When I was young we were blessed to have many foreign exchange students live in our home, most of them being from Japan. This was a great cultural experience for us kids as we learned to love the culture, the people, and the food through their influence.
This was all cool until, as a 3rd grader, I went to school with sushi in my lunch box. In theory this sounded cool. In practice it was not. You should have seen the faces I got. I was shamed for the rest of my elementary career. Of course, it didn't help that my mom kept insisting that it was cool and did it on a regular basis.
Jump forward to the present. I still love sushi and as an adult I'm glad I can wear this out in the open. I'm even part of an elite sushi club. Yes, it's true. I'm in a club of four women that eat sushi together in Salt Lake City Utah. Now, you may ask, sushi, in Salt lake? Yes, in fact, some of the best sushi I have had was in a town called logan in northern utah. If you are ever on a sushi eating tour call me and I'll give you details.
On one of our club excursions we met at the restaurant and ordered edamames for an appetizer. Come to find out, this was the first time one of our members had had them. Thinking they were snap peas she ate the whole thing, pod and all. I would not recommend this. After the meal, when she realized the rest of us has been putting the pods in a separate bowl, she laughed and confessed she had secretly been spitting them in her napkin the whole time to which she displayed a napkin full of pods.
This recipe can be as spicy or mild as you wish, just add the chili sauce a little at a time. I used to make it with imitation crap but now I substitute garbanzo beans and I like it just as much. I even got a little kid who is a picky eater to like this. His eyes were watering the whole time because of the heat but he kept coming back for more. I'm sure you will too.
Sushi
cooked rice
seaweed paper/nori
1/2 c garbanzo beans
Vietnamese chili sauce
veganaise
1/2 avocado
1/2 cucumber sliced length wise
wax paper
sesame seeds
Cook the rice and let it cool out of the fridge. If it cools in the fridge it will go hard. In a blender, add the garbanzo beans, a spoonful of veganaise, and chili sauce (add a little at a time). Slice your cucumber and avocado length wise. Place a sheet of nori on the wax paper and wet your hands (this will help keep the rice from sticking to you). Take a handful of rice and form it into a ball the size of a baseball. Keep working with it till it holds together well. This brings out the gluten so it will stick to your nori. Now put it on your seaweed and spread it around pressing it into your nori till the whole sheet is covered. Now flip the sheet over so the rice is on the bottom. On one long end of the sheet, layer the garbanzo bean mixture, sliced avocado, and cucumber. With 2 hands start to roll the sushi. Roll with the wax paper (make sure you don't roll it in) this will help keep it tight. To seal it, wet the nori at the end and squeeze it together. Now roll it in sesame seeds. To cut, use a very sharp knife. Cut the tube in half and then put the two halves together. Keep doing this until they are 1/4-1/2 an inch thick. Stack on a serving plate and serve with wasabi and soy sauce.
Steam or blanch your edamames and sprinkle with sea salt. Remember not to eat the pod!
This week we're going to focus on meals for a party. Matthew and I love to have other couples over for dinner.....all though, it doesn't always turn out well. Usually we have these big ideas and plan - what we think are crazy fun theme dinner parties and then we just end up having his parents over and playing dominoes.
Since we've moved to Samoa it's only gotten worse. We've found that while pologies or white kids like most Samoan food, most Samoan adults do not like pologie food. So we end up feeding our food to the kids who will eat ANYTHING....literally! They made a sandwich from pita bread, hummus, grape jelly, cucumbers, and kimchee. Now, I'm adventurous...but not that adventurous.
We've had some really fun theme parties though, mostly for Matthew's birthdays. One year was quinoa, which I've already mentioned. A few others included 'organic', 'salad bar', and 'squash'. Complete with poetry, artwork, and recipes to support the theme.
This weeks menu has flavors from around the world that are perfect for a romantic dinner for 2 or a party of 4 or more. So invite some friends over and show off your mad cooking skills. Don't worry, I'll give you all the credit.
Week Four
Monday: Sushi with Edamame
Tuesday: Fondue
Wednesday: Phad Thai
Thursday: Swedish Meatballs
Friday: Curry
Saturday: Mushroom Spinach Crepes
Sunday: Peanut Soup
Bonus: Thai Dessert Rice
Can you name all the places those come from? Go on, give it a try. Post a comment if you know. Matthew and I always like to try new foods. For example, for our second anniversary we went to "china town" in Las Vegas, which we had heard great things about. Turns out it was a strip mall that had a Chinese arch way at the entrance and a bunch of Chinese shops. For lunch we had heard about this great place where we could go for some killer dim sum. Honestly, I thought dim sum was some sort of soup....I know now. Dim sum is where people who don't speak English rush past you with carts full of things that you don't recognize but that they want you to eat.
The waitress so kindly seated us right next to the fish tank where a 10 lb guppy sat and stared at us the entire meal, pleading with us through his eye "please don't eat me." Finally, one of the whirling carts spoke broken English..."pork?" (we were asking ourselves the same question). Sure, we know what pork is, so we nodded our heads. "Shrimp?" We kept nodding. He then said something that we didn't recognize but we nodded anyway. He left us staring at our plates wondering if we had heard him right.
This was pre-vegan days so we started with the pork. It was a dumpling, which we recognized so quickly gobbled that down. Then we came to the shrimp....heads and all. Matthew handed me the plate and said, " make this look familiar" so I sat there, in that busy restaurant beheading, tailing, and "de-turding" ruffly 20 deep fried shrimp to the horror of the onlookers next to us. We then turned our attention to the third plate, looked back at each other, confirmed we had had enough adventure for one day and called for our check. I think now that I know what to expect I might like it a bit more but we'll have to wait to see if I'm right for some time far down the road. Hopefully these ingredients won't be as terrifying or foreign to you.
Grocery List
brown rice
nori/seaweed paper
garbanzo beans
Vietnamese chili sauce
veganaise
cucumber
avocado
edamama
red potatoes
artisan bread
broccoli
cauliflower
mushrooms
spinach
1 pkg masaman curry
2-3 carrots
lingonberry sauce or cranberry sauce
phad thai noodles
peanuts
cilantro
bean sprouts
green cabbage
2 cans coconut milk
peanut butter
tony's seasoning
1 bottle fruit juice ( ex: mango, apricot)
vegetable broth
soy free vegan cheese
"meat"
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