Brown Rice Yam Rolls

Well, I am a deep-fry virgin no longer. I dunked my battered yams into that sizzling oil like a seasoned veteran. Somewhere mid-fry, I realized the irony of trying to increase the health of the sushi with brown rice, while stuffing it full of yam tempura. The yam rolls were delicious - however, due to the extra fiddling I think that tempura will be making only special appearances in my sushi roll line-up. The brown rice sushi was great - health notwithstanding, I loved the flavour and texture, and will definitely be making this swap in the future (I forgot to tell Mike about the brown rice and I don't think he noticed).

I do have a thanks to give: a big shout out goes to my elastic-waist maternity pants- I think I ate the baby's weight in sushi tonight. Of course, you can't make yam tempura without some sampling.

Brown Rice Sushi

I don't have a recipe per se, there are many guides to making sushi a la google. However, here are some tips.

I used this method to make the yam tempura.

For the brown sushi rice I cooked 2 cups of calrose brown rice, which I find has a stickier grain, and added sushi vinegar and salt to taste (sushi vinegar is just rice vinegar, sugar, and salt).

Just before you roll your sushi it's time to cut up your other filling options. Tonight I sliced avocado and cucumber to go along with the yam. For other sushi dinners I mix and match lots of different fillings: matchsticks of carrot, egg omelet cut into strips, crab, shrimp, smoked salmon, thinly julienned red peppers - you can be as creative as you want. I have to confess I have never used raw fish, I love it at restaurants but I'm too nervous at home.

Again, if you've never made sushi before just google the directions for how to put it all together, there are lots of good step-by-step photographs out there. Here's what I do:

It's time to roll baby! Place your nori sheet on the mat, then spread over enough rice to cover the sheet up to about an inch from one edge. Press the rice onto the nori with water-moistened fingers, and also wet the rice-less edge. Put your fillings a few inches up from the bottom of the mat and roll up toward the moistened edge. You want to be give the mat a good squeeze as you go so that your sushi is nice and compact. Next slice. I like to keep my pieces thin - particularly as we have small mouths around the table. I have a fabulous serrated bread knife that Mike gifted me a few years ago and it slices a clean piece of sushi.

Finally serve with soy sauce to dip. I love pickled ginger on the side, and it lasts forever in your fridge. If you like wasabi it will also last indefinitely in the fridge - you can also buy it in powdered form and add water to make a paste as you need it.

One final question for all those more experienced deep-fryers - how to dispose of the leftover oil?