Half Pint Pixie

VeganMoFo Day 16

Vegetarian Sushi Made Easy by Hiroko Fukuhara

It was a beautiful October evening, two newlyweds strolled through a market in Japan picking up beautifully carved chopsticks, delicate leaf-shaped chopstick rests, a sushi-rolling mat and a copy of Vegetarian Sushi Made Easy by Hiroko Fukuhara.

A quick stop by the roadside kiosk for some sake and veggie sushi and they were off again, strolling down the road towards Morocco, for yes, they were in EPCOT and were quite tipsy being as they were halfway through their “drinking around the world” evening of fun (a tip: only do this during the Food & Wine Festival as you can get small portions of each country’s beverage!).

So, you may ask, is a sushi book picked up in Walt Disney World any good? It is certainly crammed full of beautiful photos, each one inspiring you to make amazing creations.

However, sushi-wise I am not very adventurous or dexterous, I have an overwhelming love for two things sushi, kappa maki (cucumber rolls), well anything maki really, avocado, tofu and red peppers also have featured in the rolls, and inari-zushi (rice filled tofu pockets).

When I make sushi at home, these are all I make. And I make lots of them. And eat them all. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum….

But I do like to look through this book and some day I will make a huge platter of pretty coloured sushi rolls, with different designs in the rice, and I will use this book for inspiration. It’s worth mentioning that it’s not a vegan book, some of the recipes use egg and honey but they’re easy enough to skip over. Oddly enough, their basic rice has honey in it, which I haven’t seen anywhere else, but we don’t use their rice recipe, actually the recipe we use is pretty much the same as this one from Sushi Day and we make it in our beloved rice cooker.

There are detailed instructions in the different ways to prepare and roll your delicacies, and several alternative options such as rice rolled in deep fried tofu sheets instead of nori, sushi cones, sushi balls and even salads.

So, all in all, it’s a very pretty book, with plenty of good ideas and some day when I have both hands free at dinner time I will give some of the ideas a go!

Right now, though, I’d love some kappa maki! Or the hummus maki I just found on Sushi Day, sounds very scrumptious. Actually while I’m on a sushi train of thought, take a look at PPK’s Sushi Party, RecipeZaar’s Vegan Sushi cookbook or these Vegan Sushi photos on Flickr. Oh I love it, I’m going to go to Yo Sushi at the weekend and eat all their kappa maki (I get too impatient there, and press the buzzer and order a few plates of it as soon as I sit down!) Actually I bet Littlepixie would enjoy making sushi, perhaps an adventure for next week methinks?

Anyway, that last paragraph had nothing to do with my book review, naughty HPP. So, gentle reader, do you love sushi? Do you own Vegetarian Sushi Made Easy? What are your thoughts on it?

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