Since I was a kid my mother would tell me that in another life I must have been Japanese or been born in another Asian culture. I would always look at her and wonder why she would say that? So I would ask "Why do you think that?" and she would answer "because of all the Asian food you eat!" Well, I can't help it I guess! I started cooking at such a young age and I cooked whatever I could get my hands on.
Then one day this friend of mine came to the door in the morning to go to school and we went to the local grocery store because he said that he wanted to get something inside first. Well, what my friend got was flavored nori sheets. He stole a load of those thin flavored nori sheets and out the door of the grocery store we went!
I know now that he stole the nori sheets, but at that time I didn't know what they were. He gave me some and told me to eat it so I did! I was all of 15yrs old and it tasted great! I was hooked! So for months I hate to admit it but, we went on this little crime spree of hijacking nori sheets from the store in the mornings! We never got caught! I was public enemy #1. I am glad that we never got caught because I would never want to admit to anyone on the inside that I'd been locked up for steeling nori sheets cause then they would all make me the laughing stock of the joint!
As time went on I learned how to make Asian foods of all kinds and it is my first preference in gastronomy. It seems like no matter what it is that I am making it ends up being made with an Asian flair of some kind whether it is a spice or herb or vegetable. I find all Asian styles of food to be literally endless in variety and so pungent, so fragrant and there is very little waste! There are things that I will eat that nobody I know will eat! I remember when I took my girlfriend to an Asian market here in Vegas where I live and I was showing her around and telling her about some of the things that I buy and eat. I was having fun watching her turn green as I showed her things like fish roe for my sushi or fish heads for making my soup. She did turn a lovely color of green though! Hehehehe!........:) I'm a bad boy!
Anyway sushi recipes are one of my favorite foods because they are so easy to make and contrary to popular belief can be made out of anything and it is not very expensive to make and it is really good for you. One of my favorite sushi recipes to make is a very simple sushi called maki sushi or sushi maki and it's called cucumber maki sushi. There is no raw fish in this sushi it is all vegetable and a fantastic way to get your veggies. The cucumbers used in cucumber maki are seeded so your maki won' get all soggy. Here is the video on how to roll up a cucumber maki.
You see it is very easy to make and it really is delicious! So the next time you are sitting around wondering what you can do with your left over salad fixings, then consider making a cucumber maki! You can add other veggies to it as well that is the truly lovely thing about making sushi recipes is that you can make them your own!
My next favorite sushi to make is the classic California Roll sushi. This is another very tasty and very inexpensive sushi roll to make. There is fish in it in the form of surimi. It is classically made with crab but, have you seen the price of crab lately? Ouch! Surimi is an excellent compromise and you get your protein fix with it. Here is how to make a California Roll sushi with the seaweed on the outside!
One of my foodie friends was watching this video and she sent me a message that she liked my video and wishes that she could make California Roll more often. I asked her why? She replied that it was really very hard to get quality avocados in Japan to make these California roll sushi recipes!
Now California Roll sushi is made two ways. The first way above is with the seaweed on the outside and the next way is called California Roll Uramaki. This is a California Roll sushi with the rice on the outside. This California Roll is the harder of the two sushi recipes to make! Now in this video I am using a sushi mat to make this roll and in the old days they did not have plastic wrap to put around the to make it easier to clean. I did not use plastic wrap with my mat not because I wanted to show you how this was done in the bad old sushi days but, because I didn't have any plastic wrap in the house and it was to late for me to go running out for some. Here is how to make a California Roll Uramaki.
The addition of the Tobiko, flying fish eggs is really delicious on this Uramaki recipe! The next sushi I like to make is Temaki. The Temaki sushi roll is a total "hand rolled" sushi and it takes the form of a cone. Temaki is made when someone has a gathering and they lay out a spread of all kinds of ingredients from raw fish and other seafoods to vegetables and eggs and anything else they want to put out. Then the nori sheets will either be full sized, half sized or quarter sized depending on the size of the Temaki sushi to be rolled. The host decides how to lay out the nori sheets. When I do this I make them in half size and quarter size sheets and I lay out all kinds of stuff. Sushi grade Salmon, Sashimi Tuna and Smoked Salmon, veggies, egg, chilies and more! I mix it up a bit and mix ingredients from different Asian cultures. I will have Thai basil and Thai bird chilies. Different mushrooms and fungi. Here is how to make a basic Temaki sushi roll.
Now I also have one of my favorite sushi recipes as a bonus on this blog post for a foodie compadre of mine and has a Youtube channel called SeansFood. My mate Sean lives in England and the answer is yes to anyone reading this post that yes they have sushi in England! Anyway! I am going to make show you how to make English sushi! I know what some of you are thinking! What's that? Well, in England there is a classic breakfast that has been eaten for years and years and years and that breakfast is called kippers and eggs! For those of you who may not know kippers is smoked herring and is just delicious and it is eaten with eggs for breakfast by many people in England! Eggs! In Japan they make a sushi called Tamago and it is made with eggs, sugar and shoyu soy sauce. I don't use the sugar I don't like sweet in my eggs with I am going to make it with kippers! So I have combined the two ingredients to make English breakfast sushi in respect of Sean and SeansFood! So here we go! On with the show! English breakfast sushi:
So there you have it! 5 of my favorite sushi recipes that are easy to make and tasty to eat and I love to make them in the summer because I don't need to heat up my home with the stove or oven! My next blog post will be a fast one on how to make Sumeshi!(sushi rice the traditional way)
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