Finger Food

Last week I got an email from Blurb, the amazing site where you can make your own photo-books in order to self-publish a coffee table book, make a portfolio, or just create an amazing photo-driven gift... Last year I used Blurb to make a book about my blog to take with me to Altitude Design Summit so that I could share a beautiful hard copy of my blog with my DIY colleagues and introduce my work to the media and brands that were there to meet bloggers.  I was new at the whole selling myself thing (I'm still pretty reluctant) so having the book as a tool to share my blog made things a lot easier for me, and as it turns out, made me memorable to some brands, including Blurb.  Oh, here's the book link in case you are curious. A while back, shortly after ALT, Blurb asked me if they could use my book as a marketing piece for their brand, because they really liked what I made, and I of course said yes. So I was pretty excited when they contacted me again, this time because they have decided to throw a party to showcase some of their favorite food books, and they want me to cook for some folks, and maybe even shoot a little video. Yes, I'm pretty excited.  I had to pick something from the book, which only has a small food section, and because it makes a great finger food, and it's pretty fun to look at I chose the sushi hand-balls AKA temarazushi from this post.  I'm working on making them a little more visually interesting for the table so it's what's for dinner around here right now.  Here' a freshened up tutorial.  Bay Area readers(Corner Blog), let me know if you might want to come to the party. I can invite a few folks. It's on October 14th from 6-9pm in San Francisco.  

You will need: short grain white rice, seasoned rice vinegar, nori(seaweed), a hole punch (that looks funny), some scissors, plastic wrap and whatever ingredients you choose to add. I use mango, avocado, and smoked salmon on mine, because they work as lunch food for my kids, but you can use raw sushi-grade fish or cooked shellfish to make it more traditional.

Prepare rice.  The ratio is 1 cup rice to 1 1/2 cups water.  For best sticky rice, you want to rinse the rice ahead of cooking.  To do this just measure into a colander and run under room temperature water for a minute.  Put rice into a large pot with water, bring to a boil, cover and reduce to low heat and simmer for 20 minutes.  It should be puffy. Transfer rice to a bowl and drizzle with vinegar (about 1/8 cup). Cover with a cotton towel and allow to cool.  When it is room temperature, form into golf-ball sized portions, using water on your fingertips to prevent sticking. 

Here's where you get crafty.  I use a 1.5" circle punch and a single hole punch to cut my nori, but you can simply use scissors and cut the nori into 1-2" squares and make your own design. Get a bunch prepped, then it's time to assemble.

I used the top of the milk container to cut slices of mango, and used random cuts of avocado and thin slices of salmon, about 1.5" in length/diameter and draped them over the top of the rice ball, placing a nori piece on top, the I covered them in a 8" cut of plastic wrap and pressed it over the top, twisting at the back to form the ball tightly and incorporate the ingredients. In the original tutorial I dipped the nori in water before this step, but I don't think it's necessary.

And that's it, once they look smooth under the plastic wrap, pull them out and put them on a platter.  It's really pretty easy.

Amazeballs

Sometimes I am a glorified lunch lady. I feel for them, I really do. On most days, my 1st grader's sandwich returns home smashed back into it's container, mostly intact, baby carrots dried up, an apple with one bite out of it, pretzels crushed into a powder. I am told that there just wasn't enough time to eat it, but I know this cannot possibly true. I make a mean sandwich, I assure you... So I'm trying something new. Both of my boys love sushi, as do a lot of kids these days.  I've tried sending it for lunch in the past, but it gets pretty banged up and half of it comes home uneaten; I also get a little worried about raw fish in a lunchbox. So I was very excited when I found this recipe for hand ball sushi (Temarizushi) in a regional food magazine called Edible.  The golf ball sized rolls are packed tightly in plastic wrap, keeping them firm and easy to eat.  For Jasper's school version I used smoked salmon, avocado and nori squares (detail created with a hole punch) with sticky rice.  Both kids had the hand rolls today and I'm happy to report that the lunch box returned home empty. Quick tutorial below...

Make a batch of sticky rice (recipes abound) I use 1 cup short grain white rice with 2 cups water, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. To give it the sushi punch mix a tbsp of rice wine vinegar with a tsp of sugar, stir and combine with cooked rice.  Once it's cooled to room temperature, make golf ball sized portions (use a little water on your hands to prevent sticking.  Cut Nori into squares, add detail with a punch. Apply thin slices of avocado and/or smoked fish (or whatever you like that day).  Wet the nori squares, place on the balls and cover them in plastic wrap, pulling taught and securing the end into knots.  Refrigerate, and serve for up to 3 days (raw should be eaten that day).

Recipe idea by Jennifer Carden for Edible Marin & Wine Country.