Alex and I opted to spend our usual Friday night date learning about food rather than dining out. We took a hand-on sushi workshop at The Chopping Block at Merchandise Mart. Wednesday night I received a call from a class coordinator saying no one signed up but the 2 of us, and do we want to reschedule or is that okay. Our response was pretty much, "Is that okay? No, that's AWESOME." So we spent 2.5 hours with private attention from the sushi instructor. We learned how to make the rice, made shrimp tempura, spicy tuna rolls, and California rolls. We rolled inside out rolls, right side in rolls, and nigiri. We made a TON of sushi, what with it being just the two of us, and got to take over the leftovers. The cat enjoyed the leftover nigiri.
We enjoyed a 15% discount in their store on any tools or ingredients used in the class, so we bought 2 sushi mats, a pack of yaki nori (seaweed), and a bottle of sriracha hot chili sauce to make spicy tuna.
All in all, it turned out to be a great date, and I can't wait to make sushi at home! Below is a link to sushi instructions, as well as some important tips I learned. Enjoy!
Sushi rice should be seasoned with the following mixtures: 1 cup rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons sugar, and 2 teaspoons sea salt. Gently heat the mixture in the microwave or saucepan.
One skill you'll want to get down is cutting the rolls. Make sure not to press the knife down and smoosh the roll (you don't want to get to this point and have all of your hard work ooze out of the sides!). Use a sharp knife and use a quick sawing motion instead of a flattening chop.
Check out this site for all the deets!
