Daring Cooks/Sushi

At 10 am today, when I was reading over this month's Daring Cooks challenge, I realized that the reveal date was today and not tomorrow like I had thought. A quick trip to the supermarket and a bunch of dirty dishes later, I am very proud to say, mission accomplished. I never thought that I would actually get through this challenge in time, but somehow I made it and I had a great time doing it.

The November 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was brought to you by Audax of Audax Artifex and Rose of The Bite Me Kitchen. They chose sushi as the challenge.

When I first saw this challenge, I was really disappointed. In my mind, sushi making is an art and unlike many things, homemade sushi will never be as good as in a restaurant. Although this challenge didn't change my mind entirely, I had so much fun making this that even if it wasn't as good as what I get when I go out, it was totally worth it. My friend Katy came over and was my "sushi sous-chef" (try saying that 10 times fast) and my roomate Stefi was a very appreciative taste tester. This is definitely the type of cooking activity that is best to do with friends, without them I wouldn't have had anywhere where near as much fun as I did.

I was disappointed when I first read this challenge because sashimi grade fish is expensive, so I knew I would have to resort to more 'boring' fillings. However, with the few ingredients I bought I ended up making a lot of different and great variations, even if they didn't include my favorite salmon and tuna. The fillings I had were crab stick, smoked salmon, flying fish roe, cucumber, chives, oven roasted sweet potatoes, and portobello mushrooms roasted in sesame oil and soy sauce. I also prepared wasabi mayo and and spicy mayo to put in the rolls and to dip them in. I used both nori and soypaper to roll the maki, because I always love the texture of soypaper when I get it in restaurants. Although the soypaper was much harder to roll, I did prefer the final product. The only real challenge I faced was the fact that I didn't have a good knife to cut the rolls with, but I just did it slowly and carefully and it didn't pose any big issues.

The challenge had four required components: the sushi rice, a dragon roll, a decorative sushi roll, and nigiri. For (more) fun, I had my friends pick the ingredients for their namesake rolls. The Dragon Roll (above) was called the Katy, which had crabstick, cucumber, chives, fish roe and spicy mayo on the inside and smoke salmon wrapping the outside. The Stefi was a basic maki (top left corner of the plate with different rolls), it was filled with crabstick, sweet potato, chive, fish roe and spicy mayo. These were actually the best two (and the prettiest), I think Katy and Stefi would agree.

The decorative roll (above) was shockingly big, it was actually as big as a burrito, let's just say that the challenge today was not making the sushi but fitting a piece of this roll into my mouth (I failed on that front). This one had smoked salmon, crab, cucumber and mushrooms, it was impressive but definitely not my favorite. Overall, this was a great challenge despite my low expectations. I like that I made something that I would have never thought or wanted to make. Although I wouldn't do this everyday, if you're looking for a new and different weekend activity, this is ideal. Just take it slow, step by step, and follow the directions. Even if it doesn't turn our perfectly, the point is just to have some fun.

For the Recipe (which is very long) click the link below....
Nov Challenge Sushi-Audax Rose