Sushi- For Beginners (like me)

Your Ingredients: Sushi or short grain rice - Rice Vinegar - Sugar - Salt - Water - Toasted Seaweed - Imitation Crab Meat - Black Sesame Seeds - Carrot - Avocado - Hothouse Cucumber

*All ingredients pictured can be purchased at Wal*Mart in the Asian section. * (Except for the Charcoal Sesame Seeds which I purchased at Woodman's)

1) Make the Sushi Rice. I use Alton Brown's recipe from the Food Network.
     DO NOT peek! Once covered, leave covered until the rice is completely finished! No peeking

2) After the rice has cooled to room temperature, it's time to roll (I don't have a sushi kit, but a zip lock bag works just fine for me.)

             Fill a small bowl with warm water and place next to your workspace.

             Place one sheet of Nori (seaweed) shiny side down on your zip lock bag.

             Wet your hands and grab a bit of sushi rice and press onto Nori. You want a good amount of rice,  but not too much. If you plan to roll the rice inside, this is very important as it is easy to over-stuff. You will need to wet your hands periodically when the rice starts to stick to your hands.

             On this first roll, the rice will be on the outside. 

               

             Now, flip over and add imitation crab, carrot, hothouse cucumber, and avocado.

       Now, grab end of zip lock bag closest to you and lift and roll away from you. Use your fingers to tuck in any inside ingredients back in if they start to poke out. Finish rolling and use bag to tighten roll.

   
      Sprinkle a few black sesame seeds onto another zip lock bag and roll the roll back and forth to get the sesame seeds to adhere.

Before cutting, wet your knife and also wet your knife in between each cut. This is very important.

Place onto plates however you choose. This is a California roll. The one in the middle is a California roll that is then topped with very thin avocado slices and rolled again to adhere. Sushi for beginners. Give it a Try!