Recipe 38 - Vegan California Rolls - or "Sunshine" rolls

Ok,
I'm telling you what.

I'm obsessed over these sushi rolls.  Literally, I could live off of them.
Not only that but I have now made a sushi chef into my girlfriend, which is fine, because she did a much more stellar job of rolling than did I.


Ok, also I know I promised a v-log, but I couldn't find my camera stand so it didn't happen.  Just deal with the pictures.. and drool.  (Or not if you don't like sushi, but I do NOT know how you wouldn't want to pop these into your mouth as a constant.)

So, Saturday night I went into the Vegan Or Not kitchen to do a little Japanese cooking.   I, of course with the vegan california rolls, and my brilliant non-vegan/vegan chef with Yakitori.   (Which, omg yum).

Anyway - for some reason I was rather jumpy that night.  I even hollered at the dogs to hush it up when I walked in.. (which is quite unlike me).   I found that my seaweed was a little worse for wear and I had to go buy more.. which was ok, it gave the sticky rice some time to do it's thing.   Anyhoo..

As you can see, once I got back from trusty ol' Kroger (and many thanks to my girl for prepping my sushi rice for me while I was gone).  The time was ready.  I had my vegan crab swimming in cream cheese and the girl cut up all my veggies for me, and I was ready to go..
Or so I thought.





Leave it to me to put the veggies on the wrong way..  lol.  There is NO WAY that roll would have rolled up the way I had those veggies on there... no way in Japan.

So, I had to reconvene the things and change it up, which was ok.. however, I was still rather jumpy.


So, once I had those babies on correctly, I was able to make it into a roll.. which was less of a pain than I thought it was.  The most painful part was that darn sticky rice.
I have this issue with having sticky stuff  on my hands and that stuff just would NOT go away at all.
No matter.. it turned out ok, and I had the girl sharpen a knife for me so I could slice up my roll.. which you'll see momentarily.. but not before Jen tried her hand at an 'inside out' roll (sticky rice on the outside, seaweed on the inside).

The steady hand of the woman I love..  she made them practically perfect, and went on to make more the next day.  Now, I can't get enough of these things..  she did make hers sans crab, so she just had a veggie roll.. but yum as ever.

You can even see some of her inside-outs here in this mashup of both of our sushi's

Now, in her blog you'll read all about the Yakitori she made as she's also going to attempt the non-vegan version to go with it for her dinner, tonight.  Keep an eye out for that one, or like her blog on Facebook to get the inside scoop.



So, for dinner we had Yakitori, Chow Mein noodles (which I threw together and oh my - those were good) and sushi...
And the proof:

 

SO YUM!


So this weekend, 'Asian' week continues.. have you heard the word 'egg'?  Well, we're about to egg it up.  Keep it tuned, details are coming.

Til then!  Happy eating.


Music enjoyed while cooking:
Jen talking to me, Drew's occasional in and out chats, dogs whining and Chiana meowing.

Current Craving:
More sushi!

Current Motivation:
Turning Japanese!

Vegan California Rolls - Welcome to Asian Month - Recipe 38

So, I've decided to go Asian in June.   (Well I haven't.. you won't see me 'turning Japanese' anytime soon.)   However, there are a bevy of asian dishes out there which are so not vegan of which I do not partake in anymore, but would really love to.  
One of those?

California rolls!  Aka, Sushi!

Before I run off to the Golden State, let's learn a lil bit about sushi, shall we?

"The original type of sushi, known today as nare-zushi (馴れ寿司, 熟寿司), was first developed in Southeast Asia, and spread to south China before introduction to Japan. The term sushi comes from an archaic grammatical form no longer used in other contexts; literally, sushi means "sour-tasting", a reflection of its historic fermented roots. The oldest form of sushi in Japan, narezushi, still very closely resembles this process, wherein fish is fermented via being wrapped in soured fermenting rice. The fish proteins break down via fermentation into its constituent amino acids. The fermenting rice and fish results in a sour taste and also one of the five basic tastes, called umami in Japanese.  In Japan, narezushi evolved into oshizushi and ultimately Edomae nigirizushi, which is what the world today knows as "sushi".

Contemporary Japanese sushi has little resemblance to the traditional lacto-fermented rice dish. Originally, when the fermented fish was taken out of the rice, only the fish was consumed and the fermented rice was discarded. The strong-tasting and smelling funazushi, a kind of narezushi made near Lake Biwa in Japan, resembles the traditional fermented dish. Beginning in the Muromachi period (AD 1336–1573) of Japan, vinegar was added to the mixture for better taste and preservation. The vinegar accentuated the rice's sourness and was known to increase its shelf life, allowing the fermentation process to be shortened and eventually abandoned. In the following centuries, sushi in Osaka evolved into oshi-zushi. The seafood and rice were pressed using wooden (usually bamboo) molds. By the mid 18th century, this form of sushi had reached Edo (contemporary Tokyo).

The contemporary version, internationally known as "sushi", was created by Hanaya Yohei (1799–1858) at the end of the Edo period in Edo. The sushi invented by Hanaya was an early form of fast food that was not fermented (therefore prepared quickly) and could be eaten with one's hands at a roadside or in a theatre. Originally, this sushi was known as Edomae zushi because it used freshly caught fish in the Edo-mae (Edo Bay or Tokyo Bay). Though the fish used in modern sushi no longer usually comes from Tokyo Bay, it is still formally known as Edomae nigirizushi."

Do you like how I can write in Japanese?  I'm so smart.

One of my very favorite sushi's is the California roll, which traditionally has cream cheese and crab meat in it... so not vegan.  But alas, I'm a smart little american and I'm going to make this so that I can enjoy it.. and I'm going to do it with the help of my vegan sous chef girlfriend, Jen.  
We're going to V-log it too. ;)

So, let's get to the numbers.   I'm going to adapt a recipe from my boy-crush, Alton Brown.  So, let's roll on over here and see what we've got.


California Roll Sushi                                           Sunshine Roll Sushi
    one roll                                                                  one roll
Calories 232                                                                 159   
Total Fat 14.4 g                                                              8.4       
Cholesterol 5mg                                                              0
Sodium 135mg                                                              128 
Total Carbohydrate 23.7g                                             20.2    
Dietary Fiber  4.4 g                                                       5.2    
Protein         3.9                                                             2.6
WWpts -       6                                                               4

So there you have it.  

My Saturday night date night is going to turn into an episode of Iron Chef.  (Ok, not quite).   But it should be fun, intense and a little wild in the kitchen with bamboo mats and rice vinegar.

Stay tuned, you'll be glad you did!

Music enjoyed while blogging:
Nothing today but what's in my head -- Goin' To California (Led Zepplin) & Turning Japanese (The Vapors)

Current Motivation:
Doing something I've never done!


Current Craving:
Potato Chips