YOU SHOULD FOLLOW COOKING MONSTER ON TWITTERSushi: Real Food for Real American Kids
When we Americans think sushi, we tend to think “fancy,” “delicate” and “expensive” – the antithesis of family food. But in Japan, sushi is much more versatile and workaday. It’s really a whole pervasive category of food, even more expansive than “sandwich” in America. In Japan, sushi is served as fast food “to go” in train stations and convenience stores. It’s also served in all kinds of restaurants, from working class places to high end fancy places. Exquisitely-made sushi with delicacy ingredients is often served as one of the courses of very expensive meals. On the other hand, there’s a sushi restaurant not far from the fish market in Nagoya (a working class town) that my friend takes me to when I visit. Like the neighborhood, the sushi restaurant is a working class place with the most incredible assortment of fresh fish and sushi chefs joking with one another (in Japanese) while they serve their customers. A full course of sushi there costs the equivalent of $25. It’s not fancy, but it’s incredibly good.
Many Americans would never think of making sushi at home. But that’s like saying “I can’t make sandwiches.” Anyone can make sushi. Maybe you won’t get the results of a professional sushi chef. What you will get is good wholesome food for your family. If you have ever paid the bill for sushi ordered from a sushi restaurant for a party or big family meal, making sushi at home will sound very attractive to your ears.
If you’re making a single kind of sushi as an appetizer, it’s not a very involved process. On the other hand, if you’re making a lot of different kinds of sushi for a group, the process can be quite involved and time consuming. Consider getting your diners involved in making the sushi. It can be a lot of fun for kids to make their own dinners.
Where will you get the “exotic” ingredients? For simple sushi, look no further than your local grocery store. You can make some dynamite sushi appetizers using only Japanese rice, rice vinegar, smoked salmon, fake (or real) crabmeat, cooked shrimp and soy sauce. Nigiri-sushi doesn’t require any seaweed wrap – slabs of fish are just pressed into small pillows of rice. For greater variety, visit an Asian grocery and pick up a few additional items: wasabe power, nori seaweed sheets, bamboo rolling mats and pickled ginger. If you’re going all out, many Asian supermarkets have a wide variety of fresh or frozen sushi-quality fish including tuna, smoked eel, yellowtail, roe (e.g., ikura) and other wonderful ingredients (the problem is often trying to figure out what you’re looking at and what you can do with it). It’s also possible to make the most wonderful sushi from fresh-caught fish filets picked up from your local fish market – but make sure the fish is very fresh and keep food safety issues in mind (stay away from any fish that could contain parasites).
The most important sushi ingredient is not the fish – it’s the rice. It’s no doubt true that we American amateurs can’t reproduce the seasoned rice of a professional sushi chef, but we can try approximate and improvise. In “Japanese Cooking A Simple Art,” Shizuo Tsuji recommends 3-1/3 cups of washed rice to 4 cups of water (a ratio of 5:6). He puts in some kelp (konbu) until the water boils, then removes the kelp and boils the rice (covered) for 5 minutes, and cooks at low heat (covered) for 15 minutes until all the water is absorbed. For the vinegar dressing, he heats 5 tbs + 1 tsp rice vinegar, 5 tbs sugar and 4 tsps sea salt and then cools that mixture. He says to toss the rice in a large non-metallic bowl while sprinkling the dressing over the rice and at the same time fanning the rice to air cool it. We don’t try to fan the rice, but we do let it cool in a big bowl under a towel while we toss it occasionally. The rice ends up being sticky – keep it from sticking to your hands when you work with it by dipping your hands wet into a bowl of water to which a little rice vinegar has been added.The kids seem to like rolled sushi (Nori-maki) the best. Rolling turns sushi into a project, but we get the kids involved. We have them roll strips of cucumber, strips of fake crabmeat, strips of avocado and strips of tuna for California roll type sushi. For some real adventure, do a reverse roll with the rice on the outside and strips of ingredients + wasabe on the inside, and then dip the rice-covered outside in toasted sesame seeds. A very sharp knife is essential to cut the nori roll into bite-sized pieces.
Here is what our family made the other night for a 14-year-old’s birthday party (that’s what he wanted for his birthday dinner: sushi). It’s real American food for real American kids. Not fancy, not all that expensive, very healthy and a really wonderful meal.
Author: Rob | Tags: crab, fish, japanese, nigiri, nori, rice, salmon, shrimp, sushi, wasabe
Leave a comment