Makizushi (Sushi rolls)

I made sushi roll the other day and it ended up disastrous. I have made sushi roll before but that ones were the worst looking sushi rolls I ever made. I had no idea why but it looked really bad so I couldn't even take photos of them. 

Well, I know that I can make it better so I had to try it again. I think that one of the reason why it looked so bad was that I was trying to make inside out rolls. This time, I decided to make only seaweed outside roll which is much easier to roll. 

Here is the result! 

It looks pretty good isn't it? The inside of sushi is just imitation crab, egg, cucumber and mayonnaise. I should have made variety of sushi but I didn't have many ingredients for it so it was just those ingredients this time. It tasted great and it looks pretty. 

Yes, seaweed outside is much much easier to roll. I guess I need more practice for inside out style sushi. 

My husband also tried to roll. He even tried to make inside out sushi. Well, as I said inside out sushi is difficult to roll so it didn't come out quite pretty but his seaweed outside roll came out pretty good. 

This was a great dinner and I felt much better since I was able to make it prettier this time. Next time, I will try different ingredients. 

My tip for making sushi roll is not to add too much rice and also leave the edge of seaweed empty for about 1/2 inch. And practice makes perfect! 

Sweet & Sour Pork

I had a ripe pineapple at home and I wanted to use it for some cooking. I used to not like having fruit in salty food but lately I like some of them. One of the salty dish I think about when I think about pineapple is "Sweet & Sour Pork". I have never made this at home but after looking at some recipes on the Internet, I figured that it shouldn't be too difficult to make. So I gave it a try.

Sweet & Sour Pork

Ingredients
Pork   about 1lb
Onion       1 and 1/2 (medium size)
Carrots     2~3
Bell Pepper  1
Pineapple     about 1/2 cup
Garlic          2 cloves
Corn Starch   2 table spoons
Vegetable Oil    3 table spoons

*sweet & sour sauce
Vinegar          3 table spoons
Soy Sauce      1table spoons
Sugar              3 table spoons
Sake               2 table spoons
Chicken Stock  about 2/3 cup
Ketchup          3 table spoons

+ Marinade for pork
Sake              2 table spoons
Soy Sauce     1 table spoon
Salt & Pepper   a pinch


1, First of all, cut all the vegetables/Pineapple and pork into bite size pieces. Chop garlic.

2, Marinade pork with the +marinade sauce. (I marinade it for about two hours but if you don't have time, you can just marinade them for about 30mins or so)


3, Mix all the ingredients for sweet and sour sauce in a bowl and set aside.

4,  Add corn starch in the the marinated pork from 2 and coat the pork with corn starch.

5, Add vegetable oil into frying pan and fry the pork with chopped garlic.

6, When the pork is cooked and crispy, add carrots. (Actually, I would take the pork out at this point if I make this again and add the pork again at the end so the pork stays crispy)

7, When carrots gets little soft, add onions.

8, When onions are cooked, add bell peppers.

9, Then, add pineapples.

10, Add the sweet & sour sauce which you mixed in step 3.

11, Bring to boil and when it started to thicken, turn the heat off.

12, Serve with rice.

I was surprised how good it was considering that I made this for the first time. I didn't know that you can make sweet & sour pork.

One thing I will change next time is that I will take the pork out before adding the vegetables and add back the pork at the very end. This way, the pork will stay crispy and will be better.

Since my husband liked this also, I will definitely making this dish again sometimes.

Salmon & Spinach Cream Pasta

My husband and I love pasta. I had this nice looking salmon which we bought from Costco so I decided to make salmon cream pasta with it. It is just salmon, spinach and cream. So simple but rich and tasty.

Salmon & Spinach Cream Pasta (for about 2 people)

Ingredients
Spaghetti  (about 1/2 pound)
Salmon (about 0.3 pound)
Baby Spinach 1 package (170g, 6OZ)
Heavy Cream  1 small package
Nutmeg   about 1 tea spoon
Salt and Pepper for taste
Olive Oil  1 tea spoon
Butter       1 tea spoon

1, First, cut salmon into small bite size pieces. If you are using regular spinach, also cut spinach into small pieces.

2, Bring water to boil and cook spaghetti.

3, In a frying pan, add butter and olive oil and saute salmon.

4, Add spinach and saute.

5, Add nutmeg, salt and pepper. Then add heavy cream. Bring to boil.

6, When spaghetti is cooked, drain and add to the frying pan and mix.

7, Serve.

This is such a simple and quick pasta dish but it is so yummy. You can eat lots of spinach this way also. Though it might be quite high in calorie, it is quite rich so I don't think you eat lot of them so it is OK. Everything in moderation.

This salmon we got from Costo was really good quality. We also broiled and ate them with soy sauce and sesame oil with scallion and it was really good. Salmon is very convenient ingredients. I can find them in any supermarket and it is not too expensive and there are so many different ways to eat. Though we normally eat in a very very simple way.

Maybe I should learn more salmon dish recipes but when fishes are really fresh, I like eating them in a very simple way such as just with say sauce and white rice :-)