Mediterranean Sushi

Rice recipe makes about 14 seven-inch long rolls
Each roll is cut into 7 pieces

Cast aside all your notions about the traditional concept of Japanese sushi and think creatively around the basic concept that sushi simply consists of a stuffing of a tasty morsel of anything accented with a small amount of picante sauce, surrounded by sticky rice and wrapped with something sturdy enough to hold it together until it reaches your mouth. The Japanese almost always use raw fish as their tasty morsel, a dab of wasabi (a horseradish paste) as the picante sauce and dry (toasted) seaweed as the outer wrapper. But there's no need to limit sushi that you make yourself to those combinations.

Starting with the fundamental sushi technique, we let our imaginations run wild one Sunday afternoon and concocted sushi with Mediterranean flavors (without using any raw fish or seaweed!). We served our Mediterranean Sushi as hors d'oeuvres for a late Sunday afternoon cocktail party. They were such an unbelievable hit that we have now made Mediterranean Sushi a part of our standard cocktail party repertoire.

An assortment of Mediterranean Sushi could also make a lovely outdoor Sunday supper (accompanied by a mixed lettuce salad with a light garlic, sesame oil and rice vinegar dressing) on a warm summer evening or on a Sunday afternoon picnic.

Traditional recipes for making sushi rice describe the "ritual" of aerating the rice with your fingers while fanning it for at least 30 minutes after it's cooked. This is supposed to speed up the cooling and drying and make the rice kernels light but sticky. I've found that you can make perfectly acceptable sushi rice without all that fanfare. This may sound heretical to authentic Japanese cooks, but after all. . . we're making Mediterranean sushi!

The only special tool you'll need is a sushi mat to roll the sushi and the only special ingredient you'll need is short-grain sushi rice. The rest is up to your imagination.

Making the Sushi Rice:

2 cups raw sushi rice
2 cups cold water
6 TBS. rice vinegar
2 TBS. sugar
1 tsp salt

• Rinse the rice in a fine sieve until the water runs clear and put the rinsed rice in a large bowl. Cover with cold water and let it sit for 45 minutes.
  
• Rinse out the soaking water and put the rice into a saucepan. Add the 2 cups of cold water. Cover the pan and bring the water to a boil, then turn down the heat to the lowest possible setting. Cook covered for 20 minutes. (Don't lift the lid during cooking.)
  
• While the rice is cooking, heat the vinegar in a small saucepan, then add sugar and salt. Off heat, stir until these dissolve. Set aside.

• After the rice has finished cooking, remove the pan from the stove and let the rice sit in the pan (covered) for 10 minutes.
  
• Transfer the rice to a large bowl and fluff it up a bit with a fork.
  
• Slowly add the cooled down vinegar mixture to the rice while stirring to be sure that all the vinegar has been absorbed by the rice.
  
• Cover the rice with a damp towel until ready to use.
  

Assembly Procedures and Techniques:

It will take some practice to get your sushi roll looking right. Don't be discouraged if your first few rolls look a little lumpy and clumsy. If you plan to serve sushi at a cocktail party and haven't made sushi before, make a trial batch the week before to develop your rolling technique. After one session, you'll be rolling like a pro!

The following instructions may seem awesomely complex. It's hard to explain this process in words, but after you try it once or twice, you will see how simple it is.

• Position the sushi mat so that the bamboo rods are parallel to the edge of your work surface. (The mat will roll only in one direction and you will want to be able to roll forward and away from you.)
  
• Lay a 4" x 7" layer of the outer wrapper of your choice on top of the mat. Position it so that the 7" dimension of the wrapper is evenly aligned with the edge of the mat closest to you and the 4" dimension is equidistant from each side.
  
• Spread a handful of rice in an even layer over the wrapper and up to " from the edge that is furthermost away from you. (You should have about 1/4" layer of rice.)
  
• Drizzle or spread the picante sauce of your choice in a "-wide swatch across the center, along the entire horizontal dimension (parallel to the bamboo rods).
  
• Arrange the stuffing of your choice on top of the sauce, parallel to the 7" dimension.
  
• Now begin rolling:
  • Pick up the edge of the sushi mat closest to you along with the edge of the wrapper. Holding both of them firmly with your fingertips, lift them away from you while at the same time gently rolling the sushi mat forward with the palms of both hands. How far forward you lift and roll the sushi mat toward the opposite edge on this first step will determine whether your stuffing will be exactly in the center or off to one side.
    
  • The sushi mat should now be folded up to " of the far edge. Squeeze the sushi mat gently toward you so that it begins to forms a roll. Do this with 8 fingertips on the sushi mat in front of the roll and your thumb and palm against the sushi mat on the back of the roll. Don't squeeze so hard that the stuffing starts coming out of the ends, but hard enough to make a firm roll.
    
  • Flip the front edge of the mat forward while rolling the contents forward (about a " each time) using the same lift/roll/squeeze technique, making the roll tighter and finally sealing the far edge against the roll to finish it.
    
• Remove the completed sushi roll from the mat; trim each rough end and slice the roll into 7 bit-size pieces.

Choices of Wrappers, Stuffings and Sauces:

Let your imagination run wild! The only suggestion is to aim for a progression of flavors. If the stuffing you choose is mild, then the sauce should be one step up. But if the stuffing is strong flavored, then the sauce should be one step up from that level.

Here are some of our favorite combos:

Notes:

• Sushi mat: This is a 9 " x 9 " mat made of very thin bamboo rods which are loosely woven together, called a makisu in Japanese. It's a bit of a specialty item and you may only be able to buy it in a Japanese general hardware store. If you don't have any in your area, you might try calling Soko Hardware in San Francisco to see if they'll send you one by mail:

Soko Hardware

1698 Post Street

San Francisco, CA 94115

Telephone: (415) 931-5510

• Sushi rice: Any short-grained variety will do, but try to find a variety of short-grained rice especially for sushi. I use Kokuho Rose, which is labeled as "authentic sushi rice". It's available at Japanese (or Asian) grocery stores.
  
• Wrappers: If you are using romaine lettuce, chard leaves or mustard greens, blanch them very quickly in hot water to make the supple and set out on a paper towel to dry. Cut out any coarse ribs and use only the green leafy part. Arrange the leaves on the sushi mat along the 7" dimension, overlapping generously to give them substance as the outer wrapper.

If you are using any of the meats or smoked salmon, it's not necessary to overlap these as much, but some overlap is still necessary so that the individual strips will stay together when rolled. Don't use very thinly sliced meats or fish. Try to get them specially sliced a little thicker than usual -- but not to thick either.

• Sauces: There are 2 important considerations for the sauce -- it should be picante and it should not be runny. Watery sauces will make the sushi fall apart from the middle.
  
• Stuffings: The ideal stuffing would be one that could be used in one piece across the 7" dimension. But if that's not the type you're using, then you'll have to lay smaller pieces end-to-end. For those types of stuffings, cut them into slightly larger than match stick size and overlap them end-to-end, parallel to the 7" dimension and positioned in the middle of the 4" dimension. If you are using more than one stuffing (i.e. a combination of asparagus and mango or smoked chicken and sun-dried tomatoes), either put them side by side or bundle them so that one is the center and the other(s) form an outer ring around the center.
  
• Egg Crepe: This is a recipe for a traditional Japanese egg omelet (tamago temaki) which is strong enough to use as a sushi wrapper: In a bowl, lightly whisk 4 whole eggs, then add 3 TBS. mirin (sweet sake), 3 TBS. water mixed with 2 TBS. cornstarch and a dash of salt. Cook in a non-stick pan using the standard crepe technique. This recipes makes about three 7" crepe.
  
• Spinach Crepe: In a blender add cup cold water, cup cold milk, 2 eggs, 1 cup flour and 2 TBS. melted butter. Blend a high speed, then add 1 cup blanched, cooled spinach. Let the mixture sit in refrigerator for at least 3 hours. Make crepes in non-stick pan using standard crepe technique. This recipe makes about 4-5 crepes 7" in diameter.
  
• Asian Pesto: This recipe can be found at Spicy Asian Pesto.