Californian Rolls

First off, the date is actually February 16, 2011. I just like going back in time! Just kidding, I can't really do that... yet. But I started trying to learn how to cook and bake around Christmas time so I figured I'd start with the food I made then. It was my transition period between graduating from college and beginning graduate school so I had some free time on my hands. Plus, learning to cook is good because I love to eat.

I started off easy with something I've made several times before - Californian rolls! I absolutely detest seafood so my "sushi" aren't sushi. But they are delicious, fun to make, and require no cooking.

Well, gosh darn. I just realized I didn't save the recipe anywhere. I'm taking a recipe for sushi rice off the internet but need to update this once I go home and get the actual recipe from my mom.

3 cups of cooked rice

1/3 cup vinegar

3 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

Mix it all together and you're good to go.

Next, you need your seaweed paper (which real chefs call nori sheets), bamboo mat, damp cloth (I'm not positive why this is needed), and filling. I like to use 1 package of imitation crab meat, a little over 1 cucumber, and a large avocado.

Put your damp cloth down with the bamboo mat on top. The nori sheets gets put down and topped with rice. Be sure to leave some space on the top without rice because you don't want rice squeezing out the top. It gets messy and sticky, trust me. Then line your toppings along the bottom and roll the mat and cloth tightly. I like to do make a full circle with the nori around the toppings, squeeze tightly (but not too much or the avocado will come shooting out the ends), and then continue the rolling/squeezing process slowly until it's one long tube of sushi.

So this is what it should look like. The ends aren't too pretty, which is perfectly fine with me because I just eat them :) Cut into sushi-size chunks with a wet knife (it keeps the rice from sticking to the blade).

And voila! Californian rolls! A slightly odd addition to Christmas lunch! Enjoy with soy sauce and wasabi.