Today has been filled with random odds and ends, highlighted by homemade California Rolls for dinner!

My older brother and I have had our own competition looming between the two of us for months – an eating competition. He thinks he can down more than me (HA!) so we’ve been trying to agree on what food we should compete with.

Neither of us want to eat something super disgusting like cheeseburgers or chicken nuggets, so inspired by last week’s wraps, I shouted out CALIFORNIA ROLLS when we were discussing it at dinner Friday night!

The competition date is still TBD, but all that talk gave me a craving that last week’s wraps just hadn’t satisfied, so I took some time to whip up a few actual California Rolls today. It wasn’t nearly as messy or hard as I remembered!

First I laid out all the soft and hardware.

Software:

Nori, aka sheets of roasted seaweed.

You can find nori in some grocery stores, all Asian food stores, and someone mentioned that Trader Joe’s might have it too.

Sushi rice. Sushi rice is short grain rice that has been cooked then seasoned with rice vinegar, sugar and a dash of salt (details here.) You can find it in any grocery store.

Imitation crab, cucumber,

and avocado.

Hardware:

Sushi mat. You can get these at Williams-Sonoma/any specialty kitchen store, or any Asian Grocery store. You don’t need a mat to make homemade sushi, it just makes it a little bit easier.

Glass of water. I use the water to wet my hands to make it easier to spread the sushi rice on the nori. I also use it to seal the end of the roll. You’ll see!

Software: check. Hardware: check. We’re ready to roll!

Step 1: Lay a sheet of plastic wrap over the sushi mat, then lay down a sheet of nori. Wet your hands with water and press down 1 cup cooked sushi rice, leaving a 1″ section clear at the top.

Step 2: Place 2 slices each avocado, cucumber and crab on the bottom third portion of the rice.

Step 3: Using the sushi mat, make one full roll, pulling back firmly on the mat to tighten the filling inside.

See?

Step 4: Continue rolling, pulling back firmly on the mat to compress the filling, until you come to the end of the nori.

Step 5: Wet the clear section of nori at the top, then make the final roll and press down to seal.

Whee!

1 cup un-cooked rice makes 3 cups cooked rice – which yields 3 large rolls.

Step 6: After you have all three rolls made, cut them into 1/2″ slices using a sharp knife.

If you’re having trouble cutting, it may help to dip the knife in warm water in between slices.

Step 7: Rejoice over the fact that you’ll never have to pay $6 per California Roll at a restaurant ever again!

These are sooo refreshing!

I could seriously pop piece after piece forever.

Actually, my brother and I decided to shout out at the same time how many pieces of California Roll we thought we could eat in one sitting. Him: 30. Me: 68. BAHAHAHA! This one’s in the bag.

And so wraps up another weekend, and crazy month. I seeeeriously cannot believe that next week is LABOR DAY! Where DID the summer go??

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Do you like sushi? What’s your favorite kind?