Homestyle Sushi Bar

This is my favorite way to eat sushi.

Homestyle.

With simple, fresh ingredients.

You can set out anything you like or anything you have on hand.

And making a hand roll is so easy!

Here's what I used to make my sushi bar...


Ingredients:

4 cups uncooked rice

(2) 2.64 oz Instant Sushi Seasoning packets

Kaiware-daikon sprouts

2 pkgs. shiso leaves

Seaweed salad

Kizami shoga

Sushi nori

Wasabi powder

1 large avocado

1 lime

Tsukemono (Japanese pickles)

Cook 4 cups of rice (that's four standard measuring cups, not the rice cooker cups) with five cups of water in your rice cooker. When the rice is done, let it steam for 15 minutes.

Traditionally, you're supposed to put a small piece of dashi kombu into the rice water, taking it out right before the water starts to boil, but we're not doing that today.

Today we're going for simplicity.

Transfer the rice into a large bowl.

Sprinkle one package of the sushi seasoning package onto the hot rice.

Mix well by 'slicing' the shamoji (Japanese rice paddle) into the rice and folding it over, instead of stirring the rice. This delicate mixing will separate the rice kernels instead of smashing them.

If you can't find the instant sushi seasoning, you can mix 1/3 cup vinegar, 1/3 cup sugar and 2 teaspoons salt until dissolved. Pour over rice and mix gently until the vinegar mixture is absorbed into the rice.

Fan the hot rice in-between mixings. This makes the rice shiny.

Taste the rice. I added two more tablespoons of the seasoning mix. That's why you buy two. I like sushi rice a little spicy.

Set rice aside to cool.

I got this St. Tropez Thermo Serve salad bar for a wedding gift back in the 80's. I can't remember ever using it for salad, I think I've always used it for sushi bar.

A lazy susan would work too. So would a big tray.

Remove kaiware--daikon sprouts--from container and wash.

This time, instead of cutting the roots and seeds off, I left them on.

I was feeling particularly earthy today, especially after talking about my Japanese roots.

This is seaweed salad. I bought this at Marukai. I bought everything at Marukai.

I went to lunch today with my sister and my parents to a Chinese buffet, and they had nori maki with seaweed salad in it. It was delicious, so I thought I'd add it to my sushi bar.

This is what it looks like. It's got a sweet sesame oil dressing, and it's a little crunchy.

Kizami shoga is pickled ginger, like the pink, thinly sliced one you get with sushi. Only this one is julienne cut and red.

I think the powdered wasabi is much better than the one in the tube. 

Buy a small one, since it doesn't last forever. It loses it's nice green color when it gets old.

This one costs about $1.58 at Marukai.

Mix about a tablespoon of the wasabi powder with about a teaspoon of water.

Add a little at a time.

You want to make a soft paste.

Not too stiff and not too runny. This needs a tiny bit more water.

I used a sake cup to hold the wasabi in the clear container.

With room for the kizami shoga on the side.

You will need about 4 or 5 sheets of nori for two people.

5 if they're going to eat until they're more than 80% full.

Cut each sheet in half.

And then half again.

We live in an old avocado orchard and have several avocado trees of the Haas variety. This avocado came from Costco, since ours aren't quite ripe yet. I think they're perfectly ripe when the skin comes away in a nice, clean piece.

Cut the avocado into thin wedges.

This is the first lime from the lime tree we planted last year!

It's got yellow skin, but I've forgotten the variety.

Squeeze a little lime juice on the avocados to keep them from turning brown.

Put a little bit of tsukemono--Japanese pickles--in there too.

Pickled cucumber is on the left and shiso flavored thinly sliced kombu is on the right. That's one of my favorites.

They're on sale right now at Marukai.

Now it's time to eat!

Start with a square of nori. 

The shiny side goes down.

Add a touch of wasabi.

A shiso leaf is always good.

The beauty of this is that each person makes it to their liking.

Fold it in half and you have a hand roll!

The kaiware gives it a nice subtle spiciness.

Wouldn't thinly sliced jalapeno be good?!

Shrimp tempura is always a hit too.

What's a Bobby Roll???

I hear that's popular at Katana Sushi.

Yummmm!

When you find yourself more than 80% full, you might want a last bite!

If you're also feeding an omnivore, you might add some poke.

Who doesn't know what poke is and thought Poke Salad Annie?

POH-kay

Hawaiian sashimi

That's for tomorrow.

***

The buffet lunch with my sister and parents was so much fun.

The first thing Margaret asked was if we were all wearing our "buffet pants".

Whenever I go to a buffet, I always think of Cody, Paige & Hannah and our time together in Florida going to the Golden Corral. Margaret had to go on a business trip and I got to tag along and see the sights with the kids.

Golden Corral was our favorite place.

The Lopez kids love buffets!

Miss you guys!

Tofu Salad

With warmer weather here in Southern California, I am in the mood for salad.

I first had this salad when my Auntie Ann brought it to a family pot-luck. Everyone loved it and asked for the recipe. That was probably about twenty-five years ago, and the salad has changed with my cooking style.

Auntie Ann has shredded chicken and julienne sliced kamaboko in her salad along with an oil based dressing, which I've omitted, but you can add it to yours if that suits you better.

It's really good.

Like I said, everyone asked for the recipe!

I made two salads.

One for home and one to give to my mother-in-law. 

You can cut down the ingredients accordingly, or share it!

Ingredients:

3 blocks tofu, well drained

1 large bag of spinach

1 large bag bean sprouts

4 Japanese cucumbers

1 bunch green onions

Fresh ginger root

1/4 to 1/2 cup kizami shoga

1 lemon

Ponzu sauce for dressing

The Vons near me doesn't carry House Tofu anymore, but you can get it at Nijiya Market or Marukai, or use your favorite brand. 

Drain the blocks of tofu first. They have a lot of water in them, I use a kitchen towel under some paper towels to drain them.

I used one of the big bags of spinach from Costco.

Fill a big pot with about an inch of water to boil, add the spinach and cook until just wilted. It only takes a couple of minutes.

All that spinach shrinks to this amount.

Drain in a colander and gently rinse for a minute in cold water or ice bath. Drain & set aside.

Prepare the bean sprouts by blanching them in boiling water for 30 seconds, drain, then rinse with cold water or ice bath and drain.

Cut the tofu into cubes and put as your first layer.

Add some grated fresh ginger to the top of the tofu.

I love ginger, so I put a generous amount. It makes the whole salad taste really fresh.

Squeeze all the water out of the spinach.

And chop both vertically & horizontally, so it's in small pieces.

Spread a layer of spinach and then a layer of bean sprouts.

Julienne slice the cucumbers.

Add the cucumbers as your next layer.

Julianne slice the green onions also.

That'll be your next layer.

Add some kizami shoga (pickled ginger) to the top of the salad. It adds a nice color and gives a variation to the taste with an occasional blast of the kizami shoga.

Chill well before serving.

Drain any water at the bottom of the salad before serving.

I like the ponzu sauce we use for shabu shabu as the dressing for this salad. It tastes fresh and has less salt than just shoyu and has no oil.

Top with a sprinkling of iri shiro goma (toasted white sesame seeds), I was all out.

Here's Auntie Ann's Tofu Salad Dressing recipe:

Heat until hot, 1/2 cup salad oil and 1 tablespoon sesame oil. When hot, turn off heat, and add to this mixture, 3/4 cup shoyu and about a half of a lemon's juice. (Add the lemon to your taste. I added less than 1/2 of a lemon's juice.) Flavor with grated ginger. Cool.

Auntie Ann & Uncle Shig, before they were married,
with the 1000 cranes we made for their wedding.