Friday night I made my Boulder Veggie Bowl and Jaeger made beautiful sushi.

I went ahead and prepared the rice for him. As numerous books pointed out, the rice is one of the most important parts of sushi (which makes sense since apparently sushi means “vinegared rice”). Preparing the rice is a fairly involved process.

• Use a short grain Asian rice (don’t use the type of rice for risotto)
• Start by rinsing the rice well until the water is clear instead of cloudy
• Combine rice and water. I was surprised to learn that the proper ratio of rater to rice is 1:1 (I make normal brown rice with a water to rice ratio of 2:1).
• Let the rice soak in the water for 30 minutes
• Combine 6 tbs rice vinegar with 2 tbs sugar and 1 1/2 tsp salt. Mix well until sugar and salt have disolved. Set aside (this is for about 3 cups of dry rice).
• Cover pan with lid, turn on the heat and bring the rice to boil
• Reduce heat and cook for 15 minutes
• Remove from heat and let sit for 15 minutes without removing the lid.
• Pour onto cookie sheet and spread out.
• While rice is still warm, pour vinegar on top and gently mix into rice (one book likened this to the same method used for folding in egg whites)
• Technically, while you stir in the vinegar you’re suppose to fan the rice at the same time to cool. However, I’m not coordinated enough to do this
• Give the rice ample time to cool. Once cool, it’s ready to be used for sushi. Note: multiple cookbooks state that you should never refrigerate sushi rice. However, if you have too much, you can freeze it.

For the sushi stuffing, Jaeger cut into shoestring pieces the following ingredients:

• dakion radish
• avocado
• cucumber
• carrots

For actual assembly and more information, see this website. Technically it should be served with wasabi and soy sauce mixed together on the side. Unfortunately, I neglected to acquire soy sauce so we did without.

The sushi turned out very well. I think Jaeger took pictures which he’ll probably post on her website at some point.