Sushi is one of those dishes that is a little intimidating. How many people think to make it at home when you can order it so easily and have it made by experts? Most people wouldn’t even know where to start. That was my mindset until high-school. One of my best friends decided to have a make-your-own sushi party for her birthday. Ever since I saw how easy it was, I’ve been working on my sushi skills.

This weekend, one of my oldest friends came over with her boyfriend and we made some sushi combos of our own. I want to share the tricks and tips with you so that you might feel confident and tackle sushi making on your own. It’s fun, easy, and the combinations are pretty endless.

In order to make sushi, you need a few basic ingredients:

• A pack of nori sheets (can be found in the asian aisle in most grocery stores)
• 1 1/2 cups sushi rice (found in the same aisle as the nori)
• 1/3 cup rice vinegar
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt

The first thing you want to do is prepare the sushi rice. Combine the rice with 2 cups of water and bring to a soft boil.  Immediately turn down to a simmer, cover, and let cook for 20 minutes. The most important lesson I’ve learned when it comes to cooking rice is DO NOT STIR IT! EVER! Just put the water in and then stay away. This will seriously cook the rice perfectly. After 20 minutes turn off the heat, put a paper towel on top of the pot and cover with the lid. Let rice cool for 20 minutes (again, don’t touch the rice). While the rice is cooling combine rice vinegar, sugar, and salt in a small sauce pan and heat until sugar and salt have dissolved (about 3 minutes). Transfer rice to a large bowl and add vinegar mixture. Using a flat wooden spoon fold the vinegar into the rice. Set aside and let the rice mixture come to room temperature.

The next step is to prepare your sushi fillings. Here is where your preferences, fridge, and creativity come into play. I don’t have a good market to buy sushi-grade fish so my combinations are either vegetarian or made with pre-cooked seafood (like frozen shrimp and imitation crab meat). This weekend I had:

• cucumber
• avocado
• imitation crab meat
• cream cheese
• smoked salmon
• bell peppers
• crunch (AKA Panko bread crumbs)
• spicy mayo (2 Tbsp light mayo + sriracha to taste)

In order to prepare the fillings, you want to julienne them into thin matchstick size pieces.

Third step is assembling the sushi. Lay a piece of nori shiny side down onto a sushi mat. If you don’t have a sushi mat, you can use a piece of saran wrap. If you think you might make sushi more than once, though, you might want to purchase a mat. They’re pretty inexpensive and don’t take up much room in your kitchen (I know the annoyance of owning a one trick kitchen gadget that takes up more room than it’s worth…this is not one of them!) The next thing you want to do is to spread the rice THINLY onto the nori, covering most all of it, except about 1/2 an inch furthest away from you.

This is probably the trickiest part of the whole process. You want to make sure the rice is spread thinly, otherwise you end up with sushi that is 99% rice and 1% filling, which is no fun. My trick is to spray my hands with Pam. This might sound odd, and you’re probably not seeing the pro sushi chefs use this trick, but it’s the only way that works for me. It allows you to spread the rice super thin without it all ending up stuck to your hand. Don’t be afraid to smush the rice down and to use more Pam if you need it.

Once you decide what filling you want to put into your sushi, lay it down along the edge closest to you*. Be careful not to overfill. This will take some trial and error, but usually 1-2 layers of each filling should be enough.

bell pepper, crab meat, cream cheese, sriracha

Using your sushi mat, begin to roll the sushi away from you (towards the uncovered rice part. My trick is to use the sushi mat for the first roll and the last roll and to do the rest by hand. In the first roll, you want to make sure you get all the filling in and then use the mat to squeeze and shape the sushi. Depending on the size of your sushi, you can do 1-2 more rolls until you run out of nori. Place the mat over the roll and squeeze again to shape it. You’ll end up with a long sushi log. Set it aside and repeat the filling and rolling process until you’re satisfied (about 1 nori roll per person).

The last step before enjoying your creation is to cut the sushi. This is trickier than you might think If you have saran wrap, you might want to cover the sushi with saran wrap to help it keep it’s shape while you’re cutting it. Use a very sharp knife and don’t make the pieces too thin otherwise they’ll fall apart. It’s ok if it’s messy. You’ll get better with practice and hey, you just made sushi! Display it on a lovely plate with all the fixin’s (wasabi, ginger, soy sauce, spicy mayo) and enjoy!

*If you want to try inside out sushi, turn the nori over after you’ve spread the rice. Also put a piece of saran wrap in between the rice and the sushi mat to prevent sticking. Put the fillings directly onto the nori.

As many of you know, this is the time of year when there are holiday baskets galore. Most of the ones I receive are filled with desserts or other treats that are easy to share with the office. This year, I received a really nice change of pace from one of my research partners– a bottle of wine and gourmet pastas and sauces. Since it’s tricky to share dried pasta with the office, I left the bottle of wine there and took home the loot for some fun dinners.

As you know from previous posts, veggie and protein filled pastas are one of my favorite quick meals. Two ingredients from this gift basket helped me make Thursday night’s dinner a more special version of a one pot meal: pesto and Trottoloni Pugiese Pasta. I had no idea what kind of pasta that was, so here’s a picture: 

You probably will not have this pasta, so just use something that will hold sauce well like orchiette, fusilli, or anything that’s not spaghetti basically.The pasta was a great fun shape so I was excited for this meal before I figured out what else to put in the dish.  Here’s what I came up with:

• 6 oz dry pasta (3 servings)
• 1 package baby bella mushrooms (sliced)
• 3 mini bell peppers (or 1 large one)
• 2 links of chicken and apple sausage (you can also use grilled chicken, veggie, or Italian sausage)
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 1 cup jarred pesto sauce

A couple quick notes. First of all mini bell peppers are something I’ve discovered recently and they’re great because you can put 3 colors in your dish without having to store a bunch of partially used peppers (I don’t know if you have this issue… but I often need less than 1 pepper for dinner for 2). 

Second thing I want to talk about is the sausage. I had some chicken and apple sausage from Fresh Direct. I thought it would go well with the pesto because it was a little sweet without being too overpowering a flavor. My alternate suggestions are basically other proteins whose flavors would not overpower the pesto.

This dish is pretty interesting because unlike most of my other recipes, the only spice I added was garlic salt. The rest of the dish is flavored by the sausage and the pesto.

I’ve heard from many people that the trickiest thing about cooking is getting the timing right. This is a great recipe to start with because you don’t have to worry about timing, it just works out!

Fill a medium size pot about half full with water and bring to a boil. While that’s coming to a boil heat some olive oil in a large skillet and brown the mushrooms. Sprinkle them with 1/2 tsp garlic salt to help them brown and release their water. Once mushrooms are browned and cooked (about 10 minutes) remove them from the pan and set aside. Around this time the water will be boiling. Add the pasta and cook according to package directions. Slice the sausage into 1 inch coins and cook them, covered, in the pan for about 3 minutes. Flip, re-cover, and let them finish cooking for another 2-3 minutes. Remove them from the pan. Add the mushrooms back to the pan with the diced mini bell peppers and frozen peas and let them heat through. Add sausage along with 1/2 cup of starchy water from the pasta pot. Starchy water is a great trick when building sauces. First of all it helps less sauce stretch out over more food (which saves calories), and it also helps the sauce stick to the pasta so that all the flavors blend together well. Add about 1/2 cup of pesto and stir until the veggies and sausage are well covered. The pasta should be about done now. Drain it and add it directly to the large pan with the rest of the pesto. Mix until all ingredients are well incorporated and pesto is evenly distributed. 

With winter in the air (on the days when it’s not 60 degrees at the end of November) and a pound of ground beef in the freezer, last night’s dinner was a clean out the fridge chili. Chili is great because it’s a hearty and comforting one-pot meal that is super versatile. I also love that it can be ready in 30 minutes but the longer it sits the better it tastes.

All you need for a great chili is ground meat, vegetables, and some sort of tomato product. And really, you only sort of need the meat!

You also need a little creativity and the confidence to know that most vegetables would be good in chili if you add the right spices.

So for last night’s chili I used:

ground meat: 1 lb 90% lean sirloin

vegetables: 1 onion, 1 diced zucchini, 1 14 oz can of black beans, 10 cherry tomatoes quartered,1/3 cup frozen corn, 1 chipotle and 1 Tbsp of adobo

tomato product: 1/3 cup roasted garlic tomato sauce 

The rest is a story about seasoning and building flavors. I started this recipe the way I start most of them, with some olive oil, garlic, and a diced onion. Once the onion becomes translucent, add in the ground beef and mix every 30 seconds or so so the beef cooks evenly without drying out. 

This is where you want to start building flavor. I had some leftover taco seasoning from Trader Joe’s. It’s awesome and super cheap, but if you don’t have any on hand, these are the spices I would suggest using (the amounts are how I would suggest starting, but it’s important to keep tasting as you add ingredients and adjust accordingly)

• 1/2 tsp garlic salt
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp chili flakes (or red pepper flakes)
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1 Tbsp adobo

Now, if you don’t have all those ingredients that’s fine! Just try to add heat and smokiness using whatever you have in the spice cabinet. I think the most important are chili powder, salt, pepper, and cumin. One ingredient that I want to call out is adobo. It was listed earlier in the form of “chipotle in adobo” which is a newer secret ingredient that my coworker taught me. You can buy it in a can in the Latin food aisle (Goya makes one version). It adds a depth of flavor and heat that is wonderful and different. One thing to keep in mind is that the chipotle chilies vary in heat depending on the soil and a bunch of other factors, so taste the adobo sauce for its heat level and start with a little to make sure you don’t make your chili too spicy! For last night’s chili I used one pepper and 1 Tbsp of adobo and it was perfect for me, a little too spicy for normal people.

Ok, so now you are well on your way to building a great flavor base! Once the meat is mostly cooked, add in the rest of the vegetables and the pasta sauce. I would add the zucchini and black beans first since they are the heartiest and can stand up to being cooked the longest.  The corn and tomatoes can wait until the flavor is where you want it to be. 

That’s really all there is to it. Once everything is cooked, reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for at least 10 minutes. This recipe made about 5 servings. I served corn bread on the side and some shredded mexican cheese on top. Sour cream, salsa, any other usual chili condiments would also work!

Embrace winter! Make chili!