Good job with the sushi Annie!

There is a place called Hadley's close to Palm Springs that have Date Shakes :)

The Orange Loaf looks very tasty...did you put an orange glaze on top?

Your sushi looks incredible Annie! You always amaze me with your willingness to try making new things. Does the nori just come in a sheet like that? As often as I eat vegetable sushi rolls, it never occurred to me to try making them at home. You're something else Mz. Annie:-) I'd love a slice of the orange loaf with my morning coffee.

I think you expected the date shake would be sweet, right? Maybe Gina, Jessy or Lars can weigh in on this one - how do they make them in California? When we lived in South Florida, due to the close proximity of Cuba, many popular milkshakes were flavored with tropical fruits, like mango, papaya, mamey, coconut, etc. It was all very sweet, and I always declared after I tried one, "give me a chocolate shake anytime, and I'm happy". Guess I'm a traditionalist at heart:-)

DONNA

That looks awesome! We make sushi here often, but I've never used raw fish. It makes me nervous in my home. I like fake crab and even cooked tuna or salmon. The other day I even made not sushi with chicken and couscous. Actually, the only thing even remotely sushi like about it was that I rolled the whole thing up in nori instead of a wrap.

Does that count as fusion? LOL!

AM
The Dinner Chronicles

Here is a link that might be useful: scroll down for photo of Not Sushi

Can't help you on the date shakes Donna, it has never occured to me to have one since I don't have any shakes! Now I am curious, and TJs sells organic dates.

Annie, looks wonderful. You are on the way to becoming a sushi chef. Waaaaah back in history DH and I tried making sushi using raw supermarket fish, not sushi quality. Um lets just say never again. Did I send you perilla seeds once upon a time? The leaves are one of the ingredients in some of the rolls.

Arabella. Is seaweed/nori kosher for passover? If yes, you can make quinoa sushi rolls! ooohhh.... the possibilities...

Great idea Jessy! I think that in theory it's kosher for P, but just try finding a package with the needed symbol! That's where I always run into trouble. I may have to relax our rules a little this year...

The Sushi is a feast for the eyes, and it's one of Sam's favorite foods. She hits a sushi restaurant close to where she works, on a regular basis, and her favorite is yellowtail sushi.
I got Nori sheets last year, and never did anything with them. And, if Sam sees this thread (she peeks the forum, on occasion), I'll have to make it for her. Actually, I love that stuff, and am interested in trying at home too.

I don't have a sushi mat either, but I just remembered that I have a wicker blind stored away somewhere - I think that would work well. I'll cut it down to size and use it for rolling this stuff up.

Sol

Looks great.

You know what? I was thinking of sending my swap partner a sushi making kit but then I chickened out thinking maybe they didn't eat it.

I searched to see if they mentioned it before and couldn't find anything.

I love sushi and love looking at all the different kinds, it's so pretty. But I play it safe and only eat California Rolls or Crab Rolls or Shrimp rolls. No raw fishy for me. Or raw quail eggs or anything like that.

Actually, I liked the raw fish when I had it in California, but I remind myself that I like raw beef too, some others probably don't. When (if) I catch one of those Lake Michigan salmon I think I'll try that, I'm not comfortable with the commercially available stuff here or with eating our inland lake fish raw. Because salmon are temperature driven, they live in water in the low 30s, just above freezing. That's why they are high in omega 3 fatty acids, it's "anti-freeze" so their flesh doesn't freeze in the cold water. Anyway....

Deborah, I did glaze the orange loaf with a mix of about a cup of fresh orange juice and 1/4 cup of sugar, heated until the sugar dissolved. I poked some holes in the loaf with a skewer and poured the mix over the hot loaf while it was still in the pan. Yummy.....

Donna, I'm very adventurous and I always try something I don't care for at least TWICE, just to make sure I wasn't holding my mouth wrong or something. (grin) The nori did come in sheets like that, and was perforated for slicing! I did have to shop for it though, it's not available anywhere close, I got it in Grand Rapids on my way home from the airport.

The date shake? I got the "recipe" from the internet, someone in California had a blog, LOL. Being a farm girl, I'd rather go for strawberry, but it wasn't bad. I'll make it again, until I get it "right". There was another recipe that had orange juice too, but that seemed like too many flavors.

AM, yours is prettier than mine, I need more colors! Passover sushi, now THAT'S an idea whose time has come.

Sol, it was really easy and made a LOT. Of course, how could it not be good, dipped in soy sauce and wasabi? Go for it, I'll bet yours will be prettier than mine too. All this Michigan sushi going on, Aunt Amy would be proud. now, if I could only get the hang of those chopsticks. I can still hear her say "You no good with chopstick. Use fork." Sigh.

Shaun, a sushi kit would be a great swap item, I think. After all, we're foodies. Expand our food horizons, LOL.

Annie

I knew you could do this Annie - and your recipe looks great. I've only tried doing it once a long time ago and failed. The roll was overstuffed and wouldn't stay rolled, and my knife wasn't sharp enough not to tear the nori. I'll have to try again soon. Koreans eat "kim-pop" which are rolls stuffed with rice, thin strips of beef, egg, pickled radish, spinach, carrots and/or other ingredients. It's the most famous home "fast-food" there.

I wanted to try a date shake with Annie at the breakfast place but I must have read wrong because the place we found didn't have them. I still haven't tried one. Costco has big, plump and moist dates. Sprouts had the worst - old and dried up and tasteless.

Good job Annie!

I have only made sushi a couple of times. Personally not crazy about it so never found it worth the effort.

Meredith on the other hand is a sushi fan and makes it regularly, seems it has replaced Kraft Dinner as her food of choice! Guess she has "arrived"!

Not so much me, I'll take the Kraft dinner over sushi! LOL

BTW Annie forgot to tell you - you don't really need a sushi roller. Ours was ruined/lost years ago and we did the saran wrap trick too. I miss mine, but ya know, 'necessity is the mother of invention'.

I know quality and freshness are huge issues with raw fish, so although I like tuna and salmon in sushi, I wouldn't try the raw fish kind at home. But sushi is the rice right? So there are all kinds of possibilities. How are you feeling about nori though? I wonder if there is an alternative.

I have a date-orange bread that I like, so I think if I was making a date shake, I would add orange juice to cut the cloying sweetness of dates. Can you tell I'm not a huge date fan. My aunts used to send us fancy dates for the holidays but I never liked them whole. I can tolerate them cut up in date-orange bread or bannana date bread.

I haven't made a date shake, but I have made some of my dates run for the hills!

WTG Annie! I've made sushi one or two times, but like many Asian dishes, I like eating it, but don't like making it! Personnaly, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE sushi and have it about every other week. If it were up to me (and my bank account), I would have sushi every day!

Funny you mention the date shakes. When I was traveling to Palm Desert for work the last couple of years, I would see signs for Date Shake stands all over the place. I never did stop, but I always wondered what they tasted like.

Now, Mejool dates....yummmmmmmm...I love those things. We buy them when ever they're in season.

Jessy, don't forget the pits!!!

Wow, great looking sushi, Annie! Looks like you have been making it for years. The rest of your meal looks yummy too!

Shelley

I think you did a wonderful job. It looks great! I'm ashamed to admit that I have never, ever eaten sushi. All my friends keep telling me that I am really missing out and I believe them, but I just have this "thing" in my head. LOL!

wow, Annie, that looks great!

I have eaten it and liked some of it - I don't mind the raw fish aspect - but what I found objectionable was the strong taste of the wrappers???

Stacy, for some reason those wrappers weren't very strong at all, not even as strong as the stuff we bought in California. Then again, I LIKE fish, so maybe that helps?

Hmmmm. Maybe I got stale sushi wrappers? LOL I can't imagine that there's a big demand for them in Grand Rapids, Michigan! I was told that there is a soy wrapper available too, but no one I know has tried them.

LOL, Lpink, a few of my dates DID shake, I think, and THEN they ran for the hills. (grin)

C'mon, dixiedog, it's just some rice, some wrappers and anything else you like. You could even use chicken strips like AM did. If you don't like the wrappers you could always peel 'em off and eat the middle. Ashley does.

Annie