maki sushi

Sautéed lightly to alter them.

Cooked with kombu to impart a dashi flavor. What the heck. 

Not shown, 1/4 cup rice vinegar + 1/4 cup sugar heated in microwave to form a sweet/sour syrup to coat each kernel of rice. So, now the rice is flavored with kombu kelp, vinegar, sugar and salt. It is very good by itself. It is proper sushi rice, of a type. Also, short grain. 

This is pure Americana. Eh, it's what we do, but so what, they do it themselves. They adjust things to suit the season and availability. They're open to innovation. They invented things similar on their own. And that means I have permission to do it too, not that permission is needed. 

I wanted whole shrimp but the store didn't have it. Everything is already cleaned. If whole, then I could slice through the underside and cut through all the tendons that make them curl when cooked so that they'll spread flatly on top of a rice ball. Instead I cut them up and put them inside a roll. They do the same thing with popcorn shrimp. 

I'm using this tiny tin to store sourdough starter in frozen state. I am not using wasabi today. I photographed it to show the ingredients are:

1) horseradish

2) spirulina (a proteinaceous blue-green fresh water algae used as food supplement, used here for its color

3) turmeric

Wasabi is difficult to grow. It requires cool freshwater stream. Horseradish grows as invasive species. It takes over an area as bamboo will do. Best grown contained. So there you go. It's another American thing. And it works excellently. 

Incidentally you can get green powder supplements less expensive than spirulina, powdered spinach for example will do. But honestly, is the color green that important? 

No, it is not. This mixture is fantastic and a lot easier too.

When you see these packages at the store, just buy them already. You won't regret it. The slices are fantastic with this.

We chef types call this mise en place. *looks over shoulder* 

What? 

ARTS!

C'mon, that's beautiful. 

Each roll makes eight maki discs and I could eat only half of them. And I'm reminded of what my Nana used to always say, "Sus ojos son más grandes que su estómago." 

No wait, that doesn't sound like Nana at all, wait wait, Nana actually said, "Ihre Augen sind größer als der Magen." And I'm all, "What in the hell is that supposed to mean? It doesn't even make sense.