In the Land of Rice-Learning to Make Sushi

Remember those friends that I met in the grocery store? Well let me tell you, she is an amazing cook! Just when I thought that I was doing good and cooking grilled chicken pasta for dinner, I call her up and she tells me that on nights they don't have much time, she just 'whips' together some sushi. Pretty sure I couldn't just 'whip together' anything if I tried, especially sushi. It would turn out like a bad Pinterest fail. But she can and she does quite well. And thankfully she was kind enough to have me over and teach me her skills. So here ya go, for those other women who want easy meals besides peanut butter and jelly (which is what we have on way too many occasions).

What you need:
Avocados
Crab
Cucumber
Seaweed paper
Rice

What you do:
.Gather your ingredients. You can put whatever your heart desires on the inside. We stuck with crab, avocado and cucumber but also tried some tempura shrimp which was to.die.for. Slice veggies in long strips. You can also cut the crab in strips but we decided to shred it and it worked just as well.

.Lay out your sheet of seaweed on top of your bamboo mat. My friend suggested wrapping the bamboo mat in saran wrap before you start. This makes for easy cleanup at the end. Take a spoon and dip it in water before using it to spread the rice on the paper (dipping the spoon in water makes the rice not stick as badly to the spoon. There are also special rice spoons that you can use). Make sure the rice reaches all sides because this is what makes the roll stick together.

.Start placing ingredients in a line towards one end of the seaweed paper.

.Now here comes the tricky part. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of it but I found this one online. Start rolling the sushi to make a tube. Roll the sushi and bamboo wrap until the seaweed meets the other side. Then place the bamboo wrap folded over the roll like shown before(confused yet?). As you roll, pull back on the wrap to make sure the sushi roll is really tight and won't fall apart. When it's all rolled, make sure to press the edges at the end to make sure it sticks.

via

Viola. A sushi roll. 

To cut it, dip a knife into water and cut. Dipping the knife into water makes it so much easier to cut and doesn't smoosh (is that a real word?) the roll.

After having someone show me how, this meal has also become an easy lunch or dinner to have when I just can't think of what to cook. Have you ever tried making sushi?

Linking up with Lisette, Rolled Up Pretty and Shanna