
3.  Choose your fillings, I recommend three ingredients.  Lay them horizontally across the groove, making sure they go all the way to the edges.
4.  Roll the sushi.  This is the "hard part", but once you get the hang of it, it is really easy.  I am ok at it, but my rolls turn out really fat.  My mom has ninja-sushi rolling skills, we don't know how she does it so perfectly.  She has a strategy to her rolling. Here are her instructions:

• Pull sushi down to the very bottom of the mat.  Then, grasp the sushi, saran wrap and mat and push it forward in a rolling motion.
• Once the sushi folds over, pull back the mat and saran wrap in a kind of flicking motion.  
• Continue to roll the sushi, also continuing the flicking.

To watch the rolling, skip to 2:00 on the video above. 

5.  Get a sharp knife and cut the roll into inch-and-a-half slices.  Ta-da! Sushi.

Sushi-o-rama: Sushi Rice

This recipe is essential in sushi making.  Sticky rice is not only yummy but also, sticky!  This will keep the sushi together.

Ingredients:

2 cups uncooked white rice (short grain rice is best, but we used jasmine, which wasn't as good)
3 cups water
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1 Tb vegetable oil
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp. salt

Directions:

1.  Put rice in a medium sized saucepan.  Fill with water until the water is just over the rice.  Massage rice, stirring it around.  When the water becomes milky, dump it out and refill, making sure the water is just over the rice.  Repeat this process about 3-4 times.
2.  Remove all the water, and fill the saucepan with the rice in it with three cups of water.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to very low, cover and cook for 15-20 minutes.  Rice should be edible-looking.
3.  Meanwhile, mix the rest of the ingredients in a saucepan.  Heat until sugar has dissolved.
4.  Stir vinegar mixture into rice.

Sushi-o-rama: Cucumber

Before gluten-free dieting, we would have pizza night where the whole family would make pizza.  After we went gluten-free, this obviously didn't work as well.  I really missed this make-it-yourself food, and I also missed going to sushi restaurants (My mom and I would both get sick), so the obvious solution to my problem was to make sushi!  This cucumber salad was a perfect side dish to our Japanese-style meal, and we also cut cucumber sticks for the sushi.  

Ingredients:


2 English seedless cucumbers (Japanese cucumbers preferred, but harder to find in a small town like ours.)
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tb rice vinegar
1 Tb sugar
1/4 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame seeds

Directions:

1.  Slice strips lengthwise down the cucumber.















2.  Thinly slice cucumbers into circles, or chop into sticks for sushi, or both.

3.  Put cucumbers and salt in a large plastic bag and shake vigorously to coat cucumbers in salt.                Place salted slices in colander and put a weight on top of them.

Let drain for five to ten minutes.
     Rinse cucumbers.

4.  In a small bowl, mix rice vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce together until sugar dissolves.
5.  Add vinegar mixture and sesame seeds to cucumbers and mix well.