When my kids, especially Alycia (who is the most fussy eater of the three) get bored with fried noodles, fried rice, noodles soup and sandwiches for lunch, I make them something that all of them love to bits – sushi and California rolls. My version of the sushi is a healthy one, complete with cooked minced meat with diced carrots, diced french beans, onions and garlic, fried eggs, cucumbers. Nothing raw.
First I stir fry the minced chicken meat, diced carrots and french beans with chopped garlic and onions with a little low sodium soy sauce and pepper…
Then I mix the stir fried ingredients into the pot of cooked Japanese rice. I could not find Japanese rice vinegar to bind the rice, so my rice was a tad ‘loose’ and not sticky enough.
Then, lay the rice with ingredients onto a sheet of seaweed on a bamboo mat meant for making sushi, squeezed in some mayo, put in the strips of fried egg and cucumber and took a deeeeeeeep breath….. as I had no frigging idea how to roll the damn thing up…. I had seen my mil do it once or twice a few years ago and as if my memory is that good….
… so my sushi turned up to be a tad deformed and the seaweed just did not stick at the end to the body of the sushi.
BUT, my kids love them anyway… they gobbled down one after another and stuffed themselves so full that I was so worried they would puke, especially Baby who has eyes bigger than her tummy LOL!
Now, I must ask the busy hubs to show me how he rolls the sushi up or go to You Tube to watch it!
Took a sushi class years ago. Making the rice was such a task! A lot of fanning and stirring. Anyways, if u don’t have the rice vinegar, malt vinegar or apple juice or even a bit of soup stock might help it bind. For keeping the roll together, dab a bit of water at the edge to help seal. Make sure the smooth side of the nori faces out. Have to really squeeze the mat when rolling the sushi. Gets better with practice. Also, dip the knife in water when slicing into rolls…stops rice from sticking to the knife. All in all…u are brave to do this!!
If you don’t have vinegar, you can try to squeeze some lime juice on the rice. I heard from my friend. I also want to do this this coming school holiday.
Chris, I watched how a sushi is done on You Tube yesterday. Gosh, I think I still don’t know how to do it LOL! Must keep practising.
Sheoh Yan, good luck and let us know the outcome!
Mmmm….yummylicious!