Weston is my beautiful 14 year old daughter. As 14 year olds tend to do, she loves to entertain her friends whenever she can. The hot food of the moment is sushi, but around here that can be pretty pricey!
I love the idea of her eating sushi as a healthy meal, but going out for sushi all the time isn't a great financial model. So, we decided that Weston should learn to make her own!
This turned out to be a brilliant idea! Not only do she and her friends love making the sushi, it turns out it can take at least 90 minutes. They put music on in the kitchen and the preparation becomes a group activity.
Win, win. She gets to serve sushi to her friends and I get to have a house full of entertained, engaged girls all working together to make something (relatively) healthy.
I asked Weston to write up the recipe and instructions for you - so the rest of this post is all in her own words. Keep in mind she makes at least three full plates of sushi with this recipe. Enjoy!
- Rice
- Crab leg (3-4 bags depending on how much you want to make)
- 2-3 cucumbers (there's always extra)
- 4-5 avocados
- Mayonnaise (optional)
- Seaweed sheets
1. First I got 1 ¼ cup of rice to go along with 1 ½ to 2 cups of water to create the rice.
2. Because rice takes the longest that's the very first thing to do. Next you want to grab all the necessary cooking utensils. That would include a medium size mixing bowl, one sharp knife, a fork and a spoon, something to lay out on the counter to put the rice on so you don't have to clean up that sticky mess, and then 2 cutting boards, and a piece of wax paper.
3. Next you want to begin preparing the food. You never want to cut the avocado first because they get brown being exposed to air. First you want to peel the cucumbers to get all the darker green off on the outside.
4. Once you have them all belled you're going to slice them so small you can see through it! These pieces should be about 3-4 inches long.
5. After you have all those sliced you want to start on the crab. You're going to want to cut them into tiny, tiny pieces so the texture will be right with the hardness of the cucumber and the softness of the crap and the avocado.
6. After you have all of your crab cut into itsy bitsy pieces you'll put them into the medium size mixing bowl. My preference is to add mayonnaise into the crab like they usually do at sushi restaurants! That is exactly what the spoon is for. Mix the concoction thoroughly.
7. After you have the crab and the cucumbers are done you should check on the rice. Once you have tasted the rice so it's nice and fluffy and soft, you will lay it out on whatever you got out to put it on. Wait until its room temperature.
8. Once the rice is perfect at room temperature, you're going to take the sushi vinegar and put as much as you prefer. I like to really be able to taste the vinegar but it's whatever you prefer! You're going to want to take the fork that you got out and mix around the rice so the vinegar is evenly distributed.
9. Once the rice is ready to go you are almost ready to roll the sushi! But don't forget about your avocado! You will want to slice the avocado in half. Once that's done you will take out the seed in the middle. After that you'll peel off the peel. Next you will cut it the long way, carefully, into thin strips. You'll notice that it's very mushy so cautious that you don't just squish the whole thing!
10. Now it's time to prepare for rolling! With that wax paper, rip off about a 8 by 11" piece and place it on the counter.
11. Take a single piece of seaweed out of the bag, it's tricky so make sure you really only have one sheet.
12. WET YOUR HANDS!! It's time to put the rice on! On this step you're going to make sure you wet your hands so the rice doesn't stick to you as much. Take a good amount to fit in your hands. Place it in the middle of seaweed. It's going to end up in a 2 by 5" horizontal strip in the middle.
13. Take about 4 strips of your cucumber and lay it across the rice, all the way along the strip so it's evenly placed.
14. Now take approximately 4 pieces of avocado and lay it across on top of the cucumber.
15. Grab your spoon and take a full spoonful of the crab mixture and lay it right across the avocado and cucumber.
16. Wipe your hands because now it's rolling time! When rolling you want to try to roll as tight as you can as it makes it so much easier to cut.
17. There is your sushi roll! Take your sharp knife and cut your roll into 6-8 pieces depending on how thick you like it.
18. VOILA! Now time for clean up (the worst part, let me tell you). Make sure to really clean your rice pan that you used so the rice doesn't dry out and stick on.
