California Beach Roll

Today in honor of California, the beach, and by request from Fernando, I made sushi.  More specifically I made what I have decided to name California Beach Rolls.  For my celebration of my California roots I also wore my California beach t-shirt.  Last night I made these rolls, and well my kitchen is really too dark to photograph food at night, so today I got a second chance to show you how I made California Beach Rolls (My own name, and creation).  

I have not always liked sushi, but a few years ago my sister Jenifer treated me to a wonderful weekend in Carlsbad for my birthday.  Carlsbad has the most beautiful flower farm, in case you love to see rows and rows of amazing flowers.  On our way back home, we stopped at a sushi restaurant and the roll I ordered had tempura shrimp and avocado.  My recipe today is my take on that fabulous sushi roll I ate a few years ago.

With the help of my friend Bridget, we made Sushi to share with my husband and his co-workers (Especially Fernando) today.

 

 Look at it, doesn't it look gorgeous?

 Ingredients for sushi rice: 4 cups cooked room temperature Nishiki White Sushi Rice (NO you
may not substitute any other sad rice that isn't Nishiki), 1/3 cup cup Rice Wine Vinegar, 2
tablespoons sugar.

Ingredients for tempera batter fried shrimp: 10 large peeled and de-veined shrimp (Save yourself
 the headache and spend the extra for the peeled and de-veined), Cornstarch, 1 cup flour, 1 egg,
and 1 can of Seltzer water.

Other ingredients for the California Beach Roll: 5 sheets Nori (seaweed, the nori pictured is from Costco but it is not the correct size, the correct kind is pictured below), and 1 ripe avocado.

Mix rice, vinegar, and sugar together.

 Assemble sushi on parchment paper or bamboo sushi mat (covered with Ziploc bag) if you
have one.  Place a baseball size amount of rice on Nori sheets and with hands wet with water
flatten rice onto Nori.  The pictured Nori was purchased from an Asian market.   I HIGHLY
recommend buying it from an Asian market (cheaper) or buy from Costco (like they do in
California in full size sheets) if they have them.

 Dredge shrimp in cornstarch and skewer on wooden skewer.   Try to make the shrimp as straight
 as possible on the skewer.  We only want straight shrimp for our rolls.   That is your goal.

 Crack the egg into a measuring cup, add enough seltzer to equal 1 cup.  Whisk the egg and
seltzer gently, we don't want to burst all the bubbles.  Add the flour, whisk gently again.  

In a tall small saucepan over medium-high heat, bring vegetable oil and 1/4 cup Toasted
sesame seed oil to a boil.

 Dunk the shrimp into the batter...

 Then into the oil, cook until outside is golden brown.  Remove to a paper bag lined platter.
Repeat with all ten shrimp.  The paper bag will wick away the oil and keep the shrimp crispy
 and not soggy.

 This recipe will make 5 sushi rolls.

Flip Nori over, so rice is facing down and Nori is facing up.  Slice avocado into 20 pieces.
Place two slices of avocado on edge of each Nori sheet.

 Add shrimp next, remove tails if you kept them on.  We kept them on and fried them and
realized they should have been taken off.  Shrimp tails don't taste good.

 Roll tightly from the avocado side forward. 

 Using a serrated knife cut the rolls into 1 inch slices, dunking the knife between each cut
into a bowl of water to prevent sticking.

 You know you want one.   What are you waiting for?  Go get the ingredients.
Lets make some sushi!

Enjoy!