Birthday - sushi cook-off

[Sushidragon]

You may remember this event being run with the Glassgryphs in previous years, but I thought it'd be fun to bring it out for the Samanayrs to enjoy

Your job is to cook up some delicious sushi, but you're not allowed to use the regular sushi ingredients (rice, seaweed, fish, etc). Instead, you have to be creative and use other ingredients to create something resembling sushi You'll need to actually make your creation, and then take a photo of it to share with everyone!

For example, for a roll sushi, instead of seaweed, rice, and fish, you could use a Fruit Roll-Up (seaweed), Rice Krispies (rice), and gummi bears (fish center). Mmm mmm good

Rules!

- Your entry must resemble a sushi roll, but can't be made of typical sushi ingredients.
- Entries will be judged on creativity and deliciousness, so make sure your ingredient combinations work well together! Combining, say, roast beef slices and M&Ms might not be too delicious XD
- To enter the contest, you'll need to take a photo of your entry. Your photo must include a piece of paper with your PI name written on it.
- One entry per person!

Entries will be judged by myself a couple of secret impartial judges - although you can probably guess who one of them is, the poor guy XD

There will be one first-place winner and three runners-up, and all winners will get to pick their prize from the prize pot First place will pick first, first runner-up will pick second, etc.

In addition to the prize pot, all entries will receive a random modiem!

Prizes in the prize pot









The sushi cooking contest is open until Aug 13, 11pm PDT. To enter, please post your entry in this thread. In your post, include the photo of your entry and what ingredients you used in your creation! Make sure your photo includes a piece of paper with your username!

Current Entrants

Jennalyn - Breakfast Bacon Sushi
Raenia - Cucumber Salad Sushi
LvSoulFriend - Chocolate Strawberry Dessert Sushi
Rekyrem - "Culture Shock" Sushi
Celestial - Rainbow Marshmallow Sushi
Pristine - Strawberry Salmon Nigiri Cake
Janalee - Scandinavian Sushi
silvermoondragon - Dessert Sushi Platter
AranelSaraphim - Taco Sushi
Kagari - Can-ham-tastic Sushi
pinkmoonbeam - Deli Style Sushi Rolls
Varuna - Mallow-Melon Sushi
Nighthenge - Sushi A La Mode
cassiadawn - Maca-fornia Sushi
sera - Banana Choco Sushi
Puuka - Tropical Delight Platter
CosmicDragon - Do-nutty Sushi
Saiki - Brownie Bite Sushi

[Jennalyn]

We post our entries here? Okay!

Anyone who's heard me chatting in Ustream can probably guess that I love fatty food. More specifically, I love savory, salty, deliciously fatty foods. The fat is just a consequence of the delicious. In that vein, I have decided to forgo any nod towards my own health or sanity and go for extra delicious. How did I do that?

BACON.

For those of you who do not like, are disgusted by, or fear bacon... leave now. This is not safe browsing ground for you. For those of you who embrace your piggy longings, however, and delight in the wonders of bacon, behold.

Breakfast Bacon Sushi



Yeah, it looks kind of gross with all that meat, but bacon always looks weird in large quantities. It's all about the flavor. And... please excuse the Disney plate. In our kitchen, it's sort of a grab-what-you-can-get and there are many throwbacks to our childhood days.

Ingredients:
- Bacon (seaweed, shrimp)
- Mild cheddar (nom)
- Onion (nom)
- Mushrooms (nom)
- Mashed potatoes (rice)
- Butter (mushrooms, onions, potatoes)
- Water (potatoes)
- Milk (potatoes)
- Salt (seasoning)
- Pepper (seasoning)
- Ketchup (eyes)



To begin, I chopped up an onion and some mushrooms. I made a lot because I knew I could save some for tomorrow morning. Butter, salt, and pepper joined them in the pan to make a wonderfully steamy concoction.



After that, I prepared some mashed potatoes. I used the flake stuff for convenience. It tastes good and if you use a tiny bit less water than directed then it's really malleable and fun to work with.

Next was the bacon. Mmmmm bacon. I prepared it two different ways. Four strips went into the microwave with paper towel above and below. I tend to prefer crispy, pan-fried bacon, but I needed the more workable microwaved stuff for the rolls. Then I fried up about nine strips, some just to munch and some for the 'creations'.



After that, I underwent the process of rolling, crafting, and shaping the 'sushi'. Here's an unrolled one, the 'Deluxe Bacon Sushi Roll' with bacon seaweed, mashed potato rice, shredded cheddar, fried onions, and fried mushrooms.



Here's a completed set of Deluxe Bacon Sushi Rolls.


For those less fond of the onions and mushrooms, this is a simple Bacon Sushi Roll with bacon, mashed potatoes, and shredded cheddar.


Because I was having fun and wanted to do some more with mushrooms and onions, I went for the Breakfast Bacon Mock-Ikura.


And because I was having a lot of fun by then, I decided to be bold. Behold! The Mighty Bacon Sushi Dragon!

[sera]

Whilst i can't look at most of those pictures very closely-- Spawn, why dost thou abhor meat so? T_T-- the Mighty Bacon Sushi Dragon is a sight to behold! Wonderfully done, Jenn! XD

[Jennalyn]

Aww, I'm sorry the spawn is giving you trouble with the sight of so much meat. I figured putting up a warning in the beginning would give people a heads-up in case the sight honestly nauseated them, however delicious it may be. But thank you for complimenting the Mighty Bacon Sushi Dragon! I'm sure he would bow and flutter his tasty wings, if he were able.

[Orasteele]

Wow! That's a lot of bacon! Not that I'm opposed to bacon (I prefer mine extra crispy). The Sushi-dragon is a nice touch!

[LvSoulFriend]

Can we use cucumber? Or other veggies? I'm not too sure on what exactly goes into sushi XD Besides fish, rice, and seaweed XD

[silvermoondragon]

mmmm, bacon!!! and I looooooooooooooove that bacon sushi dragon! His wings are awesome.

[Jennalyn]

Here's a list of normal ingredients that I found. ^_^

http://www.sushichart.com/sushiIngredients/

Looks like cucumber's in a lot of them, so it's probably a no...

[LvSoulFriend]

Dessert Sushi



-strawberries (filling)
-angel food cake (rice)
-melted chocolate chips (seaweed)

Best served with a large glass of milk or juice XD They're chocolaty!

Work In Progress Pics


I started with an angel food loaf, sliced it in half lengthwise. I used the toothpicks to make sure I got equal halves XD The chop the bottom half into 8 pieces, and turn each square into a cylinder. Eating the leftover bits is a plus!


Using a small paring knife, I hollowed out the center Look, naked sushi!


Originally, I planned to roll them in the chocolate, like you do with strawberries. The cake didn't like that. So I used a spoon to smooth the chocolate over the outside of the cake rounds. Then I popped them in the fridge for 10-20 minutes to chill and harden.

While they chill, chop strawberries into little chunks. Fill up the hollows when the chocolate is solidified, and enjoy!

[Rekyrem]

My sushi is done! It took quite a while to make, but, I'm very happy with it in the end (even if it didn't 'roll' very well), and it tasted amazing. @w@ Too bad I couldn't share it with all of you!

"Culture Shock" Sushi

This blends the tastes of India and Italy, combined with the look of Japanese sushi! Mm-mm!
Here it is, along with a few work-in-progress/ingredients shots.



As you can see, my 'seaweed' was quite uncooperative, so here's a... neater 'artist's rendition' to help you see what's going on! XD



So! Here are the ingredients!

Filling: Chicken with Fenugreek/Murgh Tawa - An Indian curry!
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
300g chopped onions
2 tsp minced garlic
1 small green chili, chopped
200g chopped tomatoes
1/2 tsp ground tumeric
1/2 tsp red chili powder
2.5cm fresh ginger, chopped
1/2 tsp crushed black peppercorns
1/8 tsp ground fenugreek seeds
cubed chicken breast
50g butter
100ml light cream

First, the oil, cumin seeds, green chili, and onions are cooked in the tawa/wok/large pan, until the onions are a light golden brown.

Next, the garlic, tomatoes, tumeric, and red chili powder are added, and this is cooked until it turns to a sort of paste. Add water if it seems a little too dry. By now, it should have been cooking for about 30 minutes total, maybe more - cooking it slow is always a good thing.

After this, the ginger, peppercorns, fenugreek seeds, and chicken are added, and cooked until the chicken is fully cooked. Don't want raw chicken! Eeew.

The final step is to add the butter and cream, let the butter melt while stirring, and then... tadaaah! The curry is done!

---

Rice: Saffron Rice or Parmesan Dip
In my opinion, the parmesan dip was the best for this. The creaminess and the twang of it was a nice addition to the spicy chicken.

Saffron Rice
2 cups water
1 cup basmati rice
saffron
butter
cumin seeds

Put the butter, saffron, and cumin seeds (only a small amount each) into the pot and heat it until you have a nice 'butter' tea. Then add your water and rice, get the water to a boil, and then place the lid on the pot and let it cook. Yay, nice and easy rice!

Parmesan Dip
malt vinegar
mayonnaise
parmesan
oregano

Pretty much, you just mix all of those together until it tastes how you want it to. <3 Obviously, though, you're going to have a lot more parmesan and mayonnaise than the other two ingredients.
Hint: I like it to be creamy, but still fairly thick (think pudding), and have a nice twangy aftertaste from the vinegar.

---

Seaweed: Focaccia Bread
yeast
flour
water
olive oil
rosemary
thyme
oregano
sage

Sorry about the lack on information on this one! My mom just 'knows' how much of each to put in, and she was the one on bread duty (it's her baby, haha), so I don't have exact measurements for you. However, it's made just like any other sort of bread - no fancy tricks here.

After the dough rises, though, put a little olive oil on top and spread it around before you put it into the oven.

This is served nicely by itself, too, with some melted cheddar and mozzarella on top, and parmesan dip to dip it in. One of my favourite meals.

---

After this, you just (attempt) to roll it all up nicely, and eat it! Finger food. ;D

Hopefully you'll take my word for it when I say it was veeery very good! Also, it was the first curry I ever made on my own! XD Go me.

(Pssst, here are some extra pics.)
- Pre-butter and cream!
- Post-butter and cream!
- The bread, mm~
- The dip!
- By the time I was done fighting with the uncooperative bread-seaweed, the family had eaten most of the curry! Sneaky things!
- And the rice, too!

[Sushidragon]

Mmm, so many yummy sushis ;____; rekyrem, I'm sorry yours fell apart a little, but it still looks delish! And LvSoulFriend.. chocolate and strawberries, om nom nom XD I also love these step-by-step photos that are accompanying each entry!

[Esperanza]

So, its not that hard to make marshmallow sushi! So you need three simpled ingredients that you could get at your local store.

-The Puff Marshmallows
-Whipped Cream(Chocolate or Vanilla)
-Rainbow Sprinkles


So first poke a hole in the center of your marshmallow.


Then use your whipped cream and stick the nozzle in the center and spray, some excess may be on the top. Just use your finger and whip it off, then you have some whipped cream on your finger which you can wash off or be like me and use your mouth. xD


Take your sprinkles and sprinkles them on.

-The Finished Product-
*dramatic music*

[sera]

HEEE! Celestial, you used some of my favourite sweets ever. xD This is win.

[Esperanza]

I hope it is win. X3
Thank you. *squish*

[Rekyrem]

I love whipped cream with a passion. >___>

-has tons in the fridge right now, lol-

[Math]

Wait, we can use rice?

[Esperanza]

I love whipped cream too! I didn't even know they had a chocolate flavor until today. ;.;

[Jennalyn]

I'm pretty sure that rice was listed as one of the big no-nos, like seaweed and fish/seafood/etc.

[Sushidragon]

You can't use sushi rice as the rice, no. In rekyrem's entry, the rice is one of the ingredients in the overall 'rice' of the entry and the recipe would still hold up without it.

Mmmm marshmallow sushi

[Yuiven]

Mmm... a meat alternative of a traditional Japanese delicacy. *drools* Oh, the "Bacon Breakfast Sushi" looks yummy! It's a total oxymoron. Sushi should be soo healthy, yet this is made with cholesterol-laden ingredients. I would willingly eat them all and ignore the "heart attack on a plate" factor. :>

And the "Mighty Bacon Sushi Dragon" is really cool, with a creative use of the materials on hand. Makes me want to take a bite out of it, but at the same time I am not willing to ruin such a delectable creation even in hunger– especially since it's a tribute to our own esteemed admin and artist, Sushidragon.

Both the "Chocolate Strawberry Dessert Sushi" and the "Rainbow Marshmallow Sushi" are adorable, edible creations that really appeal to my sweet tooth. :9

The "Culture Shock Sushi" is a great blend of Indian spices, Italian ingredients, and Japanese presentation. Rekyrem, it isn't easy to combine three international cuisines into one dish, but you managed to pull it off nicely. Although your sushi did fall apart a little I still liked it. ^_^b

All that hard work certainly paid off. Well done everybody, and good luck in the contest!

[Janalee]

Scandinavian Sushi
(Because with that much shoreline, I'm sure they wouldn't use fish. *smirks*)




I think this is the part where I admit I know just about nothing about sushi, so I'm sorry if I use a word incorrectly or anything; at least I tried to mimic three different ones so I'd be forced to learn something though. ^^ And so, onwards!


Maki Roll
(The internet assures me I should call it makizushi, but I'm leaving it this way because that's how I've always heard it, and because 'maki' is also a Finnish word and part of the reason I went with the Scandinavian theme. *grins*)

Nori/seaweed: Lefse



Ingredients: potatoes, butter, cream, sugar, salt, flour
Notes: My cookbook calls it Norwegian Potato Flatbread, but I think it tastes more like a potato pancake to me since it's a bit sweet; either way, I enjoyed trying to make it for the first time, even if I had to cheat with the kitchen utensils.

Rice: Pannukakkua



Ingredients: eggs, milk, flour, salt, sugar, butter
Notes: I don't suggest either spelling or pronouncing this with the 'a' at the end unless you're with my family; apparently we're the only ones in the world who do it. *smirks* For the curious who like me can't read Finnish, it sounds like bun-ooh-guck-ooh(-ah). It's a baked, eggy pancake, though I had someone tell me it tasted like an egg quiche to them once. I find it goes well with either salty foods or sweet, depending on what you feel like; most often we use maple syrup, honey, sugar, bacon, or sausage. And speaking of which...

Fish: Sausage



Yes, I feel completely ridiculous posting a picture of sausage, but might as well be thorough. *smiles* Roll it all up, and there you go.


Gunkanmaki (roe cup)

Rice/nori: Aebleskiver



Ingredients: flour, salt, baking soda, buttermilk, eggs
Notes: Ah, the Danish pancake ball; I wish you could tell the shape of the pan better in my picture, but you'll have to take my word on it having a series of rounded hollows to cook in.

Roe: Boysenberries



Yeah, I had to include the flash closeup just to show how roe-like it can be. ^^


Nigirizushi

Rice: Yep, that's pannukakkua again. I tried to fluff it a bit to make it more rice-like, and might have ended up somewhere closer to poorly mashed potato, in case you think it's looking less appetizing than normal.

Seafood: Boysenberries and Baked Apples (cinnamon, sugar, and apple)



I'm afraid you get another flash closeup, but I was ridiculously happy with how well the baked apple looked like raw fish; I really wasn't expecting much when I scored it with a fork for a fake fish grain, I just thought it would be funny. And it was delicious, let me tell you. XD


Soy sauce/wasabi: Maple Syrup
*laughs* Yes, I did have the maple syrup bottle in the full picture for a reason; it's also why there's so much extra 'rice' on the nigirizushi, I wanted to have some with pure syrup too.




Well, I hope everyone who didn't recognize the foods here enjoyed the Scandinavian tour, and thought everything looked edible anyway, because I thought it pretty good. Oh, and for those of you who are sad that I seemed to ignore Sweden, I threw in a few designs based off of Swedish folkart on my card just for you. ^^ For those of you sad I ignored Iceland...I have an Old Icelandic dictionary sitting here, does that count? *grins*

[Jennalyn]

Janalee, that looks like complete and utter delicious noms. xD I would eat all of that in a heartbeat and it looks simply beautiful. *makes grabby hands and drools in the hopefully-not-as-disgusting way*

[Janalee]

*laughs* Thanks Jenn! I was kind of afraid to use things that people might not know the taste of, since 'deliciousness' is part of the judging...but I just couldn't resist the chance to write all those fun words anyway. ^^ *offers the plate, while surreptitiously trying to steal the bacon sushi dragon*

[silvermoondragon]

Silvermoondragon’s dessert sushi platter:





Ebi Rolls
Shrimp – sugar cookies
Rice – Rice Krispie square

Ikura
Salmon roe – Wonka runts
Seaweed – Fruit Roll Up

Maguro/Okonomi/Hamachi
Fish – various types of caramel squares
Rice – Rice Krispie square

Onigiri
Rice – Rice Krispie square
Seaweed – Chocolate with a bit of corn syrup and green food colouring

Tekka/ Kappa Maki
Fish/Veggies – Super Nibs and Maynards Juicy Squirts Berry
Rice – Rice Krispie Square
Seaweed – Chocolate with a bit of corn syrup and green food colouring

Soy Sauce – Choice between caramel or chocolate sauce
Wasabi – Mint icing
Chopsticks - Pocky (the one's on the left are actually real Japanese chopsticks my brother got in Japan)

And then there’s the healthy choice, the fruit sushi(on the right hand side):

Masago
Roe – blackberry in marshmallow creme
Seaweed – strawberry

Maguro/Okonomi/Hamachi
Fish – strawberry slices
Rice – banana rolled in oatmeal

Sushi in progress:

[AsaraDragon]

Pocky chopsticks are win.

I want to devour that whole plate!