Hey all! JP and I are on a quest to eat healthy. It wasn't a New Year's resolution. I personally just got tired of not fitting my clothes right, and you just feel so much better when your healthy. As much as we love to eat, and I mean looove! It's been challenging to come up with meals that still taste good to us and are healthy.
I've been doing a lot of Asian inspired dishes. There are a lot of healthy Asian dishes that are full of flavor and low in calories. I made a spicy noodle dish using the House of Foods Shiritaki Tofu noodles. Those were very good and extremely low in calories. We will feature that recipe soon. We even had Japanese Style Ginger Pork, another dish we will feature.
So anyway! I've been craving sushi. Sushi can be healthy and not healthy. I guess depending on what you put it in it, and how much you eat. But hey, you gotta splurge sometimes. I was craving my Grandma Tsuna's Maki Tuna roll! She always made the best sushi. I have scoured the net to find a recipe that seemed remotely close to hers. I didn't really find one. I did ask my Mom who told me what all she used. It took me a couple of hours to make 60 pieces of sushi. Well worth it though. I also made my first Tamagoyaki. It was okay for a first attempt. My omelet skills kinda suck. LOL So I was a little afraid to make it. The roll requires this egg omelet. So, I had to suck it up and try. I think it came out good. You can also use Tamagoyaki in bentos. A lot of them have this piece of egg to go along with the rest of the food. Another ingredient in this sushi is Kempo. I'm not fond of Kempo so I omit that. So overall, the sushi came out excellent. It tasted just like Grandma's. I was so happy.
There is my Tamagoyaki. It could be better. I'll just keep trying. To make Tamagoyaki, you will need 5 Eggs, 3 Teaspoons of sugar, 1 Tablespoon of Mirin (Japanese Rice Winer Vinegar) and 1/2 a Teaspoon of salt.
You will need to beat all of the above ingredients. The tricky part of this for me is the rolling part in the pan. I think it's easier to use a small pan. I believe there is some square fry pan made specifically for this. So I used a large nonstick skillet. I had my stove on medium-low heat. You don't want it to high. You will also have to work fast. You are going to layer this. So add in a thin layer of egg in the pan. Let that set up. Once it sets, start to roll it up. Once you have that rolled and off to the side of the pan, add in another thin layer. Once that layer sets, roll it up until it touches the first layer. You want to keep doing this process until you've used all of your egg. You should come out with a nice layered thick omelet. Mine isn't a good example, but it works. I've seen people also use the bamboo sushi mat to make it square once it's done. Then just cut and use however you like. Mine was used for sushi.
This is the final product for the Maki Tuna Roll. If you would like to make the filling for these. Use the above egg recipe for that part. For the tuna, you will need 1 can of Tuna in water, 1 Tablespoon of Sugar, 1 Tablespoon Soy Sauce ( I use a strong Korean Soy Sauce so I do little less than a Tablespoon), 1 Tablespoon Mirin. Saute all of those ingredients in a pan until it's well incorporated. For the spinach, I used the frozen kind. I boiled it in some salted water for about 10 minutes or so. I drained all the water off and squeezed off the excess.
I also added in some of this, Sakura Denbu. This is a Ground Sweet Codfish. You could find this in an Asian Market. My Mom brought this from California for me. This also taste good in Onigiri, Japanese rice balls.
You will also need to prepare some sushi rice. You can view my recipe for California Rolls here.
You can follow the recipe there for the rice. It also shows you how to roll the sushi. You can layer your filling anyway you like. I laid down my tuna first, then I spread the Sakura Denbu, Egg, and then spinach. Then I roll and cut into pieces. It is very time consuming. You might not get it down pat at first. But, practice makes perfect. It's also cost efficient. Because, buying already sushi is costly. How many people can say they make their own sushi? You can also be creative. Try different fillings. It's all according to your taste. This is one of my favorites. I hope you try it! Enjoy!
~Feather
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The aftermath!
Our meal was Bangin, just how we like it. After our meal we enjoyed an evening of bowling with JP's car club buddies. Also, a while back we were told at the Charlotte location that they were opening two locations in South Carolina! Yay! One is going to be somewhere in Greenville, which a friend already spotted being built. Another will be right here in Columbia! Location still unknown. The burrito obsession will live on!
Here are the fries! Can you see that! It came in a grocery sized paper bag! lol JP cut the top off so we could all dig in. They even had malt vinegar to pour over the fries. The fries were okay. You could tell they used real fresh taters. They had bags of them laying around the place.
You could see everyone was still munching on peanuts even after the food came.
Here are the kids enjoying their food.
