Omakase.....

Last night we celebrated Tim's 31st birthday. For the past week I had been continuously asking him, "What do you want for your birthday dinner?". Eventually he answered that he wanted homemade "omakase" sushi. We learned this term when we lived in Bozeman and bravely embarked on would begin our ongoing love affair with sushi. I remember we tried one place in town but were too nervous to order anything more adventurous than an avocado or tuna roll. Despite our apprehension we decided to visit a restaurant and sushi bar called Louie's Down Under. We had only heard good things and ventured down the stairs and situated ourselves at the sushi bar where two chefs were slicing and dicing. Again we started cautiously and then admitted our worries to one of the chefs. He closed his eyes and nodded knowingly. Then he placed two small bites of something on a plate and set it in front of us to try. We glanced at each other but plunged ahead simultaneously snapping the morsels up with our chopsticks. The flavor was smoky with a hint of sweetness and beyond melt in your mouth. Watching our reaction the chef said, "Do you want to know what that was?". We both nodded "yes" and he said, "That was eel". I know he did it purposefully but I was so glad that he waited to tell us because if I had known what it was I know that my perception of the flavor would have been skewed. Instead we were able to enjoy a delicious piece of smoked eel without our brains psyching us out. :) After that bit by bit we became more adventurous and started to frequent Louie's on a weekly basis. We got to know the chefs who were nice enough to answer our numerous questions about sushi. At some point we stopped picking out our own sushi and starting ordering "omakase" which essentially means "dealer's choice". They never ceased to amaze with incredible flavor combinations! To this day we miss their sushi. And I know it sounds weird that we fell in love with sushi in Bozeman, Montana. Since Bozeman caters to a rich, tourist clientele they have fish flown in daily so in the end it was the perfect place to scarf sushi. And scarf we did.

With this in mind you can imagine my trepidation when Timmy requested omakase sushi at home. I mean, it is a complicated process and it's no secret that I'm not a culinary genius. However, since we've both wanted to try our hand at it for some time we decided to get some rice, seaweed wrappers, a rolling mat, a few filler ingredients to practice. As we suspected getting the correct rice is beyond essential. Sushi rice is short grain and when cooked properly is nice and sticky so it stays inside the seaweed. I read all about preparing sushi rice online but in the end just followed the directions on the back of the package and to my great relief it came out perfectly. First, you rinse the rice several times in cold water and then heat to a boil. After it's bubbling you reduced the heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. When it's done you let it sit for a few minutes and then scoop it out of the pot into a container and mix in 4 T rice vinegar and wait. Waiting for the rice to cool was the most anticlimactic part because you're all excited and the rice prepares so easily that you just want to get to it and start rolling!

After a long thirty minutes the rice was cool enough and I laid the rolling mat on the cutting board and put down a piece of nori, the seaweed wrapper. Then with fingers dipped in water I moved small amounts of rice onto the nori patting them down as I went. Now the key is to keep your fingers wet because otherwise the sticky rice gets really sticky and you can't lay it down on the nori. Rookie mistake on my part. Somehow I managed to get the rice down with copious amounts slopped onto the counter and stuck to my fingers and hands. I rinsed them off and started placing sliced of avocado and smoked salmon at one end of the rice covered nori. Then carefully trying to hold everything in place I lifted the edge of the rolling mat and, taking a deep breath, thought, "this is it". Rolling and pressing gently I was able to roll my creation into something that resembled sushi! However, when I went to cut it into pieces that didn't go to plan. I mean they were ok and it didn't totally fall apart but there was definitely room for improvement! In retrospect I made two errors; that is, 1) I didn't run the blade of the knife under water before cutting because that didn't seem at all intuitive at the time and 2) our knives need to be sharpened. :) Regardless of the less than perfect final product we snapped up the pieces and declared them a success!

This experience gave me hope that it was possible that I could pull off "omakase" sushi at home. With that in mind I scoured the web for ideas. What I soon realized was that the possibilities are virtually limitless which was a little intimidating for me the sushi novice. In the end I decided on four rolls, made my shopping list and made multiple trips to different stores to try and find everything.

I'm very pleased to say that my current research project is winding down and so yesterday I was able to finish my work and come home early to prep all the ingredients. I put on Pandora and set to making the first batch of rice. With our one pot I had to make half of the rice I would need, wash the pan and then make the second half. Although tedious it actually worked out perfectly because when the first batch was done it had plenty of time to cool and was the first rice I used in the rolls. I also set to chopping veggies and other fillers. In all honesty I used every single Tupperware container we have to hold skinny pieces of avocado, cucumber, bell pepper, cream cheese, jalapeno, apple, asparagus (already skinny) and a mixture of spicy tuna made with mayo and Tabasco. As I was elbow deep in this process Tim texted to say that he was on his way home. I was all giddy and anxious to get the festivities under way that after I finished everything but before he arrived I was hopping from one foot to the other.

Then he walked through our patio and I was genuinely nervous because I so badly wanted this to turn out but had no idea if it actually would. I wanted to start off with something simple, clean and fresh because that gave me a higher probability of success than something more complicated. That would come later. :) So I skipped into the kitchen and dipping my fingers into a bowl of water specifically for this purpose I moved the rice onto the nori and patted it into place. Then with clean fingers I carefully placed a layer of smoked salmon followed by perfectly ripe slices of avocado. This was finished with thin slices of apple. Careful to keep everything in place I started to roll the edge of the mat around the sushi roll. In all my reading I had also learned that sometimes it pays to roll up the sushi and let it sit for a couple minutes before cutting it to ensure that the ingredients have bonded to each other. I tried this and voila! The roll cut beautifully, even with our dull knife and with a smile on my face I carefully arranged the pieces on a plate. This was a shot in the arm and I happily waltzed into the living room and introduced my first creation to the birthday boy. I sat down and we took our first bites. Ok, I go to great lengths to not toot my own horn but I have to say that it was a slam dunk! Smoked salmon and avocado go beautifully together but adding the apple provided a lovely sweet note and fun crisp texture. I could tell that Timmy was impressed and to be honest so was I. I figured this roll would be good because the ingredients were practically a sure thing but they were better than good. Elegant simplicity.

Feeling energized on top of being nervous/excited I moved onto the second roll. Now this one was technically simpler than the first but I didn't know if it would accomplish what I wanted. The filling consisted of diced tuna mixed with mayo and Tabasco sauce. When I was mixing it up I looked at the Tabasco bottle and wondered, "Why is this so hard to shake out of the bottle?". I had it tipped upside down and was using swift, abrupt arm movements to move the contents into the bowl. Apparently, not everyone likes things so spicy and the bottle is designed to prohibit the destruction of your food when too much hot sauce sloshes unexpectedly out of the bottle. I smiled to myself. I never imagined I'd become such a spice-hound but somehow that has come to pass. After I managed to dislodge a few droplets of Tabasco I gave the mix a good stirring and went in for the first taste test. Now I should say that while I enjoy spicy food I'm no fool. Somethings are extremely hot and should be tasted with caution. Since it's difficult to know how much heat your taste buds are going to experience I find it's best to start small. With that said I spooned a small amount into my mouth and considered it for a moment. Hmmm. Either I didn't get much of any sauce into the mix OR Tabasco is not hot at all. This did not bode well as I needed to create a spicy tuna roll. From there I spent more time that you might think shaking Tabasco into the mix. Only after what seemed like a copious amount of sauce did I start to taste anything. I wondered, "Why had I ever shied away from Tabasco sauce?". Then I added even more to try and up the spice factor and in the end I was able to achieve a nice flavor combination but nothing close to extremely "hot". With this mix in hand I carefully laid the rice onto the nori and ladled a layer of spicy tuna to complete this simple sushi roll. Next I accidentally made a small tear in the nori and while quietly scolding myself for the error I completed the roll and left it to sit for a few minutes before cutting. Again with the knife blade dipped in water I, dare I say, deftly cut the roll into pieces and arranged them on a plate. I introduced this next creation to Timmy and let him try the first piece. His eyes opened wide as he processed the flavors and it was then I grabbed a piece to see if I had achieved anything close to what I wanted with this one. Bingo! While the roll was not extremely spicy the flavor was rich while remaining simple. After all the roll only had tuna with a little mayo and a lot of Tabasco sauce. :) We soon devoured the rest of the pieces and I set to work on roll #3.

Now I'll start with the caveat that I am still undecided if chicken has any business in sushi rolls. But because I'm a sushi novice and couldn't source some of the more exotic ingredients like unagi (eel) but wanted variety I decided to try a chicken roll. I used a shredded chicken mixed with a little mayo and lots of black pepper. With rice and chicken in place I started to add the other ingredients in neat rows marching up the nori. These comprised thin cucumber spears, slices of avocado and finely chopped lettuce leaves. Lastly, I carefully spooned on a portion of sweet chili sauce. We first tasted sweet chili at Louie's and were immediately smitten. The flavor is so good! I warily eyed this roll because it had by far the most filling I had tried to pack into a sushi roll. I thought, "This could get interesting". So I set to rolling and it was a challenge but I managed to keep everything inside the nori! I was even able to cut it into pieces with only one casualty; one of the end pieces didn't make it but not to worry - I popped it into my mouth to dispatch of the evidence. Admittedly, I was least excited about this roll but introduced it to Timmy and let him decide. Perhaps sometimes having low expectations is ok because, in this case, we were pleasantly surprised. The pepper chicken was nicely complimented by the smooth, cool cucumber and avocado. But the ingredient that really made this roll was the sweet chili sauce adding a nice kick of sugar. At this point I was starting to feel pretty good about how things were going and I set off to put together the fourth and final sushi roll.

I wanted to end with something complicated, because you know I like to torture myself, so I decided on what is affectionately known at the Fire Station Roll. After setting up the nori and rice I started with layer of diced tuna to which I added rows of asparagus spears, red bell peppers, slices of jalapenos and carefully cut strips of cream cheese. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect with this one but figured that you couldn't go wrong with a jalapeno/cream cheese combination. With the roll cut and arranged on a plate I breathed a sigh of relief - by some miracle I had managed to pull off "omakase" birthday sushi for Tim. I'll say it: I was proud. We shared the last roll enjoying the contrast of the crunchy veggies alongside the smooth cream cheese. After we finished this last roll I looked Timmy and said, "You know, there's still some rice left if the birthday boys wants to make a couple rolls". Hearing this he clapped his hands together and with a smile on his face bounded into the kitchen. Now remember that I had used every plate, Tupperware container and utensil of ours to prep all the ingredients so the kitchen was a complete disaster. However, this did not phase him as he happily proceeded to concoct two sushi rolls that he devised on the spot. They had amazing flavor and an incredible variety of ingredients which he managed to contain and roll up in the nori. :)

Even though I was intimidated at the prospect of making sushi at home it turned out to be a great experience and I want to keep practicing. My next goal is to source additional ingredients, namely fish, to up my sushi game. Here's to trying something new!