24. 05.08: Eurovision sushi extravaganza

They prepared a sushi dinner to remember for an evening of very forgettable entertainment. My oh my, but this was a new level of dinner, inspired by Sushi Day and Kittee's recent caterpillar rolls*: He made roast eel oshizushi ('box' sushi) layered with sumeshi (seasoned rice), a decadent mix of real crab, crab stick, mayo and sriracha sauce, plus avo and a touch of wasabi before the crowning glory of eel with eel sauce, toasted sesame seeds and green onion.

And that was just one delicacy on the menu!

She prepared an eel, cucumber, and avo roll; veggie inside-out roll with avo, green onion, cress and toasted sesame seeds; and a roll with crab mix, cucumber and cress. All stacked out with sumeshi, course.

HE SAYS: mmmm, sushi...It was with some trepidation that I picked up the sushi press, the most important of tools to make oshizushi. I shouldn't've been nervous as it was not only fun but also very easy to replicate our Ninja Eel roll that we used to devour back in the day. It probably helps that before we attempted this task we took a photo of a tuna variation to study and inspect on one of our last visits to our fave sushi restaurant before we left New Orleans.

The mix of real crab/fake crab and mayo was very moreish and I found myself licking the bowl for any remaining goodness after layering it into the press. The eel was also spot-on as far as authentic taste goes, so delicious it is beyond words. She made the rolls with passion and precision, and they came out tasting and looking superb - especially enjoyed the veggie roll, which was a fresh and tasty palate cleanser after the indulgent eel with sweet eel sauce. We will have to try this again soon as we are now confident of producing fantastic sushi, miles better then anything we've experienced at any restaurant or grocery store on these shores, at least.

SHE SAYS: This was all stunningly delicious and simple to make - if the sumeshi was made ahead of time, you could even easily whip up a few California rolls and so on for dinner on a weeknight. (Sumeshi's easy to make but has to cool before it's, ahem, ready to roll). Seriously, being able to make such gorgeous little parcels that tasted so incredibly right made me v. happy, indeed.

The eel oshizushi was so perfect in texture and taste - sweet, spicy, soft, salty, roasty - I literally had to close my eyes with almost very bite to savour it. My veggie rolls were spot-on, too - only thing missing was asparagus, I knew there was something else, but couldn't tell 'til I tasted it. Eel roll and crab-mix roll continued the carnival parade of sushi excellence.

We've been wanting to make oshizushi for so long now, and even though He found the holy grail of a box tool many moons ago, we held back because we couldn't find flying fish roe (those little beads of orange goodness you get in most rolls and on top of oshiz. at Ninja). Then He tracked down some frozen roast eel in Chinatown to motivate us, but we felt a little afraid of it - was it the right kind? Would it be...icky? but oh no baby, you pop it in the oven for 15 mins and you get a big, flat slice of heaven.

Just so's you know...of course we had leftovers. As amazing as it all was, we couldn't possibly finish!

*Kittee is a sophisticated, dedicated vegan and in no way would her blog ever inspire our choice of eel as a sushi filling. Her purty vegan caterpillar rolls simply reminded us we needed to get on with some sushi-makin'.