A Japanese Inspired Evening!

Have you ever wondered how to make sushi? Well let Aaron and I (the experts) tell how it is done!

First, you need to make the sushi rice. Medium grain rice will work. Before cooking, you must clean off as much starch as possible. You do this by mixing the rice, with your hands, in a bowl of water. Next, dump out the dirty water. Then, repeat the process until the water is clear. Once the water is clear enough, poor it into a strainer and let it sit for 30 minutes to an hour.

Next, heat up a rice vinegar, sugar and salt mixture. You will use this when the rice is cooked to help make the rice sticky. I don't know the exact amounts to use for this concoction. We used a recipe that we found online. First we made the recipe, and then we read the bottom of the web page that told us not to use this recipe. Apparently, the amounts of sugar and vinegar were off. Oh well, it was already made and the next step was to let it cool.

So what do you do while your rice is drying and your rice vinegar is cooling? Walk down the block to the Denver Botanical Gardens, for free admission day, to check out their PlantAisa and Japanese Garden exhibits.

The Japanese Garden!

Bamboo!

In honor of... yea I can read japanese ;)

PlantAisa!


"When will my reflection show, who I am inside?" Ok, that is from Mulan and not Japanese.

Also not part of the Japanese garden... but still cool!

After the totally awesome exhibit, walk back home. Upon your return, make sure to feed your husband edamame. This is so he will not starve to death, and that he will have some energy to help you complete the sushi.

Now cook the rice. At the same time cook your salmon. It's not that we don't like King Soopers, we just don't trust their raw meat! Once the rice is complete, poor whatever mixture of rice vinegar that you feel is necessary, onto the rice. This is done while your husband fans the rice.

The next step is to lay down your nori, also known as seaweed, onto your rolling mats. Next, pile your nori with lots of sticky rice and flip over. Lay down your filler ingredients. We stuck with the basics. We made a California roll with avocado, crab, and cucumber. We also made a salmon and cream cheese roll. Once the ingredients are in place... roll it up! This is not as easy as it sounds. Once, you have completed you roll, you are done! Just cut (again not as easy as it sounds) and serve!

Finally, eat up!

We had a lot of fun making sushi. Although, you can probably tell that we really are not sushi experts, so if you do have any questions... don't ask us!