Daring Cooks Challenge - Sushi!

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

Hooray for a fun vegan challenge!

The challenge was in four parts:-

Part 1: Making proper sushi rice – wash, rinse, drain, soak, cook, dress, and cool short grain rice until each grain is sticky enough to hold toppings or bind ingredients. Then use the cooked rice to form three types of sushi.
Part 2: Dragon sushi roll – an avocado covered inside-out rice roll with a tasty surprise filling.
Part 3: Decorative sushi – a nori-coated rice roll which reveals a decorative pattern when cut.
Part 4: Nigiri sushi – hand-shaped rice rolls with toppings.

I’ve mentioned many times how poor my rice making skills are. Part 1 was obviously my biggest challenge. I prepared the rice exactly as per the instructions. After all the rinsing and soaking, I put the rice in a big pot along with a piece of kombu.

I am thrilled to report that my sushi rice turned out perfectly! Quite unlike my usual attempts at making a proper rice. Look at all those individual grains.

For the rest of the challenge I made a small batch of each type of roll. The inside out roll took me a couple of tries, but surprisingly I had a rather easy and fun time making all the sushi.

TexMex sushi is quite popular here, so that was the inspiration for Part 2. My Inside-Out Dragon Roll was filled with spicy sweet potatoes and black beans.

I topped him with avocado and then plated him with cilantro and sriracha legs, and a green onion tongue and head decoration. He was deeeeelicious!

Part 3, the Spiral Roll, was simply filled with colorful veggies – cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, and red bell peppers.

Nothing fancy, but quite pretty and so fresh tasting.

Finally, Part 4, the super easy Nigiri Rolls. Simply topped with a smear of wasabi paste and shitake mushrooms.

Chase and I ate as much as we could for a fabulous late lunch. Thanks again to the hosts for providing such great instructions. Click here for recipes, including the perfect sushi rice.