Monday, September 6, 2010

Sushi Night

We love sushi. It's our typical "date night" food. But sometimes I'm craving it when we have no date night in sight. Sushi for our entire family would easily cost over $100 at a restaurant, so this weekend, we decided to just make it ourselves. It cost $25. For 5 people! And it tasted just as good as restaurant sushi. We're definitely doing this again.



6 comments:

Joan Del said...

So beautifully done! I'm truly impressed.

Unknown said...

I <3 this idea!! Tell me, did you have the fish cut up or did one of you know how to cut the fish properly?

Amanda Conley said...

Thanks! We cut the fish ourselves. We have a Japanese cookbook, and that probably helped a bit!

E² - Esther Eve Metalsmith said...

Amanda, this looks so delicious!!!
My hubby and I love sushi, and usually every other month will have a sushi-date-night, but you are right, we usually spend a lot ;o)

What grade salmon did you buy, and where? I own a Japanese cookbook as well, but have never gone down the road of the raw items yet because I just haven't seen any fish at the local markets that seem up to par...am I being to weirdly picky?

How did you make your sticky rice...rice cooker?

I see edamame in the photo, what is the orange dish to the left...it sort of looks like carrots?!?


Sorry, too many questions...I'm so inspired!

Amanda Conley said...

We got our fish butcher to slice a fresh slab off of a larger piece of fish. A good place to get sushi fish is Whole Foods.
We actually got the rice from a Japanese store owner who - get this- owns a Mexican food store! It used to be a Japanese store, so we went in looking for the rice and the owner said he didn't sell it anymore. But he gave us two pounds from his own kitchen!
You don't use a pressure cooker to cook it, you rinse it for several minutes in a strainer and let it sit for 1 hour after the water runs clear. Then you boil it with 15% more parts water (so if you have 1 cup rice you add 1 and 1/6 cup water) simmer for about 12 minutes and then let sit covered for another 15 minutes. To make it shiny, you try to cool it quickly by dividing it with a wooden spoon over and over. And then you fold in the vinegar/sugar mixture to make it sticky. Your cookbook probably has a recipe for that. If it doesn't I'll write it down for you.
You're right, they're carrots. They were marinated in a mirin sauce and topped with sesame seeds. Yummy.

E² - Esther Eve Metalsmith said...

Wow, thank you so much for all the detailed information!!! I will remember to go to Whole Foods, I suppose if I tell them I'm making sushi, then they can tell me what they have that would be appropiate ;o)
Those carrots sounds super delicious, I just might have to try that. I have bad eyes, so I try to eat all the carrots I can, and have been running out of interesting ways that I'm not super bored of yet!
It's so funny, making sticky sushi rice is supposed to be an exact science, yet everyone I know has a different way of doing it. Thank you so much for passing along your techique, you made it sound so easy. The reason I brought up the rice cooker method, is that one of my girlfriends makes hers using the "sticky rice" setting! I have another friend that says to simply "wave" the vinegar over the rice, and not to ever mix it in. And of course your way is the most like the method described in my cookbook ;o)

Both my hubby and I's birthdays are coming up soon, you've inspired me to have a sushi-night-in, and save a little money while we're being romantic ;o)