We made sushi!

We are a family of sushi lovers...though Nathan is the only one of us who eats the raw fish.  Dahlia and I both enjoy the veggie, shrimp, and crab rolls in addition to plates and plates of edamame.  Since Reier and his soy allergy arrived (and Dahlia isn't supposed to be eating soy anymore either), our once frequent sushi habit has been curbed.  Dahlia knows right where her favorite sushi restaurant is and begs to go there every time we drive through that neighborhood.  I was getting tired of telling her we couldn't go there because it would hurt our tummies, so I gathered up the necessary supplies, read some instructions on my favorite recipe website, and decided today was the day to try it.

I could not believe how simple and fast it was to make a roll.  Cooking the rice was the hardest part, and that isn't even hard!  Dahlia loved that we were finally having her favorite food again, especially since she got to help make it.  I think we will be doing this for lunch on a regular basis now that I know it is so easy and the ingredients are things we tend to keep around anyway.  It is a quick and healthy complete meal that is portable and easily storable.  The shrimp is very high protein and low fat, the brown rice has fiber and protein, the nori (seaweed) has iron and lots of other minerals that are hard to come by in the rest of our diet, and the avocado is high in the good brain-building fats that little ones need.  Toss some fresh fruit on the plate and you are good to go!

And now for the picture tutorial with my adorable sous chef:

Pose for the camera while we wait for the rice to cool.

Spread the rice out on the nori, leaving about 2 inches of room at the top of the sheet.

Make nice neat rows of your fillings.  We had shrimp and avocado.  You could also add carrots, cucumber, bean sprouts...or bacon!

Dahlia made sure all of the shrimpies were facing the same way.  Also, please notice how she prefers to wear a headband.  She does it herself and insists that it is best when smashed down on top of her hair like Andre Agassi's tennis sweatband.  She is not at all interested in wearing it with her hair coming out of it like I showed her.

I wet the empty strip of nori so it would stick closed when it was all rolled up.  Then I rolled up the nori tube in the sushi mat and told Dahlia to squish it.  She took this to mean "repeatedly karate chop it." 

I showed her what I meant and she did an excellent job squishing the dickens out of her roll.

I handled the slicing and she arranged the pieces on the place with a garnish of extra shrimp.   You need to dip your serrated knife in water before slicing the roll so the nori won't stick to the knife.

Mmmmm...good!