Saturday, November 14, 2009

Dragon Roll, Decorative Spiral Sushi and Nigiri Sushi

The November 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was brought to you and me by Audax of Audax Artifex and Rose of The Bite Me Kitchen. They chose sushi as the challenge.

I made sushi randomly a few times in 2003 but had not revisited it since unless I was eating out or if someone else (i.e. a Valentine one year) was making it for me. Without Audax and Rose's challenge and very impressive PDF containing detailed instructions with thorough research and visuals (it can be downloaded here) I doubt my bamboo mats and wooden spoons ever would have seen the light of day again.

Sushi is tasty but unless you are an expert it requires a bit of time. I advise dedicating several hours to this project as it isn't as short one. I started at 6 pm on Sunday and finished around 11:30 pm. I also recommend doing this as a sushi party or having friends over for dinner; I made way too much food for one person and while the leftovers are allright sushi is clearly better fresh!

It was very excited to learn how to make spiral rolls (so many possibilities here) and dragon rolls (my favorite)! The dragon roll video, which I watched after cutting my avocado length-wise rather than horizontally post-split, is very helpful. Next time I make dragon rolls, I'll cut the avocado more thinly and in the proper direction, but I made it work with the thicker cuts I had already made. It really goes to show that sushi is flexible and has lots of room for creativity.

My spiral roll used tuna, red pepper, cucumber and persimmon. In the future, I will definitely bulk up the fillings and be more experimental. I've seen some beautiful, non-fish versions from other Daring Cooks and in a few days you'll probably be able to a slideshow of everyone's work over on The Daring Kitchen website.

18 comments:

  1. I love your sushi and I`m glad your bamboo mats and wooden spoons could have a little fun.

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  2. Love the green dragon on the blue plate and the spiral rolls look spot-on (LOL LOL). Well done on this challenge. Cheers from Audax in Australia.

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  3. Your green dragon looks nice, everything looks nice :)

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  4. Fabulous flavours! Your sushi sounds and looks amazing!

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  5. Persimmon! What a great idea, I never would have thought of that. Fabulous job on the challenge.

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  6. Love the way you plated your dragon roll. It's adorable!

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  7. Thank you for the compliments! I'm checking your posts out now. :)

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  8. Yummy! Next time I can help you eat :)

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  9. Sounds good to me, Vika. We can have our own sushi party when you return in January (don't know what I'll do with you gone...and offline) so long!

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  10. Looks like your green dragon has eyes!...or maybe fiery nostrils? Your sushi looks professional :)

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  11. Great looking sushi! you did a exceptionally wonderful job for someone who hasnt made them since 2003!

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  12. Elliot - I was going for eyes! They are just little specks of eel.

    Anjelikuh - Thank you! It was easier than I remembered. Perhaps because of the good instructions and the fact that I cook more in general...

    Leslie - It was a good time. Thanks!

    Catalina - Thank you! The fried eggs in your profile picture look delicious.

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  13. All of your sushi is gorgeous and the presentation stunning! Love the persimmon with the tuna, red pepper and cuke! I'll take that one for sure!

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  14. Lisa Michelle - Thank you for the compliment. I'm trying hard to improve my presentation at the moment.

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  15. I'm so intimidated to try my own sushi but ONE DAY I WILL DO IT!

    Great job!

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  16. It isn't so bad, Chessa! I'm certain you could tackle this if I could.

    We can have a sushi party to celebrate your return to Brooklyn if you are interested...should you ever come back.

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