Sushi for Beginners

For both these sushi rolls, all I had was more of the tuna from the other night, but it's my favorite anyway.  I'm out of practice with sushi making, but I got the hang of it pretty quick.  These were both rolls with spicy tuna in the center, plus some avocado and cucumber.

Spicy Tuna Filling:
Fresh tuna, chopped/minced into very small pieces
1-2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp Sriracha spicy chili sauce
1 dash cayenne
This mix was a stirred up until the color changed to a redder tuna rather than pink.

Then I laid out press-n-seal plastic wrap and a half sheet of seaweed (nori) and spread cool sushi rice over it.  It won't stick if it's as cold as the fridge it came from, but a quick nuke in the microwave (about 20 seconds) brought it to the perfect just-below-room-temperature I was needing.  Then it stuck like duct tape to everything.

The layer of rice was spread out on the plastic about 1/4 inch tall and then I laid the nori on top and lightly pressed it down.  I spread my filling in the center, and for one I added a line of avocado and cucumber, but for the other I saved the avocado for a topper.

Using the plastic wrap I rolled 'em up till they just overlapped, and pressed lightly so the rice sponged together.  Yes I just used sponged as a verb.

I cooled both rolls in the fridge briefly, and sprinkled one with sesame seeds and panko bread crumbs.  The other I topped with thinly-but-not-thinly-enough-sliced avocado.  My spicy sauce from the last post was great with the panko crunch one.  Slicing them was an art, the bread knife seemed best but it was hard to keep them pretty and circular while doing so.

It just might be possible I could get this sushi stuff down and save us a lot of money eating out.  On the other hand, I might not bother.  All Taste Tester had to say was "It's good."  Not exactly the glowing praise one expects for hand-rolled custom homemade sushi, but I loved it.  Next time, I think brown rice plus a new type of fish in the mix.