2.10.11

Starting a food blog with Simple Sushi

2.10.11 10 comments
Today I have finally decided to start my food blog.

To give a brief introduction, though there are a lot of things in life that fascinate me, this blog is dedicated to food. And why? Well for one, food is an essential part of our lives. Aside from giving sustenance and keeping your tummies from grumbling, food is an experience and for me, food is happiness. Whether its cooking, preparing, photographing, eating (of course) and even selling, I find all these things enjoyable. Thus, I feel the need to share this joy to the world. =)

 While there are people who eat to live, I live to eat. I believe in quality food, and tend to make a lot of them myself as I find eating out a bit too unhealthy or a bit too painful in  the pocket and I do hope you would enjoy taking part of this food journey as much as I will.


I have long battled on how to start my blog. Though I have too much recipes to share, I feel that a blog opener must be something simple, easy yet special. Something comforting.

Today, food for me is homemade california maki.



You will need:
A Japanese bamboo mat (available at all major groceries)

Yield: 24 pcs
Ingredients:
3-4 cups cooked Japanese Rice (do not substitute)
8 T Sushi vinegar
2 T Sugar
2 T Salt

3 sheets Nori (Japanese Seaweed)
1 ripe yellow mango, cut to thick strips
1 cucumber, cut to thick strips
6 pcs high quality imitation crabstick (recommended: Osaki brand)
Tobiko (Orange Japanese Fish eggs) or black sesame seeds

Directions:
1. Prepare the Sushi Rice by dissolving sugar and salt in the vinegar; and mixing vinegar mixture to the cooled cooked Japanese Rice. Make sure the rice is no longer hot, and best if it was lightly dispersed with a wooden spatula to let release the steam right after cooking. Set aside.
2. Cut up the mangoes and cucumber. Prepare the crabstick by peeling the protective plastic.
3. Lay 1 sheet of nori in your bamboo mat. Add 1 cup of rice and press to the nori sheet, making sure you fill out the edges without going over.
4. Carefully lift the nori sheet and flip upside down (making the rice on the bottom). A trick that I do here after flipping and before laying the rice back is to layer the bamboo mat with plastic so that the rice doesn't stick to the bamboo mat as much.
5. Add your cucumber, mango and crabstick on the lower bottom portion only. May add japanese mayonnaise if you wish. (not required).
6. Roll tightly, making sure it forms a square on each turn. Squeeze to tighten, but still making sure that the fillings don't ooze out.
7. Roll into black sesame seeds or tobiko. Place roll on chopping board and cut to 8 equal pcs. (trick is to divide to 2 first, then divide again). *Try rinsing knife with water every few times for smoother slicing as the sticky rice tends to leave residue on the knife making it more difficult to cut smoothly.

 Enjoy and do try it with different fillings even cream cheese or chicken! =)


*disclaimer: Though much research went into my sushi making both in the kitchen and in the books, this recipe is original. There might be adaptations from various sources that unfortunately, as of the moment, I could no longer recall.

10 comments:

  • Anonymous said...

    Nice! Will keep on reading your blog! :-)

    Oh, what i usually do for sushi, so it's easier to clean, is I wrap the entire bamboo sheet with clingwrap before using. No rice in the small cracks and less messy, especially for inverted rolls. :-)

    I also like making my own Tamago and using it in the sushi. :-)

  • Anonymous said...

    Oh, and abby!! Since you like Japanese food, you should also try making Okonomiyaki if you still haven't. It's one of my super fave things to make. Lots of starter recipes online. :-)

  • beeinthekitchen said...

    Hi david! great idea on the cling wrap. and yes, omg hate it when the rice sticks to the bamboo mat.
    Okonomiyaki: you got a recipe on phood? =) btw, love your blog too =)

    Thanks for the support, I'm obviously a newbie and still a long way to go... hehehe

  • beeinthekitchen said...

    David- i'll try your okonomiyaki recipe =) looks awesome =) you've been busy? you haven't been posting. but I see your blog has posted a lot of stuff about me recently- an abbey facade and an abbey gate. LOL *peace*

  • Anonymous said...

    At syempre, mali pa ang spelling ko ng Abbey, hahaha.

    Hmm, you can use this recipe, which works for me:

    -1 cup all purpose flour
    -1/2 cup dashi soup stock or water (you can buy dashi powder from any japanese store, Last time, pati Rustans, meron.
    -2 eggs
    -1/2kg cabbage, finely chopped
    -4-6 Tbsp chopped green onion

    bacon strips

    vegetable oil

    For toppings:
    -nori powder, or nori cut into thin strips

    -okonomiyaki sauce (looks like this: http://www.japanesefoodshop.co.uk/ekmps/shops/japanesekitchen/images/otafuku-okonomiyaki-sauce-okonomi-sauce-300g-130-p.jpg
    If that's not available, just make your own. It's basically thickened worcetershire sauce with ketchup, mirin, and honey. http://www.bigoven.com/recipe/166839/okonomiyaki-sauce


    -japanese mayonnaise
    -katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes); A MUST.
    -beni-shoga (pickled red ginger), optional. only if you like sour things

    Bale mix everything lang, except for the toppings and the bacon.. The batter should be pretty thick and not too runny, and the mixture should not be drowning in batter. Just enough to make the shredded cabbage stick. Balance na lang the flour and water.

    While the first side is cooking/browning, lay down the bacon strips on the other side. Tapos flip it. While the other side is cooking, spread some sauce on the browned side. Then put on a plate and top by drizzling mayo, okonomiyaki sauce, katsuobusi, and nori. :-)

    You can add whatever you want into the mix din pala. Yakisoba, seafood, sausages, cheese.

    http://phoodjournal.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/okonomiyaki-craze/

  • Anonymous said...

    Oooh, and if you really want to document your creations, you can make your own macro studio using an old box and white paper. We learned it from here:

    http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-to-diy-10-macro-photo-studio.html

    You can make real professional-looking food shots, even with the cheapest camera. That's how Janet did it for these shots:

    http://phoodjournal.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/img_1242.jpg

    http://phoodjournal.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/img_0757.jpg

    http://phoodjournal.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/img_7858.jpg

  • Anonymous said...

    I know. Yeah, super busy, but I have a ton of recipes, pics, and food trips documented. Pinapagalitan na nga ako ng mga kasama ko eh, hahaha. One day, I'll get to post them all, haha.

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