Sushi -- Unagi Rolls and California Rolls

Hello, all. I'd like to introduce everyone to my third guest blogger -- my good friend Christina Feng. We were near inseparable in our first two years of college, but the only time I ever saw her in the kitchen was the time we made fortune cookies for our friend Jimmy's birthday. Turns out she was hiding secret cooking powers from me! But now the cat is out of the bag, and she's here today to share a recipe with us. I'm ghost-writing the blog entry, but all pictures are courtesy of Christina. Thanks, Stina!

So Christina's boyfriend's parents are in town this weekend, and like the good girlfriend-in-law that she is, she decided to treat them to a delicious home-cooked meal. Miso soup to start, unagi and california rolls as the main course, and mochi ice cream for dessert. Yum!

I've never made sushi before, but Christina tells me it's easy so long as you have one of those bamboo mat thingies for rolling. I remain skeptical, but I suppose it's one of those practice-makes-perfect situations. Meanwhile, doesn't that eel look scrumptious? California rolls will always have a special place in my heart -- for the longest time it was the only kind of sushi I could convince Dan to eat -- but I love unagi the most. If you ever go to a sushi restaurant with me, be sure to call dibs on the eel as soon as it gets to the table, 'cuz I'm definitely going to eat it all.

Jason sure is a lucky guy! And after a meal like this, how can his parents not love Christina too? Will you make this for me sometime, Stina???

And now a word from Christina herself on the actual recipe:

OK soooo in terms of a recipe, I don't really have one particular one that I went with because I did this once before and I kinda just made it up as I went along and/or took bits and pieces from random recipes I found online.

Ingredients: 

- Frozen unagi kabayaki (from Asian store)

- Imitation crab sticks

- 1 avocado cut into thin strips

- 1 cucumber cut into thin strips

- Sushi rice (4-5 cups makes about 5 to 6 rolls)

- Sushi vinegar

- Sushi seasoning

- Roasted seaweed

(Need bamboo sushi roller)

Steps:

(1) Cook unagi per package instructions (the one I got I just heated in boiling water for 10 minutes), then cut it into strips. Set aside.

(2) Cover bamboo roller with saran wrap and place one sheet of roasted seaweed over it.

(3) Prepare sushi rice, mix with small bit of sushi vinegar in a bowl before placing on seaweed.

(4) Spread rice over roasted seaweed in a thin, even layer, and press it into the seaweed to maximize stickiness.

(5) Sprinkle sushi seasoning over rice. (Some people who like wasabi can then mix wasabi into the rice, but I didn't cuz I hate wasabi)

(6) Place strips of either imitation crab or unagi across seaweed, depending on which roll you're making.

(7) Place sticks of cucumber and/or avocado across seaweed.

(8) Use bamboo roller to tightly roll the sushi.

(9) Cut roll into 1/2" pieces (Since sushi is sticky, use a really sharp knife. Neat trick here is to use water to wet knife then cut if the knife gets too sticky)

(10) Serve! (with soy sauce of course...)