Ghetto Sushi...

[mightyjesse]

Well... I have learned something: Sometimes you can make "Not a very good idea." mostly work with sufficient applications of brute force, but making sushi with brown rice really doesn't work very well. Brown rice just isn't sticky enough.

Sushi is such an odd proposition for someone who refuses to eat anything that even thought about swimming. But there are so many tasty things that can be put into a rice roll... Hence, Zig and I had what my Mom has lovingly termed "Ghetto Sushi."

Tonights sushi fillings were: spicy tuna (Canned tuna with mayo and chili sauce), ginger grilled chicken, green onions, red peppers, and cucumber. I probably would have used avacado too if I'd have it, but this was a last minute sort of effort - thus the brown rice and the lack of avacados.

With sufficient smashing, I *did* get the rolls to stay in one piece as far as the plate, but once it came time to dip them in the wasabi and soy, they totally fell apart. So... brown rice=No.

All in all, though, I have to admit dinner was pretty yummy, despite it's lack of cohesion.


(Zig gave me the *wierdest* look when he caught me taking a picture of my dinner.)

I also made a very nice vegetarian chowder, which I shall take to work for lunch today.

Comments

Sticky brown rice?

[jack-flanders.livejournal.com]

Sorry, you don't know me from Adam (though Zig should recognize the name)...but I was looking over your posts after seeing you reply to a few mutual friends, and your recipe postings caught my eye.

I learned how to make sushi at home from a friend who had some professional cooking training, so I knew that "brown rice = NO"... but he said that all brown rice wouldn't cut it.

Alas, my sushi consumption has dropped a lot since my system is not very happy with too much white rice at once - but brown rice seems to work much better.

You don't happen to know some brands or variety names for "sticky brown rice", do you?

If not... I can probably check with the Oriental Shop, which is right down the street from me, I expect they would know... and if you happen to already know, then I expect I can buy whatever it is from that store, they seem to have all the "hard to find" Japanese stuff in town...

Re: Sticky brown rice?

[mightyjesse.livejournal.com]

Mind you, what I posted was all supposition and conjecture, and I don't KNOW if the Nishiki Brown Rice (http://www.asiamex.com/proddetail.cfm?CFID=447999&CFTOKEN=683248&ItemID=824&CategoryID=26&SubCatID=36) is as sticky as the normal Nishiki White Rice. Mom makes it all the time, but she mixes it with 7 other grains, so I haven't a clue as to what the consistensy is like on it's own. I do know that when cooked, it looks significantly different than American brown rice. Nishiki White Rice (and brown) are now available at the Woodman's. I know that the Nishiki white rice makes good sushi whereas normal American rice is somewhat more problematic. So while I imagine that the Japanese brown rice may be less good than the Japanese white rice for sushi, I'm hoping that at least it would be at least as good as the American white rice...

After some further thought, it also occurred to me that the rice might be stickier if I didn't soak-drain-then-add-water-and-cook... I am probably rinsing away some of the starches that make things stick. So I have 2 alternate experiments to try.

1. Use Japanese Brown Rice and see if it's better than American Brown rice. (It HAS to be.)

2. Don't rinse the rice. Rather than soaking, draining then cooking equal parts rice and water. Just soak rice in a double portion of water and then cook in the same water.

... I'll post to let you know how it turns out, or if you beat me to the punch, please come back and let me know how it turns out!

Re: Sticky brown rice?

[mightyjesse.livejournal.com]

Oh, and while I don't know what you look like, I HAVE seen some of your missives on the NS Website from when you were the Thrown Weapons Marshal back in 2004...

Nice to meet you!