12. California Roll

One might think that after over 4 decades of popularity in this country that the stigma over sushi in America would be gone by now.  But many people attach themselves to dumber things for longer than that.  So whaddya gonna do?  The big stigma over sushi is the false  belief that sushi is raw fish.  Yes, there are many kinds of sushi that involve raw fish but sushi does not mean raw fish.  An abundance of sushi types exist that involve ingredients other than raw fish.  Actually I could write volumes about sushi, but I'm going to keep it as basic as I can.  There are plenty of places to go on the internet and books in the library to explore the vast details.  The one thing we can really focus on here is that sushi involves very fresh ingredients that are quite tasty and healty.

Part of the problem with the stigma surrounding sushi is the sushi culture in America.  Back in the 80s sushi became popular with yuppies (You know, Richard Gecko fans), so ever since then the idea is that the more expensive the sushi, the better.  Now with the artistry of the preparation and even some of the ingredients these high prices are justified, but quite a lot of what people are charged for sushi, even in the grocery store kiosks, are a blind ripoff.  When you make your own sushi at home you'll see what a horrible scam it is when you can see how much of it you can make for less than ten bucks.

Another part of sushi culture in America that adds to its stigma is nerds and geeks.  As a nerd and a geek myself I know this quite well because not only am I up to my armpits in nerds and geeks, but I am also guilty of the crime of perpetuating the stigma of sushi.  Nerds are as obsessed with Japan as stoners are obsessed with Amsterdam.  Nerds can't resist a country whose culture loves to make things organized, regimented, and complicated and for some reason the result is ninjas, sexy cartoons, and giant monsters.  Although it's not very polite, Americans associate Asians with intelligence, especially Japan.  So the more excruciatingly obscure the details a nerd can come up with the smarter he thinks he looks.  So they will bore you to death with details about sushi and have no problem with making it seem more complicated, disgusting, and exotic than it is just to appear smart or unique.

So I'm going to send the purists running with the California Roll.  This roll of sushi was developed in the early 70s in the first American sushi bar as a type of sushi that might appeal more to Americans and it did.  The California roll is the sushi that made it popular all over the rest of the country.  So take a breath and relax, because there is no raw fish involved with this one.  It is also one of the "inside out" rolls which rolls the rice on the outside rather than the nori (seaweed).  It was thought that this method would make the seaweed more palatable to Americans.

Here's all the stuff you'll need (hand dipping bowl not pictured).

Sushi Rice (Sushi-Meshi)
When it comes to most sushi, rice is very important.  Once you know how to properly prepare sushi rice then most of your battle is fought and you can make several types of sushi.  First, you're going to need short grained rice.  I have never seen this stuff sold at a standard supermarket, even stores that sell everything else for sushi (what a bunch of assholes), however, you can find it quite easily and for a reasonable price at most Asian food markets, they should be conveniently marked sushi rice or sushi meshi.  The short grained rice available in America is grown in California.  They don't import it from Japan, so don't bother looking for Japanese short grained rice, unless you're in Japan.  While you're at the Asian food market check out the prices on their sushi stuff, it may be cheaper than your supermarket's prices.  


This recipe is for one quantity of sushi rice. 

2 cups sushi rice
2 cups water
2 Tablespoons rice vinegar
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon Kosher salt


Place the rice into a mixing bowl and cover with cool water.  Swirl the rice in the water and pour off.  Repeat until the water runs clear.  The recipe said to do this 2 or 3 times, but I did it 6 and the water wasn't completely clear, but it seemed to work fine.  


Place the rice and 2 cups of water into a medium saucepan and place over high heat.  Bring to a boil uncovered.  Once it begins to boil reduce the heat to the lowest setting and cover.  Cook for 15 minutes.  Remove from heat and let stand covered for ten minutes.  

Mix the vinegar, sugar,  and salt into a small bowl.  Use a flat wooden spoon to cut into rice one way, then the other.  Don't stir it or mash it.  While cutting into the rice add some of the vinegar mixture a little at a time.  Also fan with a paper plate to cool the rice. If you have a helper have them fan the rice as you cut into it.  Do this for about ten minutes until the rice until it is about room temperature.  

Here's a bowl of prepared sushi rice.

California Roll
1 medium avocado, peeled, pitted, and sliced into 1/4 thick pieces
4 Table spoons of lemon juice
4 sheets of nori (These are the "seaweed sheets."  You can find these in some supermarkets but most Asian food stores carry it.)
1 batch of sushi rice
1/3 cup of toasted sesame seeds
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and cut into matchstick like pieces
4 crabsticks
Pickled ginger for serving
Wasabi for serving
soy sauce for serving

One thing you want to keep in mind while making your sushi is to keep your hands as wet as possible, mostly to keep the rice from sticking to them to much.  The best way to do this is prepare a water dish with 2 cups of water, 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar, and floating a slice of lemon on top.

Sprinkle the lemon juice over the cut avocado to prevent browning.

Cover a bamboo rolling mat (another thing on the list for your Asian food market trip) with plastic wrap.  Cut nori sheets in half crosswise.  Lay one sheet of nori, shiny side down, on the plastic covered bamboo mat.  Wet your fingers with your water and spread about a half cup of sushi rice evenly onto the nori, leaving some nori exposed on the side closest to you and away from you.  Sprinkle the rice with sesame seeds.

See this isn't raw fish.  It isn't even real crab.  This stuff is cooked before packaging and ready to eat.  I got this in the fish department at Giant Eagle.  It's quite tasty and easy to work with.

Here's what the fillings look like cut and ready to roll!

 
Turn the sheet over so that the rice side is down.  If you did the rice right it should be really sticky and turning over the sheet shouldn't be a problem.  If you rice falls apart you may have done something wrong or you're too rough.  (Remember, impatience is a bad ingredient in cooking.)  Keeping in mind that you're going to make 8 rolls, so take about 1/8 of the cucumber, crab, and avocado and place them in the middle of the sheet.

The rice is on the bottom and the ingredients are placed on the mat ready to roll.  The fillings are placed in the middle.

 
Make sure the stuff is near the edge of the mat closest to you.  Grab that edge.  While keeping the fillings in place with your fingers roll it into a tight cylinder.  Be sure to take out the part of the mat that starts to tuck into your roll before completing the rolling process.  Use the mat to shape the cylinder before unrolling it.  Unroll it and set aside, cover with a clean damp cloth.  

This is about what your roll should look like at this point. 

You can clean your mat with a clean damp cloth but if it remains sticky change the wrap.  Repeat this process until all the rice has been used, then cut each roll into 6 pieces.  When cutting use a gentle sawing action.  If you try to chop down you'll end up with deformed sushi.  Serve with pickled ginger as a side, wasabi (japanese horse radish), and soy sauce or dipping.  Although you may see people eating it with chopsticks, Sushi is considered a finger food so don't worry.

I made this for under ten bucks!  This much sushi at a Japanese restaurant would probably call for another mortgage on your house.

My inspirational hero for this post is Richard Dawkins not only because of his innovations in evolutionary biology and as a popularizer of science, but for his bravery as an open atheist who challenges creationism and intelligent design being taught as science and makes bold statements about religion in his controversial book The God Delusion.  Sometimes somebody needs to say it, and Dawkins is the guy who will do it.

  
o