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Monday 25 May 2009

Sushi Bento

My brother Mark, and sister-in-law May are away on a working holiday. My parents are here to look after their school age kids. The past 2 weeks, I have been helping Mom make their school lunch boxes, and my Dad would deliver these freshly prepared lunches to school at noon.

Some days it would be steaming hot food, other days cool sandwiches. They even got takeaway KFC Twister and Pop Corn Chicken one day that made every other kid green with envy. My dad is well known for his lunch time appearances now! Each time he brings in their bento boxes, he hears whisperings "What's in the box today?" or "Oh, it's not fair, why don't I get these lunches?"

Anyways, last Monday I made them teriyaki chicken futo-maki-zushi. Natalie came home and told me her teacher asked for the recipe!



So today, I packed them sushi again. I made ura-maki-zushi or inside out tuna roll, and thick omelette futomaki. And I made an extra plate for Natalie's teacher.



So here's the recipe for Natalie's teacher:

Sushi Rice

3 cups calrose rice
3 cups water

Sushi Vinegar

1/2 cup rice vinegar
2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Cook rice in the rice cooker or in a medium saucepan on low heat. Allow rice to stand, covered for 10 minutes. Gently fold in the sushi vinegar. Cool until room temperature. You should get a glossy, slightly sticky but still separate sushi rice. Keep rice covered with a damp cloth while making the sushi to prevent drying out.

Suggestions for fillings:
  • Cucumber strips
  • Sliced avocado
  • Grilled chicken/beef strips marinated in teriyaki sauce
  • Sashimi tuna/salmon
  • Mashed canned tuna
  • Thick omelette sliced into 1cm strips
  • Pickled daikon
  • Cooked crab meat
  • Shredded carrots, lettuce, snow pea sprouts, capsicum
  • Mayonaise
Anything that tickles your fancy really.

To roll sushi, you will need sheets of toasted seaweed or yaki-nori, and a bamboo mat. These can be purchased from an Asian grocer or even at any supermarket nowadays, in the Asian food section.

Lay a sheet of seaweed shiny side down on the mat. Spread the sushi rice evenly across the seaweed sheet, covering most of the sheet leaving behind only a 2cm margin. Place fillings in the centre of the rice length ways. Roll mat forward away from you, pressing gently but tightly, wrapping seaweed around rice and fillings.

Unroll mat. Place sushi roll down with join at the bottom. Slice into bite size pieces with a sharp knife.

The inside-out rolls are relatively easy to make too. But we'll save that for another post, another day!

I love making sushi. It is healthy, it is pretty and it is so lovely to eat. It's great for little lunch boxes too.

And oh yes, those cute little cupcakes are from a birthday party we attended over the weekend. What a treat for them! I can definitely see faces greener that the cupcake's icing! Best Blogger Tips

1 comment:

Leonny said...

awww... I would be one of those kids too...

And hey your post makes me want to make some sushi for the kids! :)