California Rolls revisited

A whole plate of California rolls! Don't forget the wasabi and soy sauce!

It's Saturday; I didn't have anything planned for dinner. Rodney suggested California Rolls. Sounded good!

While not extremely different than last time, I did make a couple changes.

RICE:

Prepare 2 cups of rice in the rice maker. Meanwhile, make the sushi vinegar in a glass liquid measuring cup:

• 1/3 c rice wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt

Combine ingredients, stir until as much sugar and salt will go into solution. Microwave the ingredients for 30-40 seconds and stir the mixture until the sugar and salt go completely into solution. Let cool.

Transfer cooked rice to a large mixing bowl. Add vinegar solution to the rice 2 tbsp at a time, and "cut" the solution into the rice until all of the rice is wet. Regularly stir the rice, adding additional solution to maintain moisture in the rice, until it is completely cooled to room temperature.

ROLL:

• sushi rice (above)
• 1/3 of an English cucumber cut into fine julienne-like slices
• 4 oz imitation crab minced and mixed with about 1-2 tbsp mayonnaise
• Nori sheets cut in half
• avocado sliced thin
• bamboo mat covered with plastic wrap
• large bowl of water with glug of vinegar mixed in for hand-rinsing
• damp towel at the ready
• chef's knife, sharpened

Place a half-sheet of Nori on the plastic-wrapped mat, smoosh rice on it evenly(ish) -- not too thick -- and rice all the way to the edges.


Sprinkle rice with sesame seeds.


Flip the Nori, spread some crab-meat mixture across the center; add avocado and cucumber.

Roll it up.


Repeat procedure to yield desired number of rolls. Cut each one into 6 slices.


Plate each roll individually, or if you're heathens like us, on one single plate.

These turned out much better than the last ones did.  And because I waited until each roll was, um, rolled, Rodney and I sat down to dinner together instead of standing in the kitchen, eating them as they were produced.

Another thing I noticed is that none of the seaweed was chewy, which I can't help but think was due to the standing time. Maybe the 'weed needed some time to mellow. I dunno.

Cost:

• imitation crab: $2.99/12 oz
• avocado: $0.99
• English cucumber: $1.49

Total: $5.47, not including the stuff I bought last time that was leftover.  That makes each of these four rolls $1.47!!  Schwing daddy!

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