Making Sushi with the Kids

My 10 year-old boy and my 15 year-old girl both want to be chefs when they grow up. They also both love sushi. They’ve been wanting to learn how for a long time, and yesterday, we finally did it. (The 13 year-old boy doesn’t like sushi or cooking, so he sat out.)

I had bought a little “How to Make Sushi” kit at a bookstore on clearance awhile back. It included a DVD, a mat, and a cookbook. We watched the DVD a couple of weeks ago, and yesterday, we made the California rolls.

We couldn’t find any sushi rice at any of the stores nearby (we’d bought some from a far away store that didn’t make it into our bag, but the gas to go get it would have cost more than the rice), so we used medium grain rice. It worked just fine.  We rinsed and “massaged” it about 5 times, I think.

My 10 year-old massaging the rice

While the rice was in the rice cooker,we sliced up the cucumber, avocado, and imitation crab meat (we call that krab-with-a-k).

Both kids slicing up imitation crab.

Then we made the sushi-zu (the rice vinegar and sugar dressing for the sushi rice). Next time, we’ll do this first, though, since it needs to be cooled and poured over hot rice. My rice cooker kept the rice warm while the sushi-zu cooled, but being patient was hard. Then we poured the sushi-zu over the rice, and my 16 year-old cut and tossed it into the rice. Then we had to wait and fan the rice until it was cool, while Mommy snuck bites of the krab-with-a-k.

Since we only have one sushi mat (I’ll be getting more!), my 10 year-old got to go first. Here he is spreading the rice on his nori:

Making sushi!

(The little green bowl is for dipping fingers and knives into rice vinegar – that rice is sticky!)

After we rolled the sushi, it was time to cut it. So close…

They may not have been the prettiest rolls ever, but they sure were tasty.

We will definitely be doing this again – and trying other kinds of sushi, as well!

For enough ingredients to make nine rolls (54 pieces!), I spent less than I would have paid for one person at a nearby all-you-can-eat sushi train. We even have some pieces still in the fridge for snack today!

One of the things I love most about homeschooling is the opportunity to embrace learning experiences like this. Yesterday, we got to have an adventure in our own dining room.

Linked to:

Works for Me Wednesday

We Did It Wednesday