Natural Muscle June/July 2015 | Page 47

the plastic wrap and compact it by pulling it between your fingers. After the rice is compacted, open it up and a nice little rice bed will be staring at you. With a small spoon, place some wasabi on the rice bed. Be careful not to add too much... wasabi is very potent! Now that the wasabi is on top of the rice, take one of the wafers of fish and stick it to the top of the rice. You now have a finished piece of sushi. Make more rice beds, add more wasabi, and stick on more fish until you have used all the fish. By now, you should have some nice dishes of sushi. Your fingers will get sticky as you make the rice beds so clean them in between pieces by dipping them in a bowl of water. Take the eel out of the water and open it up. If it's a long piece, feel free to cut off the end and lay it on top. Using clean scissors or a knife, cut the eel into small chunks that are about the same size as the fish wafers you just made from the tuna and salmon. Stick the pieces of eel onto more wasabi-topped rice beds. You now have tuna, salmon, and eel sushi! cut into sushi wafers. If you want, you can start by cutting off a larger chunk first and then slice this up to make sashimi, which is just raw fish (no rice). After the salmon is cut into wafers, place it on a plate. Now it's time for the eel. The water should be boiling by now. Turn off the burner to stop the boil and place the eel (still wrapped) in the pot of hot water. Leave it for now. Make some wasabi. Place some of the wasabi powder in a small bowl. Add water and mix it up until you are left with a thick paste. Seasoning the rice The rice should be ready by now. You'll know because the little "done" light will come on. Take the rice out and open it up. Give it a few stirs to loosen it up. Now, add some rice vinegar and stir it in. Keep seasoning with rice vinegar until you like the way the rice tastes. When the rice is seasoned, place it in a bowl. Putting it all together Now it's time to make the rice beds. Get out the plastic wrap and tear off a sheet. Scoop out a little chunk of rice and place it in the center of the plastic wrap. Bunch up the rice by forming a little pocket with Rolls Now it's time for some rolls. Open up the seaweed and cut it into pieces about five inches wide. Place the seaweed on a cutting board and rollable mat and make a bed of rice on it. Be sure to leave about an inch of seaweed uncovered. Lay one of the strips of tuna on the rice bed. Wet your finger and run it along the uncovered strip of seaweed to make a sticky edge. Now roll it up and make it tight. Open it up and you should now have a tube of fish and rice. Make more of these until the fish is gone. Now slice up the tubes to make little rolls. Arrange them on a plate to look nice. If you want to make true California rolls, you can make them with avocado slices and slightly toasted sesame seeds stuck to the outside of the rice. Dinner! It's time to eat! Fill some small bowls with soy sauce for dipping and mix in some wasabi and start feasting on your sushi. Mmmm... tasty! As you can see, making sushi is not very difficult and is a very unique and impressive dish. You can experiment with other types of fish next time, like yellowtail and mackerel. Just try to get good quality, fresh fish and your sushi will be the envy of all your friends. Enjoy! Types of Sushi Rolls To make each roll, check out the list of ingredients for each type of roll below. Keep in mind that you can make your rolls with just about anything you like. Be CREATIVE! Mix and match, and most of all ENJOY! Cooking time does not include time to fry crab, shrimp, or other seafood for tempura rolls, or to make sauces. EACH SERVES 1 1 sheet nori 3/4-1 cup cooked japanese-style rice CALIFORNIA ROLL sesame seeds, avocado, crab stick, cucumber. MANHATTAN ROLL lump crab mixed with spicy mayonnaise sauce with masago Outside: tempura shrimp roll inside. DRAGON ROLL Inside: California Roll. Outside: eel, avocado and masago. EEL ROLL Eel, cucumber, scallion, sesame seeds, topped with eel sauce. PHILADELPHIA ROLL Smoked salmon, cream cheese, cucumber. SHRIMP TEMPURA ROLL Shrimp tempura, avocado, asparagus, scallion, masago, sesame seeds topped with Eel Sauce. RAINBOW ROLL California roll topped with assorted raw fish, avocado, masago. SPIDER ROLL Soft shell crab, Tempura, avocado, masago, sesame seeds. NEW YORK ROLL Shrimp tempura, eel, cream cheese, avocado, scallion, masago, sesame seeds. ROCK & ROLL Inside: eel, avocado, cucumber. Outside: masago. SPICY TUNA ROLL Tuna, scallion, spicy mayonnaise sauce. VEGGIE ROLL Cucumber, carrots, scallion, avocado, asparagus, cre