California Rolls (Easy/Moderate)

This is what I call edible art!

I was first introduced to California rolls by my husband back when we were living in Silverdale, Washington and I loved them and could not get enough of them. We would frequent this one Japanese restaurant that just loved to call our son little Buddha. He was a big, round baby boy and they just loved seeing him when we would eat there, that was about 14 years ago. It never occurred to me to try and make these myself until probably 5-7 years ago. We bought a sushi cookbook, a bamboo mat for rolling up the rolls, and a bamboo wooden spoon and then began the process of making California rolls at home. When you make a California roll you want to eat it within the half hour you make it because the rice inside expands and the seaweed wraps will split. 


Makes approximately 12-14 rolls, 3-4 rolls per person

Ingredients:

Seaweed sheets (pack of 20)
4 cups cooked white rice (I prefer jasmine rice and cook as directed or in a rice cooker)
Rice vinegar
sugar
salt
1 cucumber sliced into toothpick-style strips
2 avocados, sliced thinly but somewhat thickly
2-3 medium-sized carrots, (I like to pulse mine in the food processor, makes them easier to bite into)
Crab meat, real or imitation, small package, sliced thin or shredded, whichever you prefer
Wasabi
Soy Sauce

 Directions:

1. Cook the rice as directed on bag or in a rice cooker, I prefer the rice cooker, perfect rice every time, they are also inexpensive and double as a vegetable steamer.
2. Once the rice is done cooking, if you did not use a rice cooker, then transfer to a large enough bowl to be able to stir in, and if you did use a rice cooker then just leave in the cooker and sprinkle about 2 tablespoons worth of sugar on top and a couple dashes of salt, immediately follow with about a 1/4 cup of rice vinegar and stir immediately while rice is still steaming hot, once sugar, salt, and rice vinegar are mixed in, cover immediately either with your rice cooker lid or plastic wrap over the bowl and let sit for 5 minutes while the rice vinegar and sugar do their job, making the rice sticky. The heat from just cooking the rice mixed with the sugar and rice vinegar all work together to make the rice sticky. It should have a sweet, yet slightly salty taste when you try it. The bamboo wooden spoon is for the ease of spreading the rice on the seaweed.
3. Take your bamboo mat (pictured below) and place it inside a gallon-sized Ziploc, this keeps your bamboo mat from getting all dirty, then when you are finished, clean up is easy.
4. Place a piece of seaweed on the mat, then layer a thin amount of sticky rice over the sheet of seaweed, add at the one end, the beginning of the seaweed wrap a slice of avocado, some crab meat, a cucumber stick, some shredded carrots, and roll up carefully by hand at first and do not to tear the seaweed and then to make sure you rolled it tightly enough, take your bamboo mat and roll the roll in it to pinch it tightly and keep it together. Continue this process for the remaining rolls. 
5. Take a small bowl and squirt some prepared Wasabi, about a dime-sized amount, I like a bit more because I like the sting Wasabi causes right between my eyes when I take my first bite. Wasabi is strong and is made from horseradish, that is why I say dime-sized for you beginners, you can increase it if you like after you first taste it. Add enough soy sauce to your bowl for dipping, stir well, and dip your California roll in the mixture quickly. You do not want it swimming in the soy sauce/Wasabi mixture, it will be too salty and too strong. You can do a partial dip or a full on dip. You can slice your seaweed roll into bite-sized pieces or leave it whole and hold it in your hand each time you dip and bite it, almost like eating a hot dog. 

Bamboo mat and Bamboo wooden spoon

Seaweed sheets

Rice vinegar

Wasabi and soy sauce

See how I place my bamboo mat in a Ziploc and also I cut a small hole in the bottom corner to allow trapped air to escape for ease of rolling up the seaweed.

My rice sitting in the cooker getting sticky.

The veggies and crab meat for the inside.

Sliced up avocados, cucumbers, crab meat and pulsed in the food processor carrots.

Sticky rice ready to be spread with bamboo spoon for ease.

Sheet of seaweed waiting for sticky rice to be spread on top.

Sticky rice thinly laid over seaweed.

The toppings added somewhat at the beginning of the roll for ease in rolling and the pretty look.

I first roll it up by hand

I then roll it up in the bamboo mat.

This is where you pinch the roll once rolled in the mat tightly to keep it sealed.

Rolled and pinched and sealed, ready to be eaten or sliced into bite-sized slices.

California roll

Dime-sized amount of wasabi and soy sauce mixed with it for dipping.

Stir it up to mix it well.

YUM!