Author: Allison

Categories
Other Recipes

Fried Pig + Nutty Monkey = ?

tempura bacon banana

What do you get when you cross a fried pig with a nutty monkey? I have no idea, but it tastes surprisingly good! (Yes, I know my titles are a little crazy and somewhat dorky sometimes. 😀 ) Ok, so it’s not quite sushi although it does use sumeshi… but I figured why not? 🙂 This is one of those things that actually taste a lot better than they sound. It has a nice gooey crunchy sort of texture to it, and would make a great breakfast food. Another thing you might like to try is to omit the bacon and sumeshi, and sprinkle powdered sugar on the finished peanut butter-banana wonton things. I made a few of those, and they would make an amazing dessert! Just make sure you serve them almost immediately so they are crispy when you eat them.

tempura bacon banana roll

So… what else would you like to see up here? I’m always open to your ideas, so feel free to leave a comment or contact me with your sushi requests!

I got the idea for this from “Sushi American Style” by Tracy Griffith, although I changed it slightly to better suit my purposes.

Makes 36-48 pieces.

Ingredients
  • 1 package wonton skins
  • 3 cups sumeshi
  • bacon
  • bananas
  • peanut butter
  • ingredients for making tempura
Cooking Directions
  1. Cook sushi rice.
  2. Fry the bacon as crispy as you like it.
  3. Place a dab of peanut butter in the middle of a wonton skin.
  4. Place about 1 teaspoon of sumeshi on top of the peanut butter.
  5. Place a slice of banana and a 1 inch piece of bacon on top of the sumeshi.
  6. Fold all four sides of the wonton skin in. Place a dab of peanut butter on the last flap to keep it closed.
  7. Dip in the tempura batter and tempura fry it.
  8. Serve immediately and enjoy!
Categories
Other Sushi Randomness

The Complete Book of Sushi

The Complete Book of Sushi
by Hideo Dekura, Brigid Treloar, Ryuichi Yoshii

“The Complete Book of Sushi” is perfect for not only the sushi newcomer, but also as a reference book for the sushi lover. It is extremely comprehensive, including information from sushi customs to rolling sushi, and even provides recipes for soups and sauces that are commonly eaten with sushi.

For example, if you are planning on throwing a party or having a picnic, it has tips on what sushi to make and how to prepare and store it so it will taste great for the party. It gives recommendations for serving and storing the sushi so it won’t make anyone sick or go bad from sitting out. The book also has many tips on presentation, with a wonderful section on garnishes and sauces to make your sushi look fantastic.

The book has a superb section about sharpening Japanese knives, which is great for anyone who is a hardcore sushi fan (like me!). There is a comprehensive section about the tools that are often used for sushi preparation, such as the fish scaler, rolling mat, hangiri and square omelet pan. There is also a nice list of less known sushi ingredients such as bonito flakes, daikon radish, kampyo, and miso, with explanations of what these ingredients are and how to prepare and store them for use in sushi.

There is a great section about selecting and preparing fish and other seafood for both sushi and sashimi. The book includes a recipe for sumeshi that is very similar to the recipe that I have included on SushiDay. There are recipes for futomaki-zushi (thick rolls), hosomaki-zushi (thin rolls), tempura, uramaki-zushi (inside-out rolls), nigiri-zushi, temaki-zushi (hand rolls), inari-zushi, gunkan maki-zushi (battleship sushi), chirashi-zushi (sushi in a bowl), soups, sashimi, and other decorative and creative sushi. In addition, there are several recipes for sauces and condiments that are often eaten with sushi.

Overall, I recommend this book for just about everyone! People who are new for sushi will love the easy-to-understand explanations, while those who have been in a long-term relationship with sushi will appreciate the in depth explanations about sharpening sushi knives and selecting fish, in addition to the more creative and innovative sushi recipes.


Categories
Maki Recipes

Bacon Cheese-Sushi

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For a long time, the Western Bacon Cheeseburger from Carl’s Jr. was my favorite burger ever. I usually would eat it after long, difficult rehearsals or performances, to get my energy back. (I know, I’m soooo bad to my body! But I’m better now, I promise! 🙂 ) So I figured, why not make a sushi similar to my favorite burger! Obviously there are several differences (onions instead of onion rings, steak instead of hamburger meat) but this creation does taste surprisingly good!

Makes 6 rolls, or 36-48 pieces.

Ingredients
  • 6 sheets nori
  • 3 cups sumeshi
  • 1 1.5 pound flank steak
  • 1 clove garlic, halved
  • salt, pepper, garlic powder
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 1 medium potato
  • olive oil
  • 1 onion
  • 6 “single” slices of American or cheddar cheese
  • 12 strips of bacon
  • BBQ sauce
Cooking Directions
  1. Cook sumeshi.
  2. Trim any excess fat from the flank steak.
  3. Pat the surface of the flank steak dry with a paper towel, then rub with the cut side of the clove of garlic. Season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
  4. Melt the butter in a skillet that is big enough to hold the flank steak. Put the flank steak in the skillet, and cook over medium-high heat until it is browned on the outside but still pink in the center.
  5. Remove the flank steak from the skillet and cover loosely with foil.
  6. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
  7. Wash and peel the potato, and slice into 1/4″ x 1/4″ strips.
  8. Place the strips on a baking sheet and brush with olive oil.
  9. Sprinkle with salt and garlic powder.
  10. Bake for 25 minutes, rearranging the french fries halfway through so they don’t burn.
  11. Or if you prefer, you can always buy some fries from your favorite fast food restaurant. Works just as well. 🙂
  12. Fry you bacon as crispy as you like it.
  13. Slice the onion into rings, cut these in half.
  14. Slice the cheese into thin slices, about 1.5 inches wide.
  15. Roll the sushi, using a couple of strips of flank steak, onion, french fries, bacon, and cheese as your fillings.
  16. Serve with BBQ sauce. Enjoy!

Coming Soon!

More Pictures

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Categories
Maki Recipes

Tuna Salad Sushi

Tuna Salad Sushi

As simple as it might sound, this roll is actually my favorite roll out of all the rolls I have made thus far!

(It beat out the Crunchy Shrimp Roll, which is my most requested roll by those for whom I make sushi!)

The tart tuna salad goes absolutely wonderfully with the juicy crunch of the lettuce and the sweet/salty taste of the sumeshi. Believe me, it is heavenly! My mouth is watering just thinking about it. 🙂 I must have eaten 3 or 4 rolls of this… 😀

UPDATE: Check out the Spicy Tuna Salad Roll! We used Tanit’s suggestion, and it’s yummy!

Makes 6 rolls, or 36-48 slices.

Ingredients
  • 6 sheets nori
  • 3 cups sumeshi
  • 12 leaves lettuce
  • 3 cans tuna
  • mayonnaise and mustard
  • anything else you like putting in your tuna salad
Cooking Directions
  1. Cook sushi rice.
  2. Open the tuna cans carefully, and drain.
  3. Mix the tuna with mayonnaise, mustard, and anything else you like putting in your tuna salad, to taste.
  4. Wash the lettuce.
  5. Roll the sushi. For your fillings, place a couple of lettuce leaves on the sumeshi-covered nori and place about half a can of tuna salad- then roll the sushi as you normally would.
  6. Serve and enjoy!

Categories
Maki Recipes

Super Bowl Rock N’ Roll

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This roll is a wonderful snack roll, perfect for game day! Another of our wonderful readers, Ralph Whitbeck, came up with the idea for this roll (Thanks, Ralph! 😀 )

We had both spicy and BBQ Buffalo wings when we made this roll. We got them from Domino’s Pizza, but you can get your favorite wings or even make your own! (There’s a good recipe on Yahoo! Food if you want to try them!) I was planning on making them, but it turns out that someone is already bringing wings to the Super Bowl party that Son and I are going to tomorrow, so instead I made another batch of brownies for the party and bought wings for the sushi instead.

We thought the BBQ Buffalo wings tasted the best, although if you like the spicy-sour taste then you might prefer the spicy wings. We also tried both ranch and blue cheese dressing in the sushi, and found that we didn’t really prefer one over the other. Also, we sprinkled a little seasoned salt on the sushi and liked the extra kick it gave.

Also, you might want to try making some Inari Zushi (a.k.a. footballs! 🙂 ) They taste really good with the Buffalo wings… a nice mix of sweet and savory flavor.

NOTE: For anyone outside the United States who isn’t familiar with the Super Bowl, it is one of the biggest eating days that we have! This is the day where the two top football teams (American football, not soccer or futbol!) play for the Vince Lombardi Trophy. This year is Super Bowl XLI – the 41st annual game! For more information about the Super Bowl, you can go to this article on Wikipedia.

Makes 6 rolls, or 36-48 slices.

Ingredients
  • 6 sheets nori
  • 3 cups sumeshi
  • 12 buffalo chicken wings
  • 6 celery ribs
  • blue cheese or ranch dressing, whichever you prefer
Cooking Directions
  1. Cook sushi rice.
  2. Remove the chicken from the bones. Discard the chicken bones.
  3. Roll the sushi. For your fillings, use the chicken, celery and your preferred dressing.
  4. Serve with beer and a football game. Enjoy!

Serving Size: 1 roll

  • Calories:424
  • Fat: 21g, 34% DV
  • Saturated Fat: 5g, 25% DV
  • Cholesterol: 53mg, 18% DV
  • Sodium: 1500mg 62% DV
  • Total Carbohydrates: 34g, 11% DV
  • Dietary Fiber: 1g, 5% DV
  • Sugars: 21g
  • Protein: 20g, 39% DV
  • Vitamin A: 13%
  • Vitamin C: 7%
  • Calcium: 4%
  • Iron: 8%
  • Magnesium: 0%
  • Potassium: 1%

Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet. These values are only estimates based on the individual ingredients, and not meant to replace the advice of a medical professional.

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Categories
Maki Recipes

Monkey Maki

Monkey maki

Monkey Maki!!! I love the name – I was cracking up! Yes, I’m a dork. 😀 This fabulous recipe was thought up by my wonderful reader, Yvo, and I must say it turned out pretty darn well! (Thanks so much, Yvo! 😀 )The banana tempura smelled just like banana bread when I made it (yum!) so with the wasabi mayonnaise it was a nice mix of sweet, salty and spicy. Make sure you get under-ripe bananas, since the banana will get softer when you tempura fry it and then it falls apart when you are tying to get it out of your frying pan. Ours broke in half. 😛 But it’s ok, it still tastes (and looks) just fine!

Already… it’s midterms! I can’t believe the quarter is going by so fast! So it might take me a little longer to reply to comments and get posts up next week but don’t worry, I’ll be back!

Monkey maki

Monkey Maki

Makes 6 rolls, or 36-48 slices.

Ingredients
  • 6 sheets nori
  • 3 cups sumeshi
  • 6 large bananas (try to find some that are not quite ripe… if they are too ripe then they will completely fall apart when you are trying to tempura them)
  • tempura batter
  • mayonnaise
  • wasabi
Cooking Directions
  1. Cook sushi rice.
  2. Tempura the bananas. (Peel the bananas first!)
  3. Place the tempura bananas on some paper towels to soak up the remaining grease.
  4. Roll the sushi. Use the tempura banana as your filling.
  5. Serve with mayonnaise mixed with wasabi (use however much you want to make it as spicy as you would like it!) Enjoy!
Categories
Other Recipes

How to Make Tempura

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Several people have requested a tempura recipe, so here you go! This will work for most any type of tempura, from shrimp to vegetables, and even bananas!

Ingredients
  • assorted ingredients to tempura (shrimp, onion, carrot, broccoli, banana, etc.)
  • 1 cup ice cold water
  • 1 large egg
  • 3/4 cup flour
  • 1/8 tsp baking soda
  • cooking oil
Cooking Directions
  1. In a medium bowl, mix the water and the egg.
  2. In a separate bowl, mix the flour and baking soda.
  3. Stir the flour mix into the egg mix. It’s okay if the batter is a little lumpy.
  4. Stick the batter in the fridge while you prepare the other ingredients.
  5. If you are using shrimp, peel, de-vein, and wash it. Make some small cuts across the belly of the shrimp, to keep it from curling when you cook it. (Thanks hien and Rei for the tips!)
  6. If you are using vegetables, clean them and cut them into your desired size. Try not to use very soft ingredients, as they will soften as they cook (softer ingredients tend to fall apart when you take it out of the oil).
  7. Heat the oil in a frying pan. The oil should be hot enough that when you drip batter in it, the drops come to the top immediately.
  8. Coat your ingredients in the batter. Place the coated ingredients in the hot oil, turning when the bottom side is browned.
  9. Place the fried ingredients on a paper towel to drain. Remove any skewers. Serve immediately.

Serving Size: 1 batch

  • Calories:413
  • Fat: 6g, 9% DV
  • Saturated Fat: 2g, 8% DV
  • Cholesterol: 211mg, 70% DV
  • Sodium: 225mg 9% DV
  • Total Carbohydrates: 72g, 24% DV
  • Dietary Fiber: 3g, 10% DV
  • Sugars: 1g
  • Protein: 16g, 32% DV
  • Vitamin A: 5%
  • Vitamin C: 0%
  • Calcium: 5%
  • Iron: 29%
  • Magnesium: 7%
  • Potassium: 5%

Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet. These values are only estimates based on the individual ingredients, and not meant to replace the advice of a medical professional.

Categories
Maki Recipes

Deviled Egg Sushi

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The deviled egg. A popular party appetizer. Delicious, everyone loves them, but they are so difficult to transport! They slip and slide around the container and make a huge mess! So what are we to do? Make Deviled Egg Sushi, that’s what! It’s flat on the bottom so it won’t roll around, and tastes just as good (if not better) than any regular deviled egg!

Hehe I should do commercials. 😛 Just kidding! Well, I got my brownies (much thanks to Tim for sending me to a wonderful brownie recipe!) and I am feeling much better!

I can’t believe this quarter is going by so fast! We have already finished the third week of school and midterms are already almost here! It scares me how fast time is flying by… before I know it I’ll be done with school and out into the real world! (scary!) Time for me to slow down and enjoy the roses… or brownies. 😀

This recipe is from the book, “Sushi American Style” by Tracy Griffith. (I promise I’ll have a review of the book up eventually!)

Makes 6 pieces.

Ingredients
  • 2 sheets nori
  • 1.5 cups sumeshi
  • 3 raw eggs
  • mayonnaise
  • dijon mustard
Cooking Directions
  1. Cook sushi rice.
  2. Bring a large pot of water to boil, add a little salt, and place the eggs in the water. Boil the eggs for 8-10 minutes.
  3. Peel the eggs.
  4. Place the eggs into a bowl and mash into bits with a fork. Mix in the mayonnaise and mustard, to taste.
  5. Form a small ball of rice with your hands or use a round cookie cutter to make a small circular rice shape about 1″ tall and 2 inches in diameter.
  6. Cut the nori into 2″ strips. Wrap a strip of nori around the circumference of each rice ball.
  7. Place a scoop of the egg mix on top of each ball of rice.
  8. Garnish with green onions, bacon, or any other toppings you desire.
  9. Enjoy!

Serving Size: 1 piece

  • Calories:187
  • Fat: 13g, 19% DV
  • Saturated Fat: 2g, 11% DV
  • Cholesterol: 110mg, 37% DV
  • Sodium: 511mg 21% DV
  • Total Carbohydrates: 13g, 4% DV
  • Dietary Fiber: 0g, 1% DV
  • Sugars: 8g
  • Protein: 4g, 8% DV
  • Vitamin A: 4%
  • Vitamin C: 1%
  • Calcium: 1%
  • Iron: 3%
  • Magnesium: 1%
  • Potassium: 1%

Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet. These values are only estimates based on the individual ingredients, and not meant to replace the advice of a medical professional.

More Pictures

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Categories
Maki Recipes

Steak and Potato Sushi

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More steak!! Yum! So now all you people who won’t eat sushi because you don’t like fish or any of that… you have no excuse!!!! Hehe. This uses the same flank steak recipe as the last post, so if you have leftovers, you can use them for this!

By the way, this is completely off topic (but it’s my blog so I can do that 😀 ) but does anyone have any good brownie recipes? It’s just been one of those months where I really need some good brownies. Lay in bed and eat brownies… wouldn’t we all just love that? Unfortunately life goes on… I want brownies. Or ice cream. But it’s too cold for ice cream, so brownies. Please? 😀

Makes 6 rolls, or 36-48 pieces.

Ingredients
  • 6 sheets nori
  • 3 cups sumeshi
  • 1 1.5 pound flank steak
  • 1 clove garlic, halved
  • salt, pepper, garlic powder
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 1 medium potato
  • olive oil
  • 1 onion
Cooking Directions
  1. Cook sumeshi.
  2. Trim any excess fat from the flank steak.
  3. Pat the surface of the flank steak dry with a paper towel, then rub with the cut side of the clove of garlic. Season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
  4. Melt the butter in a skillet that is big enough to hold the flank steak. Put the flank steak in the skillet, and cook over medium-high heat until it is browned on the outside but still pink in the center.
  5. Remove the flank steak from the skillet and cover loosely with foil.
  6. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
  7. Wash and peel the potato, and slice into 1/4″ x 1/4″ strips.
  8. Place the strips on a baking sheet and brush with olive oil.
  9. Sprinkle with salt and garlic powder.
  10. Bake for 25 minutes, rearranging the french fries halfway through so they don’t burn.
  11. Or if you prefer, you can go buy some fries from your favorite fast food restaurant. Works just as well. 🙂
  12. Slice the onion into rings, cut these in half.
  13. Roll the sushi, using a couple of strips of flank steak, onion, and french fries as your fillings.
  14. Serve with BBQ sauce. Enjoy!

Coming Soon!

More Pictures

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