I Made Sushi For The First Time Ever

A couple days ago, I was able to cross another thing off of my lengthy Life List. After many years of wanting to learn how to make sushi, I finally did it!

Originally, I had planned to take a professional sushi class but apparently there are a shortage of sushi classes in Philadelphia. Someone should get on that!

Sooooo, being the Google expert that I am, I started researching all the things I would need to make a spicy tuna roll (Eddie's favorite) and a cucumber roll (for my friend because she's a vegetarian).

I went to the local Asian Market (which by the way is like a world of its own) and bought a bamboo sushi mat, a wooden rice spoon, nori (roasted seaweed), sushi rice, wasabi powder (they didn't have wasabi paste so had to make my own damn wasabi), soy sauce, sushi-grade tuna steak, scallions, cucumbers, rice vinegar, Srirachi chilli sauce and mayo.

It ended up costing quite a bit but if you can imagine how many sushi rolls I can make (like 50?) with all those ingredients, I'm technically saving a fortune. It's like paying less than $1 per roll. Craziness!!

And you might wonder... why am I trying to make my own sushi when I can just buy it? Because it's cool ok? How many people do you know that can make you sushi for you when you come over? NONE. When my friends come over, I'll be like...spicy tuna or shrimp tempura?? :)

Here is my very first attempt at making sushi. Spicy tuna roll with cucumber! They look normal sized in the photo but they were seriously the size of my fist. I'm not quite sure yet on how to make them bit sized. I tried squeezing them a bit tighter but all of the ingredients started to ooze out. Then I tried putting a thinner layer of rice on the nori but it still came out gigantic. Oh well, hopefully it'll come with practice. 

 Here is my second attempt. Cucumber roll! These definitely came out a lot nicer. I put more filling inside so they were shaped nicer but still HUGE. I should be careful. Someone might choke and die while eating my sushi and then I will forever be known as the Sushi Slayer :-/

 Yay, I think she likes her cucumber rolls. Makes me so happy when people enjoy my food :) BTW, how gorgeous is my friend? And she's not even wearing any makeup! Grrrr.

These are some of the retard sushi that never made it to the plate. They just fell completely apart. I still ate them though! Can't throw away yumminess. I need to get one of those really sharp sushi knives cuz my knives suck.

Okkk, I just googled "sushi knife" and they go for $140-$240. Might hold off on the sushi knife until after the wedding.

Some leftover sushi rice. This stuff was really the only hard part about sushi making. There are like 7,000 different steps you need to take while preparing it and it takes forever. And it's so sticky that it will stick to every part of your body...hair, skin, clothes, etc. You also have to be really careful with handling it so that the texture of the rice won't break down. AND you can't even put the rice onto anything metal or the flavor will change. Sheeesh. After making the rice, my friend said...

"I will never complain about sushi being expensive ever again."

Scallions for spicy tuna roll.

We ate all of it. It seriously tasted like restaurant sushi. No joke.

Ye so I'm a messy cook. One of Eddie's pet peeves but what can you do? My friend graciously helped me with the cleaning because according to her, it's in her Puerto Rican blood to like cleaning :)

Best picture ever!!

I'll be making Eddie some sushi for the first time today. I think I will try to make a spicy tuna roll, cucumber roll, and I'll add in a California roll this time. I personally don't like California rolls but it sounds easy to make and I'm still a novice.

My dream is to make Philly roll and an eel roll (my fav!) but who the hell wants to touch this??

 

BARF...not me.

Maybe I can get cooked eel somewhere. We will seeeeeee.