Easter California Rolls with Shrimp

A change from ham or turkey, we're having California rolls with shrimp! Happy Easter!

Shrimp-Topped California Rolls...and Tantrum Rolls

Ah, so much prettier with the added shrimp colors than a simple California roll . Rainbow rolls must not be too far off.

My nephew was over to run, ride bikes, hang out in the garage with the guys, play with the cat, ask an impossible number of questions, admire/inquire about the snakes, ham it up for photos (don't try to turn me in, they weren't the perv kind), sleep, and eat this weekend. We ate cheesy crunchy chicken breasts with macaroni and cheese Friday; pancakes with butter and maple syrup along with scrambled eggs and bacon followed by spaghetti Saturday; and then another huge pancake/eggs/bacon breakfast Sunday.

Rodney and I decided to give California Rolls another stab on the way home after dropping Kaner off. You know, to get a break from all the starch. We swung by a nearby Korean market to re-up on Nori, crab meat, cucumber, some kimchi and a tray of sushi-grade shrimp.

I made the sushi rice just like I did last time, except I used all of the sushi vinegar...no playin' around. I made the rolls just like last time too, for the most part. A couple times I forgot to flip the rice-topped seaweed and simply loaded everything on one side, making an inside-out Cali roll.

This time though, I placed shrimp on some of the rolls, alternating skinny shrimp end, fat shrimp end, skinny shrimp end etc to maximize roll area coverage. Rodney's not (yet) a fan of wasabi, so I didn't use any to stick my shrimp to the rolls. Maybe next time. It's a work in progress.

Sooo good!!

Rodney made his first rolls ever. He managed to cram a whole ton of crab meat in them which resulted in not-so-easy-to-roll rolls. Hence, the Tantrum Rolls, which are quite similar to the first ones I made.

While they didn't look especially pretty (or symmetrical), they tasted good. These were huge, finger-lickin' good sort of rolls.

Cost:

• imitation crab meat: $2.99/12 oz
• white shrimp: $5.49
• cucumber: $0.79
• seaweed/Nori: $1.49

Total: $10.76. Yield: 6 or 7 rolls, 2-3 with shrimps on them. 

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!

California Rolls

Yeah, I know, you need some shades to look at this image. I hope it gets the point across that I was able to make a roll, though you can't tell any detail!

In order to beat the heat, we opted for California Rolls. This post is not going to be one of my best. Actually, it's going to be on the shoddy side since I didn't do a lot of researching on how to make California Rolls and this was my first time making a roll of any kind.

I basically watched a couple of YouTube videos and quickly scanned a couple of recipes found during a Google search of "California Roll" to gather a guess at what I'd do. Bear with me. At least I have pearls of wisdom to remember for next time.

Rodney graciously collected images as I worked since my hands were all gooey. Please keep in mind that he does not tend to take food photos and white rice is hard to capture well. Hence the glaring first image above. But I'm proud that he tried for me!

RICE:
Before we left for the store, Rodney prepared some rice in our little 3-cup Sanyo rice maker, which is ideal for 2-4 or even 6 people. We didn't have any sushi-grade rice and just used the regular stuff we had, short-grain Botan or CalRose brand rice, I forget now.

When we returned home, the 3 cups of rice was ready.

I made 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.

Meanwhile, I scooped out approximately 2 cups of rice from the three prepared in the rice maker into a large mixing bowl and spread it out to expedite cooling, taking care not to break any of the rice.

 

Once cooled (not quite to room temperature), I added 2 tbsp of the vinegar solution to the rice, and with the plastic rice scooper/paddle that came with the rice maker, I "cut" the solution into the rice until all of the rice was wet. At this point, according to many YouTube videos, I should have continued cutting the rice while physically fanning it to get to down to room temperature. Being pressed for time, I skipped that. I simply made it a point to stir the rice around on occasion as I readied myself to actually make a roll.

ROLL
Materials:

• prepared rice (as above)
• Nori sheets
• sesame seeds
• imitation crab sticks, quartered
• cucumber, peeled and cut into thin slices lengthwise
• avocado, pitted, peeled and thinly sliced

Equipment:

• Bamboo mat
• Plastic Wrap
• Sharp knife
• Small/medium bowl of water with a small glug of vinegar added (disinfectant water used to rinse your hands
• damp clean towel (to wipe your damp hands and clean off the knife blade)

Cut a long piece of plastic wrap from the roll -- long enough to fold over and cover both sides of the bamboo mat.

Cut a sheet of Nori in half. Place one half on the mat, (I forgot which side, dark or shiny, should be down and guessed). Grab a handful of rice and smoosh it around on the Nori to obtain an even layer. Use just enough to cover the Nori -- you want to be able to see some of the Nori under the rice. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
 

This rice is really too much and isn't spread out completely. Spread it all the way to the edges -- don't be afraid to let it touch the plastic. It actually helps the roll stay stuck.

Flip the Nori so the plain side is face-up-- the rice shouldn't fall off during the flip. Place crab sticks in the center of the Nori lengthwise, using 1 and 1/2 of the prepared quarters to cross the entire length. Add a couple of slices of avocado and a strip of cucumber to cross the length.

With the mat, roll the Nori over the crab, avocado and cucumber. You will want to look at a YouTube video or two here to get a better idea of how to do this.

Once the roll is tight, transfer it to a cutting board. Cut the roll into 6 or 8 pieces, depending on how thick you like your pieces and, more importantly, how sharp your knife is. If the roll is tight enough, it won't spring loose during transfer or cutting. Plate the pieces nicely and squirt a small side of wasabi from the tube onto the plate. If you're into the ginger, you should get some. We're not into it.

Notes:

1. The roll was dry. Additional rolls I made were with minced crab meat mixed into a small amount of mayo. That made it much more palatable.
2. The cucumber slices and crab stick quarters were WAY too thick to roll easily. I should have essentially julienned the cucumber so they were thinner. The length was fine. See Note 1 about the crab meat.
3. My rice didn't have nearly enough vinegar solution cut in the first time around and was much too sticky. Too much of it stuck to my hands and made the damp towel gross immediately in addition to the fact that quite a portion of the rice wound up in my hand-rinsing bowl. I cut in additional vinegar solution, 1-2 tbsp, for the remaining rolls and saw a tremendous improvement!
4. Don't make rolls when you are starving. You'll eat them as soon as they are done, which means your Rodney is feeding you pieces of roll as he eats the majority all while you prepare the next one. Which may mean your Nori will be chewy. You really should let them stand a minute or two before consumption. It does make a difference.

Cost:

• cucumber: $0.69
• avocado: $0.49
• imitation crab meat sticks: $2.99
• wasabi in a tube: $1.99
• Nori: $1.69

Total: $7.85, or less than $2/roll or about $4 a serving. This cost estimate does not include the rice or account for the fact that we made 4 rolls and had tons of everything leftover!! I'm sure we could have made another 4 rolls with what we had, the crab meat being the limiting reagent.

We're definitely doing this again. The rolls became better and better as I made them. Trust me when I say that you'll learn from your first roll how to make the next an improved version. Next time, we're plannng on getting better crab stix.

I'm not sure what to put down for time.  It was probably 3 hours from start (including rice prep) to finish.