soooosheeee time

When the clock strikes 'sushi' I am ready. I cant wait for this time to roll around (is that a sushi pun, 'roll') and it can show up at the darn-dest times, basically any time is sushi time. These guys are a broiled spicy salmon- cooked salmon mixed with soy, a little mirin, a little wasabi powder and scallions all chopped up, tasty roll and not raw.



Sushi time today was balanced out with a little soup. This soup is my twist on Vietnamese Phở except its not beef and it is basically nothing like a beef noodle soup, so I guess its Faux Phở .




This soup is a vegetable broth with noodles, chinese spinach, tofu, water cress, scallions, fresh green chile, dried red chile, thai lemon basil, and a lime wedge drizzled with a little soy sauce and sesame oil right before eating.



Wild caught sockeye salmon does not have as much fat but it is still mighty tasty. I have to make sure I dont show my tiles or the grout police will come all the way from California to give me a citation, and even if they do come - no sushi for them! Oh, ok maybe a little taste, I am nice like that.




A little rice, a little wasabi, a little salmon on some nori and you roll it right up. I dont worry about cutting the nori into the right size, I pile it on a full sheet, I dont mind making these big ol' futomakis, more rice fills the kid up, plus its all good food.



The secret is in the rice, it has to be sweet and sticky. I rinse mine while mixing it with my hand until the water runs clear. Washing the rice the right way is the difference between shiny good rice and not good rice. The rice is cooked in a rice cooker and after cooked it is tossed in wooden bowl with a bamboo paddle to cool it and this also shines it up again.



Fresh fish is a given, it has to be super fresh. I make this often as you might recall, exactly a year ago today to be precise I made a big batch. I have even posted videos. Go make some sushi.

sushi for my banshee

Who can remember the band souxsie and the banshees? They hit the scene in 76 with their first album coming out in 1978. I think they might still be performing.



Have a little listen while you nibble on some sushi for banshees.



We make sushi often since it is a kid favorite - this one has cucumber, salmon, avocado and lumpfish roe. Itadakimasu!




I can understand why some people see this and say Mazui but not us! Dragon roll, rolling.




I see this and I say Oishisou.

And most of you need to back up now -



Quail egg, lumpfish roe, rice and nori!

tailgate party with out the tailgate and without the party

Anymore it doesnt take much to make a food holiday and Super Bowl Sunday is definitely one such holiday. There is much lead up to preparing the right nachos, pigs in blankets and hot wings for this "meal" of grab and go eats. Myself, I am not much of a sports fan, sure I watch the finals and the big games but I dont go in for the long haul of being an actual fan. Whats my point? Pointless. We ate food on Super Bowl Sunday.

Since having a kegger was out of the question I opted for a "healthy" drink made from sweetened hibiscus tea, orange juice and dark rum. The naturally tart and flowery, fruity flavor of the hibiscus woke up with the little squeeze of fresh orange juice and the rum balanced the whole drink out like a long pole for a tight rope walker.

(I borrowed this shot from an old post)

The menu was diverse which translates to "all over the planet" as we had shrimp sushi rolls and salmon sushi rolls that were made and consumed so fast I didnt have time to take a proper photo but if you have read my blog before you will see that I make this often. (this link will prove it and it actually has a little video tutorial) Oh yeah and there was also fried calamari that flew off the plate so fast I forgot we even had it...my son made short order of that two pounds.

The star of the day, in fact lets go ahead and call this star the MVP, was the oyster. We had them raw on the half shell with some hot sauce and chopped onion.

We had fried oysters, but these oysters were fried for a reason.....

Fried oyster Po'Boy has got to be one of the best sandwiches on earth, add a little watercress dressed lightly with lime juice and olive oil, some chipotle mayo and some Zatarain's Remoulade Sauce and you are in business, big business.

Let me end this post by saying "can you believe these pictures were taken with my cell phone?" Yup thats right my cell phone! I hear a lot of people complaining that they dont have the right high-tech this or the right software that and that is why their pictures are not as good as they want them to be - I say phooey on all of that. Its the same thing with cooking, I can cook with a tin can and a heat source - if there is a will there is a way. Taking a good picture is no different than making a good omelete...it takes a certain - as the French would say "I dont know what."

Itadakimasu! (Bon Appetite!)

This is my kids bait, whenever I want to make him more of the good kid he already is I make him his favorite thing to eat and that is anything with nori (seaweed). Sometimes I roll them into a ball sometimes I make fancy little triangles and other times I do the simplest thing possible and that is to make rolls or Maki-zushi or Norimaki but no matter how you spell it or what you call it this stuff tastes great.



After making the sushi rice and having added a little sweet rice vinager I then put it on a sheet of nori with a little wasabi, that I buy in 2 pound bags cause I use this stuff in other things as well like I will make wasabi mayonaise to put on a teriyaki chicken sandwich for example.



Any way today I am just using shrimp, cause thats what I have, my avocados are not ripe enough and I dont have cucumber and I dont feel like making little carrot juliennes. Roll it up, slice it either at an angle or straight across, arrange on a plate with some more wasabi and pickled ginger and enjoy.


Its so easy to make and the enjoyment of being able to gorge yourself is unmatched.

Edit : To iron that point home a little my guy says "daddy put some of those garbage beans with some of that crab salt and roll it up with rice in the seaweed.. I bet it tastes good"...so I did...he ate it. I tasted it ..it was like having salty peanuts or corn nuts wrapped up in a sushi concoction..... seemed like more of a kids flavor or something you would have with a coca-cola. Plus to add to the connundrum - we dont drink soda - only in a special "needs" basis, and thats a fact, we are a low sodium low sugar house with no candy or soda, but plenty of cakes. You should get to know little debbie and I am sure I know dolly madison isnt she related to betty crocker? Let me ask my Aunt Jemima or my Uncle Ben or maybe Captain Crunch, somebodies gotta know. Chef boy are dee is too busy and so is Mrs. Pauls so maybe its Long John Silver or no...I know if we just ask the peanut gallery some who haw will chime in.

sledding, sushi, saturday, sunday (ssss)

Sushi always makes everything seem alright.




It comes to the table and *pow* pieces are missing just that fast. If you dont have your chopsticks in your hand you will not be first on the draw.



We love Woodstock and the surrounding areas and we went again this time to go sledding with the pups school friends who have a house there. They are on the same general path that we go all along and now we know someone just up the road from the chicken lady I buy eggs from. Life starts closing in on you, the world just gets smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller.



But first it was silly string in the trees.

Nice perfect little hill, not perfect sledding - oh well I guess I am the evil dad.

It wasnt always a bad run just so you know.

They had some bluefish they had caught in the freezer and since this fish is a little gamey I made fishburgers. A little mustard/mayo mix with some dill and a toasted bun and a big slice of tomato then you have yourself a sandwich.

live blogging

miso soup



sardines for a later date.





Can you imagine?


Its sushi time.



sushi rice with krill.



briney bitches.



krill



sake and salmon... sake and sake









well doggies jethro....