Sweet Potato Avocado Rolls with Maple Tamari Reduction

Yeeeeeeeehaw, let's go ahead and just put the sesame seeds away. It's ok. I've got something different for you to try.

Bit of a disclosure: this roll was supposed to be pumpkin and avocado, but by time I got to chopping and roasting the huge pumpkin I'd had lying around for a while, and discovering its sinewy reluctance to be delicious at all, well, the cute little sweet tater hanging in my produce basket was looking mighty fine. And so it got roasted. And cut into cubey strips. And wrapped in nori with a good friend (avocado) and coconut rice.

And rolled in toasted, salted pumpkin seeds. So good.

Earthy, nutty little suckers. A lovely coating - even when lying next to fellow rolls, being squished and leaned on, no one got stuck to each other. Uber easy to cut, even with my (gasp) non-recently sharpened knife.  Higher protein, these seeds, perhaps? Who knows, but for taste alone, I'd do it again. Maybe with some tempeh bacon next time, oh yeah.

And let's not forget - a small saucepan, half maple syrup, half tamari, healthy dash of smoked habanero poweder, simmered down to the consistency of balsamic reduction, drizzled over top with a fork. This isn't salty sushi. This is Prelude to Pumpkin Pie sushi.

Sweet Potato Avocado Sushi with Pepitas and Maple-Tamari Reduction
makes 6 rolls

Let's do this.

2 cups sushi rice, washed until water runs clean
1 can coconut milk + half a cup of water

1 medium sweet potato, roasted, sliced to 1/2 inch strips
1 avocado, sliced to strips
6 sheets nori
2 cups roasted, salted pumpkin seeds, crushed

1 cup maple syrup
1 cup tamari soy sauce
1/2 tsp smoked habanero powder

sushi mat
sharp knife

Easy peasy.

Prep your rice as you would normal sushi rice, but leave out the rice vinegar. Cool to room temperature.

Meanwhile, combine your tamari, maple syrup, and habanero powder in a small saucepan. Simmer over medium-low heat 12-14 minutes, until reduced by half. Set aside.

Have your fillings at hand. Set up a separate plate for rolling your sushi in the crushed pumpkin seeds (ie, a spare cutting board). Be near a sink, for rinsing your knife in between cuts.

Cover your mat in plastic wrap, folding it around itself at the edges.

Press 2/3 cup sushi rice onto the plastic, about covering the area of one of your nori sheets. Press a sheet of nori in place over your square of rice. Place 3-4 potato strips and 5-6 slices of avocado at roll bottom, then bring the bottom edge up and using the mat, roll your sushi tightly, following through at the end, so that the riced nori sticks to itself.

Dust your spare cutting board with 1/2 cup pepitas and roll your sushi in the delish powder. Set roll aside.

Complete the rest of your rolls. If you have leftover rice/nori, try your hand at ....

Starting with a sharp knife that has been run under the faucet, slice your sushi into 8-10 pieces. Plate as you go, and drizzle your lovely rolls with tamari-maple reduction, when done.

Taking those babies to a party? Skewer each piece with a toothpick. Enjoy!

Sushi Napolean, for kicks

I'm not an accomplished sushi roller - avocado squishes out on me, the middles of my rolls have gaps and so, whoops, there goes the cuke. I'll get better at it, methinks. But I wanted to try something different.

This stratified sushi works with most anything - roasted veggies, greens, whole cloves of roasted garlic, cream cheese, fresh stuffs like cukes, blanched asparagus, avocado. Remember to keep your toughest veggies at the bottom, however, so the slicing of the rest of the layers doesn't flatten your avocado/soft fillings.

Kind of birthday-cakey. Awesome.

EDIT - my lovely pal Nick let me in on a little secret this morning - this is technically Oshizushi, and they even have equipment you can buy to make slicing your "cake" less gut-wrenching. So if anyone out there's wondering what to get me for my birthday....

It's asparagus season over in these here parts, so I went with your standard ACA + C - Asparagus, Cucumber, Avocado and Carrot. Feel free to change stuffs up, however.

Sushi Napolean

1.5 cups sushi rice, washed
2.5 cups water

1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tsp sugar

4 sheets nori

15-20 think asparagus spears
1/3 cuke
1 whole avocado
Shredded carrots, small handful

Dipping ideas:

Avocado/Wasabi Sauce
Teriyaki Sauce
Sriracha/Nayo Sauce
Sesame Seeds
etcetcetc

Let's do this.

Cook your sushi rice for 20 minutes on medium low until all the water is absorbed (or use your awesome rice cooker, either way). Let steam 5 minutes, remove to bowl, and stick that sucker in the freezer for 15 while you assemble your fillings.

Slice your cukes thin, 1/8 inch or so, salt lightly, and set aside.

Scoop your avocado and slice thin, about the same as the cukes, salt lightly, and set aside.

Set some water to boil and blanch your asparagus for 3-4 minutes, until bright green and a little softened. Chill in icewater. Remove woody ends and set aside.

Take your rice out and toss with your vinegar and sugar. I rarely heat my vinegar and dissolve my sugar in it first - I'm so scandalous. If you'd prefer, feel free.

Lay out a sheet of nori and press about 2/3 cup rice into the nori, leaving a 2 cm border around the rice. Press your thinly sliced cuke into the rice (or whatever thick, hard veggie you're using).

This works best if you have two sushi rolling mats, but if not, grab a plate, lay out another sheet of nori, and repeat the rice spreading step above. Turn over and press the riced nori onto the cukes, aligning the nori.

Gently press another 2/3 cup rice onto the 2nd layer of nori. You'll feel things squish around a bit underneath - just be gentle and don't worry too much about making it perfectly even. Lay your asparagus out in a flat layer. Press your carrots in and around them. On your other mat or plate, rice another sheet of nori with another 2/3 cup rice, then turn it over and press it onto the asparagus and carrot layer.

Another 2/3 cup of rice, gently pressed onto the nori, then add your avocado in an even layer. Once more, rice the last sheet of nori with 2/3 cup rice on the other rolling mat, turn it over, and lay it over the avocado layer.

Cover with a sheet of wax paper and a wide, heavy plate. Press the sushi for 10-15 minutes, using extra weight, if ya need:

(That, my friends, is a gallon-sized bottle of Frank's Hot Sauce. No, I'm not joking.)

Here comes the tricky part.

Sharpen your chef's knife. Trust me - this sucker is tough to slice.

Remove the weights and plate, careful - you might need to be gentle when removing the wax paper.

Wet your knife. Leave your water running a little tiny bit and grab a piece of paper towel.

Trim the edges of your napolean so that the border of plain nori you left on each sheet is gone, and the edges are clean.

Run water over your knife and clean the sushi remnants off with the paper towel.

Slice the napolean 4 times the wide way, drawing the knife through the cake and pushing gently down with eat cut. Wet and clean your knife after every cut. Make sure you feel your bamboo mat at the bottom at the end of each cut. Tough stuff, I know, getting through that last layer of nori can be tricky!

Slice 3 times the shorter way. Toothpick the pieces before moving them - you don't want to leave anything behind.

Really good as is, or dipped in sauce, soy, teriyaki, wasabi, et all. The sharper your knife, the smaller the squares can be - but don't go any bigger than I've described or there's no way you're fitting that sucker in your mouth.

I really dug on the geometry of this little dish. All lines, color, cross sections.

Enjoy!

Just because you can, definitely means that you should.

Here in crown town, and in other 'tropolisis that tend to show up on obesity stat-maps as uncommonly overweight, we have these things. And they are called Fried Pickles.

They are on my top-5 things that made me move to Charlotte list. No, I'm not kidding. Good god, are they good, in a sick-to-your-stomach kind of way - similar to the sinking, queasy feeling you'd get when eating the entire can of cake frosting with a spoon as a kid.  Or, you know, last week.

I had a mature batch of kimchi. I had some cake flour. Batch of vegan ranch. And the desire for tempura. And so, this monstrosity happened:

Greasy, salty, stinky. AWESOME.

Batter was simple - flour, water, dash of oil, some korean pepper paste and salt. Dash baking soda. Vamanos.

But wait, what's this?

Is that the afore-mentioned pickley tempura wrapped in rice and nori, with avocado and daiya, topped by sesame nayo? Is it? WHY YES, YES IT IS.

Before you guys all tell me I'm not the first, well, hey, I know that. But it's 100% vegan. And ain't nowhere in this city to get it that way, 'cept my kitchen.

Tempura Kimchi Kim Bap with Avocado, Daiya, and Sesame Nayo
makes 3-4 rolls

For the tempura kimchi:

1 handful squeezed kimchi

1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup cake flour
1 tsp egg replacer
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

1/4 cup cake flour
1/4 cup korean red pepper, ground

Vegetable oil for frying

for the sushi:

1.5 cups sushi rice
2 cups water
Dash vinegar + 1 tsp sugar
3-4 sheets nori
1 avocado, sliced thin
Small handful daiya cheeze shreds

4 tablespoons nayonaise
1 tablespoon sesame oil

Black sesame seeds, for topping

Break out that sushi mat, ladies and gents, and lesdothis.

Combine your sushi rice and water in a saucepan or rice cooker, bring to a boil, cover, and cook 20 minutes - until the water is absorbed. Remove rice to a large bowl and stick the stuff in the freezer to cool quickly.

Toss your red pepper and flour together. Spread on a plate.

Mix the batter ingredients together and whisk till smooth.

Heat your vegetable oil in a fryer or wok till hot hot hot, and make your tempura - roll each piece of kimchi seperately in the flour/red pepper mix, then dip in the batter, then gently lay in the oil bath. Do only 3 at a time - they cook quickly. Scoop out and lay on paper towels to drain. Repeat until your kimchi is all gone.

Mix your sugar and vinegar together and add to the rice. It's ok if it's still a little warm - just not hot.

Chop your kimchi into 1/2 inch wide pieces (if they don't need chopping, more power to ya - mine did!) and set them out on a plate with your other fillings (avocado, daiya).

Lay out your sushi mat and place a piece of nori rough side up. Grab about a cup of rice from your bowl and press it into the sushi, until it forms a rectangle that stretches to both sides horizontally but leaves a little space at both top and bottom. Press 1/4 of the avocado, then kimchi, then daiya into the rice, and roll away. An awesome how-to video can be found here. Repeat until fillings and rice are gone.

Mix your nayo and sesame oil in a small bowl and thin with just a teeeny bit of water. Slice your sushi with a wet knife, plate, and drizzle sesame nayo over the roll. Top with black sesame seeds, if you'd like.

Mine got a little coneheady BUT that didn't mean they weren't superdelish. A little indulgent, fat wise - tempura + avocado + nayo. But hey, that's what the gym's for *cough*.

Cheers!

I like to party.

And I love bringing food to parties.

It started out when I did a lot of hanging with a particularly non-soy-friendly crowd in NYC - I knew there'd be bacon in everything people brought to whatever potluck/shindig was getting crammed into someone's incredibly tiny apt, so I'd play it like I was going to anyway - you know, I just had this vegan lasagna in the fridge and it needed to get eaten.

Over time, I've developed preferences for party-friendly food. It can't look confusing - ingredients should be evident. Small is good - one hand probably has a drink in it. Slimy, gooey textures scare people off (I learned this after making a crock pot full of Swedish Meatballs for a cocktail party that people would stare at suspectfully as they walked by, like some meatball amoeba was about to pour forth and consume them). Basically, it stands to reason that if you can get everything you want people to taste in a single bite (maybe two), that's the best way to go.

That's not to say I'm above standing at the wedding buffet, scooping pounds of spinach/artichoke dip onto a plate waaaay to small to hold the steaming mass, but if I'm the one at the wheel, things usually get tiny and complicated. Anyway.

Hello, burrito sushi.

Fiesta time, mi mujeres y hombres. You might think nori + salsa = weird, and you'd be right. But goodweird.

This is a pretty straightforward recipe - just make a batch of sushi rice but treat it like this recipe for yellow oats - some faux-chicken (or real, if you're so inclined) stock, saffron, garlic, a dash of turmeric for color.

Then, for the filling -

Queso Fresco (vegan darlings - try some Daiya OR crumble a teeny bit of firm tofu, toss with lemon juice, nutritional yeast, salt and garlic powder)
Refried Black Beans
Salsa (mine's simple - handful cilantro, one large tomato diced fine, 2 cloves garlic, minced, 1/3 medium red onion diced fine as well, half a lime's juice, 1 fresh jalapeno, again, fine dice, salt and pepper to taste)
Sour cream (again, darlings - I love this recipe for Soy Sour Cream, give it a whirl or just leave it out!)
Shredded Lettuce
Avocado

- being as conservative as possible. I used about 3/4 - 1 tablespoon of each filling, and still ended up with jumbo rolls.

As long as you don't add any oil or fat to the rice, it'll maintain its stickiness enough so that you don't have to add vinegar/sugar.

Just a piece of advice - if you're making these for 5-6 hours in the future (and especially if they're sitting overnight) double wrap these rolls with nori.

Burrito Sushi Rice

makes enough for 6 rolls

2 cups short grained white rice ("sushi" rice) washed
3 1/2 cups water mixed with 2 cubes faux-chicken boillion
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 tablespoon safflower
1 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

Boil the broth and seasonings and add rice, stir, and cover. Simmer over low heat for 20 minutes. Let sit 10, uncover and stir, and cool (either on the stove, or if you're anxious to get burrito-sushi makin, in the freezer).

I totally made a batch a couple weeks ago (because I had a ton of fajita making leftovers and wanted to do something weird with them, you know how it is) with standard sushi rice and they were decent. Flavoring the rice really makes this shine, however.

Slice, drizzle with hot sauce, skewer with festive toothpicks, and serve.

This is how I like it, anyway.

Isn't that the translation? Okonomiyake = "as you like it" in Japanese?

I immediately considered putting tater tots in mine, but settled for slightly-less-evil Bacos instead. Yeah.

I'd wanted to try my hand at this since seeing Closet Cooking's Shitake Okono take the cake for a Tastespotting recipe contest. Plus, my wok is the perfect size for personal-Japanese-pizzas. AND! Little Sis let it be known that this is her fav food, so I had to practice for some future birthday surprise.

Kevin has another recipe on his site that uses whole wheat flour - which worked out swimmingly and added an oaty, grainy flavor.

The traditional recipe calls for Dashi - made most often with fish, so I went with an imported mushroom broth. Steeped with a little kombu, it had a briney, hint of the sea taste. Perfecto. And since I'm a hot toddie about spicy, I mixed some prepared wasabi with the Mayo before spider-webbing our 'cakes. And covered them with toasted sesame chili oil. So many flavors. So lovely.

Baco Okonomiyaki
adapted from Closet Cooking's awesome recipe
makes two pancakes

2 eggs, well beaten
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 small head of cabbage, sliced thin
1/2 cup bacos
1/2 cup broth steeped with one small piece of kombu - for the broth, I used a Japanese mushroom-flavored
Handful of fresh bean sprouts
Handful of frozen edamame
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 pound shitake mushrooms, stems removed
1 tablespoon soy sauce, or more to taste (whole wheat flour has a sweet undertone - you might want to add a tad more sauce if you likey the salty)
Oil to coat your skillet or wok

To top:

Fried shallots (find these at your Viet/Thai grocery)
Pea shoots (lurv ya TJS!!!)
Chili oil
1/2 cup Katsu sauce
1/2 cup Mayonnaise, preferably Japanese, mixed with 1 tsp wasabi powder

Let's do this.

First, you'll need to saute your cabbage and mushrooms. Heat a tablespoon of sesame oil in a wok, and add your cabbage. Sear them on one side till a tad brown, about 5 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon of soy sauce and a little water and cover your wok, letting the cabbage steam - let it cook 3-4 minutes, until soft. Set aside.

Slice your mushrooms into strips and heat another tablespoon of sesame oil in your wok. Add shrooms and cook over medium heat, until they soften. Shitakes are little sponges, so I couldn't resist adding a little leftover mushroom broth to them just as they were finished cooking - to pump that awesome, earthy flavor. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix your eggs and broth. Add flour and whisk. You want a thin pancake-batter like consistency - adjust if needed. Add all of your veggies, garlic, bacos, soy sauce, edamame, and mix well.

Heat a tablespoon and a half of sesame, olive or veggie oil in your wok until it shimmers. Quickly spoon a large ladleful of batter into the wok's bottom, using the back of the ladle to spread the batter into an evenly-flat circle. Let it cook 4-5 minutes a side - it'll brown nicely. Grab the biggest spatula you have and carefully flip the pancake. Cook another 3-4 minutes, until firmly set. Repeat with pancake 2.

You know I just put the mayo mix and the katsu sauce in a ziplock and cut a little hole to get that tubing action. You might have actual bottles. If so, cheers! Either way, carefully draw a spiral with katsu, then mayo, around the pancake. Use a chopstick to drag lines through the pattern. Preeeeeety. Top with chili oil, shallots, anything you'd like. Thinly sliced nori would have been awesome but Erk's a seaweed hater, so we left it as-is.

Cut into 6 slices and serve. Awesome.

I'm getting back into peanut-butter love, so we ate a simple peanut/sesame/udon salad as a side. It was almost as good as the 'cake - seriously, I love this stuff. For my gluten-free homies out there - try it with brown rice spaghetti. Works perfectly.

Peanut Butter/Sesame Udon Salad
makes 3-4 servings

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup warm water
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon minced ginger
4 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon agave nectar
Dash rice vinegar 


8 ozs Udon or Soba noodles, prepared al dente


1 cup sliced fresh veggies - I used a small roma tomato and 1/3 of an english cuke
Small handful sprouts
1 tablespoon each black and white sesame seeds, to top
Thin sliced red onion, to top 
Crushed red pepper to top - if you like the spicy.

Prepare your noodles according to package directions, rinse with cold water, and set in the fridge or freezer to chill.

Puree all the sauce ingredients in your blender for a minute or two, till totally uniform.

Toss your sliced veggies and sprouts with your noodles, add sauce, and wrastle that dressing into every nook and cranny. I admit - I gave up on my tongs and used my paws. It's a heavy salad.

Put a handful onto a small plate, top with sesame seeds, thinly sliced onion, and crushed pepper. 

Eat and be merry. Love!