Monday, April 28, 2008

Philadelphia Rolls

Last Friday was sushi night at my house, and I tried out several new recipes for myself and the boyfriend. These included the Godzilla Roll, Philadelphia Roll, and a different form of the California Roll than I had previously tried. I also experimented with making inside-out sushi rolls, with varying results.

As I'm not very good at judging amounts quite yet, I made way too much sushi rice and so had a whole bowl of it left over. So it wouldn't go to waste I decided to utilize what I had for Bento on Monday. The boyfriend never seems to get enough sushi, anyways, so he certainly wasn't complaining.

For Monday's Bento, I did a modified Philadelphia Roll, using the original recipe I had found plus adding in hot sauce to give it a spicy kick (my boyfriend is a spicy food NUT) and making a few other modifications because that is just what I do. :) I also rolled one with the nori on the outside, and tried the second as an inside-out roll. I'm not terribly good at inside-out rolls yet, but I'm working on it.





Philidelphia Roll Recipe:
3 sheets nori
1.5 cups sushi rice
2 oz salmon (I got the pre-cooked, already shredded (like tuna) stuff in a pouch)
2 oz cream cheese (I use the softened stuff that comes in a tub)
green onions
hot sauce

a) Cut the green onion into pieces about two inches long and about 1/4 inch wide.
b) Lay the nori shiny side down on the rolling mat with the long side toward you, then put rice down on the nori, leaving a border of about 1 inch on the ends.
c) Put the salmon and green onions down the center of the rice. Spread cream cheese on the rice down the length of the other fillings.
d) Roll the sushi.
e) I serve with a dollop of wasabi and some soy sauce.

I found that the rolls cut really easily because the rice had been in the refrigerator and was very cold and firm. It was hard to taste-test, however, as it had a weird consistency in my mouth until I had let it warm on the counter for about 1/2 an hour.