sushi night

in these hard economic times, we've been recreating meals that would cost us a good chunk of change at a restaurant. we've dabbled in cuisines and dishes from all around the globe. some of our favorites have been cajun inspired (coco's crawfish) shrimp and crab boils, mock tu lan (the best hole in the wall vietnamese restaurant in s.f.) pickled cabbage dish, fresh spring rolls, thai seafood curries, middle eastern foul madammas, lamb and falafel kebabs, spanish paella and lentils, crepes, quiche, and our personal favorite: sushi.

there truly is an art in sushi making, and it took us a couple times to get a technique down where it was decent enough. john even surprised me with a professional sushi knife as a gift, so we could do as the pros do. i'd say john would be way more savvy in prepping the sashimi, and rolling. i'm his prep chef. i did the shop at nijiya market in japan town, and got everything ready for him to start rolling after he sliced the fish.

this past weekend we shared what little we know in sushi making with our friends, stephen and janice. they were delighted to learn and cook with us.

here's what was on the menu:
tempura
deep fried soft shell crab
sashimi - tuna, salmon, yellowtail
rolls and nigiri with the above mentioned fish and crab, salmon roe, different veggies, herbs, sauces, and cream cheese
crepes (which we only prepped the batter and didn't get to make, since we were so full)

all in all the night and dinner turned out well. i will say that it was very time consuming as we are not pro chefs, and it took us a good 2 hours between the 4 of us to complete everything. we ate as we were cooking to get us through, and quenched our thirsts with sake and sapporo. stephen made endless batches of variations of chocolate chip cookies.

we all had severe food comas by the end of it all, but well worth it!

www.myspace.com/cocoscrawfish
tulansf.blogspot.com/
www.nijiya.com