I had my first experience making homemade sushi this weekend for my daughter’s school project. I had the rolling mat and directions from a book but I had never made maki before. I found a kid-friendly recipe and headed off to the store. The first grocery store did not sell nori seaweed paper so I had to drive to Fort Worth to go to Central Market. Is it really $2.99 for a single cucumber? So they are a little expensive but they had all the ingredients I needed. My wallet was $16 lighter leaving that store.
Following the directions was easy. I need to figure out a better way to cook the rice because I ended up with a layer of toasted rice on the bottom of the pot when done. I wonder if a double boiler would have worked better. I was really amazed how the rice reacted to the vinegar and became workable. I was worried about the way they were looking right up until the final cut when at last it began to look like sushi. I hope her class likes it.
I love making sushi. I learned from my wife and her family (who are korean, arguably the inventors of various types of sushi, including maki). You can get the ingredients, like the seaweed, much cheaper from an asian grocery store. It can be fun to just have the ingredients out with cut up seaweed and have guests wrap their own. You make me want to make a massive plate of california roll!