Food Snapshots : Valentine's Day Meal

Now, I know Valentine's Day was forever ago, but I have a couple pretty pictures of the meal I cooked for Mathieu and I for the occasion, so I thought I would share. Anyway, the food itself isn't Valentine's day themed or anything, it's just what we had for supper that night :)

The oreo cheesecake cupcakes I made :D

Since it was a special occasion, I took the time to make maki rolls instead of serving them temaki style. Turned out great 

Chardonnay to accompany the sushi and cheese fondue. Didn't take a picture of the fondue, because it wasn't nearly as pretty as it was tasty!

One of my all time favorite guilty pleasures : baguette bread <3

Just the ingredients all chopped up for the sushi before I made the rolls

The rolls, right before I cut them up into pieces :)

Today's lunch : Temakizushi!

For anyone who do not know, Temakizushi is basically the conical shaped kind of sushi, it's also often called hand roll in restaurants. I like making Temakizushi instead of the more traditionnal maki and nigiri for two reasons:

1) The preparation is much quicker and simpler (no rolling or cutting required which are very time consuming and also very messy).

2) It allows each person to choose their favorite combinations and to vary according to their taste. Also, if we don't finish everything I prepared, since it's not rolled into a maki, I can just put it away to use in another recipe later rather than having to throw it out. =D

In my opinion, it is THE best way to make sushi at home. I used to make makis and that would require anywhere between 2 and 3 hours of work for two people! I would also have to deal with heaps of dirty dishes afterwards. Not fun!

Now it only takes me about 15 minutes to prepare the ingredients and the rice is cooked while I prepare other ingredients (I make it in my rice cooker and that takes about 20 minutes). It's quick, easy and super convenient. It's my favorite meal to make!

I took the idea for temakizushi on this website : http://a-vos-baguettes.blogspot.com/2009/06/temakizushi-1.html which I mentionned in an earlier blog post! I just love this site. This is also where I took my sushi rice recipe. It is the best recipe I have found so far, my rice is always perfect! ♥

Here is how I set up the table before we eat. We have got spicy mayo (I make this myself), panko (for the tempura-like texture), soy sauce, nori cut in squares, sesame seeds, surimi, cucumber, avocado and sushi rice. Yum!

And this is how I make them.

Place a small amount of sushi rice onto the nori.

Add the fillings in a diagonal line.

Bring both corners to the middle to create a conical shape. Dip in soy sauce and enjoy! ♥

We didn't have any that time, but I also like to use smoked salmon, Masago (a kind of caviar), and fresh raw salmon!

Homemade sushi

My all time favourite dish has been sushi for the past 2-3 years. I cannot get enough of it, I could eat it, every single day ♥ The only problem is, well I’m a student, on a student budget and sushi is so expensive! I can only afford to go out and eat it once or twice a month.

My solution? Homemade sushi! They can be time consuming, but they’re totally worth it!

Here are some pictures of my homemade sushi for fun =D

Homemade caviar sous-marin sushi

I’m in love with this restaurant in Montréal called Kanda sushi. It’s basically an all you can eat sushi place, where you can order as much sushi as you like from their premade menu from nigiris to makis and sashimi. You can also get other types of Japanese food like tempura shrimp and veggies, endamame, yakitori, etc and it’s all included in the same price. It might not be the fanciest sushi (although the fish is always really fresh and tasty), but I adore going there!

One of my favourites is the caviar sous-marin nigiri (submarine caviar). I’ve never seen it anywhere else and it’s really yummy! My boyfriend and I always order tons of them. Until recently, I couldn’t exactly pinpoint what it consisted of, so one day we went to eat there and I asked the waiter. Basically, it is made of surimi (imitation crab), red caviar, Japanese mayo, cucumber and salmon all chopped up finely and placed on a rice ball then wrapped in seaweed.

Here’s a picture from their site:

Source

I decided to try it at home and it was a real success! Although I didn’t have any salmon handy so I skipped that. I will definitely try it with salmon next time. Also, I didn’t have any Japanese mayo (the last time I bought some, I didn’t cook very often and I ended up wasting about half of it! It’s pretty expensive so I haven’t bought anymore, but the light mayo I used was a fine replacement)

♥ ♥ ♥

Ingredients (for 4 pieces of nigiri):

- 100g of calrose rice (sushi/Japanese short grain rice)

- 4 sticks of imitation crab

- 1 teaspoon of finely chopped cucumber

- 1 teaspoon of caviar

- ½ tablespoon of light mayo

- 1 sheet of nori

- 15 mL of rice vinegar

- ½ tablespoon of sugar

- 1/8 teaspoon of salt

I have recently found out that this type of sushi (with the seaweed rolled over a ball of rice and filling) is called a Gunkan sushi. I found this on a visit at Yuzu Sushi in Quebec City. They didn't have exactly the caviar sous marin, but they had other variations that were really yummy. I will keep an eye out in the future for any sushi spots serving Gunkans and what variation they offer. Who knows I might stumble across a caviar sous marin dupe?

It’s one of my favourite types of sushi! What’s yours?