Sushi Day

Contest Winners, and a Sushi Post on Fridgg

Allison — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:59:52 +0000

Congratulations to Warren (#7), Ed (#26), and Jennifer (#30). They were the winners of the sushi kit contest! Your sushi kits and Sushi Day shirts will be shipped to you soon.

Also, I've posted about sushi on my other blog, Fridgg, for this month's Daring Cooks challenge. The recipe called for unagi... but unagi isn't sustainable, and you know I couldn't do that. So pop on over to Fridgg, and check out the recipe I created as a sustainable replacement!

Happy Birthday, Sushi Day – Hajime’s Hotate, and a Contest

Allison — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 07:00:13 +0000

Three years. 200 posts. 2000+ comments. 500,000 visitors. 1.5 million pageviews. It's been quite a ride, here on Sushi Day. There have been some great posts and some complete and total flops (that still get angry comments!), we've all learned a lot and there have been some amazing opportunities that have come from this blog. Such as that dinner at Mashiko, where this creation comes from. Technically it's not sushi, as there's no sumeshi involved... but it's easily one of my favorite sashimi creations I've ever had. Obviously, I had to share it with you.

But when it all comes down to it, it's really you guys who make Sushi Day what it is. I could post every day, but if nobody read, nobody commented... I'd be nowhere. So today, on Sushi Day's third birthday, I want to give back to you guys, with a contest.

I'm giving away 3 sushi kits - each includes a rolling mat, a package of nori, a bottle of sushi vinegar, a bottle of shoyu, and a tube of wasabi. (Actual items may be slightly different from those pictured.) Everything you need to make sushi at home... all you need to provide is the rice, the fillings, and a few sushi lovers. And heck, I'll even throw in a Sushi Day shirt - any size you want - for the winners.

All you have to do to enter the contest is leave a comment on this post by 11:59pm PST on November 7th, 2009. That's a week from now. And if you want a second entry, just tweet about this contest with a link to this post, then come back here and leave a link to your tweet in a second comment. Then I'll randomly pick the winners, and announce them a week from today.

And if you don't win? I'll put the sushi kits in our store a week from today, so you can purchase one for yourself.

Recipe
Nutrition Info

Ingredients

6 sashimi-grade scallops
1 cup crab
1 tbsp mayonnaise
1 tsp Sriracha sauce
2 slices ham
1/2 avocado
a small handful of black sesame seeds

Cooking Directions

Slice each scallop in half, like you're cutting open a sandwich roll.
Mix the crab, mayonnaise, and Sriracha sauce.
Slice each piece of ham into thirds, lengthwise.
Cut the avocado in half, discarding the pit.
Use a large spoon to scoop the avocado out of the hard skin, being careful to keep the avocado half as whole as possible.
Slice the avocado into slices, and then in half width-wise.
Place one half of each scallop on a plate.
Pile a small scoop of the crab mix on the scallop half.
Top with the second half of the scallop.
Wrap a slice of ham around the circumference of the scallop/crab sandwich.
Top with two half-slices of avocado. Sprinkle with black sesame seeds.
Enjoy!

Serving Size: 1 piece Hajime's Hotate

Calories: 88
Fat: 5g, 8% DV
Saturated Fat: 1g, 4% DV
Cholesterol: 10mg, 3% DV
Sodium: 274mg, 11% DV
Total Carbohydrates: 5g, 2% DV
Dietary Fiber: 0g, 1% DV
Sugars: 1g
Protein: 5g, 11% DV
Vitamin A: 1%
Vitamin C: 4%
Calcium: 2%
Iron: 2%
Magnesium: 6%
Potassium: 5%

Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet. These values are only estimates based on the individual ingredients, and not meant to replace the advice of a medical professional.

Sushi, Sushi, Sushi

Allison — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:54:05 +0000

South Wedge Roll - smoked salmon, cucumber, bacon, wasabi mayonnaise

Uninspired. That's how I've felt lately, when it comes to sushi. Or, more specifically, when it comes to writing about sushi. My love of sushi is no less, nor has my desire to share this love with all of you diminished any. But it's been months since I've brought you a recipe here on Sushi Day, and even then posting has been sporadic for nearly a year now.

Spicy Tuna Roll - mayonnaise, hot chile paste, hot chile oil, toasted sesame oil, tuna, wasabi paste, green onion, toasted black sesame seeds, in rice paper wrappers

It's not for lack of material - I have pictures of sushi that I made all the way back in March that I never wrote about. Nor is it for lack of time - though I'm incredibly busy with work and play, I could have easily made time to put up a short post. And it certainly isn't a loss of interest in my blog or my readers - there has been an immense amount of guilt as days turned into weeks without a post, which turned into months of near silence here on Sushi Day.

Pacific Ocean Roll- smoked salmon, avocado, bacon

What it all comes down to is that the sushi I had made just didn't excite me. Oh yay, another spicy tuna roll. Whoopidee do dah, more shrimp tempura. Everything felt like something I'd done before - after nearly three years of sushi recipes, another California roll spin-off starts to get pretty damn boring.

Pink Panther Roll - salmon, avocado, tamago, wrapped in rice paper

So I would procrastinate. I don't want to put you asleep while reading my posts, I want you to hang onto my every word like I do with Shauna's posts, or Keri's, or Helen's. I know, I know, I have a long way to go. But I can't stand blogs that only give you a recipe without any interesting descriptions or anecdotes... and since I couldn't come up with any for sushi that bored me half to death, I just kept putting it off.

Too Crazy Roll - tuna, pesto

Then I was invited up to Seattle to go to the Sustainable Sushi Dinner at Mashiko. Oh, Mashiko. Did I mention that Hajime and I exchanged shirts (no, not like that!)? I sent him a Sushi Day shirt, and he sent me a sushiwhore.com (Mashiko's website) shirt. Fits perfectly. Anyways. Son and I got to go to this dinner, where we got to meet the very awesome Hajime Sato and the very cool Casson Trenor, and learn all sorts of things that I never knew at all about sushi and sustainability and seafood. Obviously, I loved the trip.

Unicorn Roll - tempura shrimp, cucumber, imitation crab, topped with spicy tuna

But then I come back home, all excited about sustainability and trying all these new types of seafood, and look at the pictures of sushi that I have yet to post. Tuna - not bluefin, of course, but still. Imitation crab - once a great choice, now not so much. *sigh* I just couldn't, in my good conscience, continue a series of posts that used some ingredients that, in terms of sustainability, aren't things I should promote.

Bam Roll - tempura shrimp, mayonnaise, green onions, tomato, hot chile oil topped with spicy tuna, eel sauce, sesame seeds.

But... I feel terrible depriving you all of the remaining sushi that I've made. Which is why I've posted all the pictures in this post, along with the ingredients that go into each roll. ~~I've told you hundreds of times how to put together a roll of sushi... I'm sure you can figure it out from ingredient lists by now.~~ I've also put up a separate post for each of these rolls with just the recipes (click the pictures to get to the posts), because Son insisted so you could see all the extra beautiful photographs he put so much work into for each roll.

TNT Roll - tuna, tomato, Tabasco sauce

So. What do I intend to do now, since I no longer have a queue of rolls lined up for me to post about? Make more sushi, of course. This time trying to be more sustainable, more inventive, more fun. Will the occasional tuna roll sneak in? My apologies in advance, I'm not (quite!) perfect. Might you see a California roll knock off or two? Perhaps, but they'll have to be really freaking amazing California rolls. But most importantly, what you'll see is me. Having fun. Doing what I do best as a food blogger... bringing you tons of sushi.

So hopefully you haven't gone too far away, because... the sushi girl is back, and ready to roll!

Bling-Bling Roll - imitation crab, mayonnaise, spicy tuna, avocado, drizzled with eel sauce.

Bling-Bling Roll

Allison — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:00:56 +0000

TNT Roll

Allison — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:00:09 +0000

Bam Roll

Allison — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:00:42 +0000

Unicorn Roll

Allison — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:00:04 +0000

Too Crazy Roll

Allison — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:48 +0000

Pink Panther Roll

Allison — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:00:25 +0000