Fun for the Whole Family: Sushi Party 101

I love having sushi parties. When my friend Yumi first initiated me into the secrets of sushi, I didn't believe her. I felt as though I was trespassing in a forbidden world and couldn't believe how easy it was. The wow and fun factors are high, but the effort and cost are low. All you really need, for a successful sushi party, is a high quality Japanese supermarket. The rest is easy.

As soon as we landed in Columbus, I started searching for a Japanese supermarket. I asked everyone I encountered about Asian supermarkets, and whenever I met a Japanese person, I got right down to business, asking them where they shop. The supermarket is key because it's the only place I would trust to buy sushi grade fish. Some regular supermarkets advertise sushi-quality tuna, but that makes me a little nervous. There are no standards for these things, and we all know where a bad piece of sushi can send us. So I prefer to buy my sushi fish from a Japanese supermarket, a busy one packed with customers, with gorgeous fish that looks like candy.

In New Jersey, I loved my trips to Mitsuwa, a huge Japanese supermarket in Edgewater. Here in Columbus, I discovered Tensuke Market (1167 Old Henderson Road 614.451.6002), thanks to The Restaurant Widow blog. Although Tensuke is much smaller than Mitsuwa, I found all of the ingredients I needed, including beautiful fish. As there's little I love more than stepping through the doors of a store and being transported to another continent, I'll continue exploring the other Asian markets in the area.

Other than gorgeous fish, you'll just need a few other items. You can easily walk out with all you need for a sushi feast for under $30. You'll need:

• some short grain sushi rice,
  
• a couple of packets of sushi rice seasoning to make it sticky and sweet (see above for picture),
  
• some wasabi paste, a little pickled ginger,
  
• and a package of seaweed sheets.

Now if you want to get a little fancier, you can also get:

• A couple of bamboo mats to roll up your sushi.
  
• Some veggies: avocado, cucumber, carrots.
• Some fruits: mango, peach, and pineapple.
• Fun Japanese salads like seaweed salad.
• Wild Japanese desserts and candy to entertain the kids.
• Sake and Japanese beer.
  

And as far as the fish goes, I usually go with tuna (toro and regular), salmon, yellowtail, and barbecued eel that I find in the freezer.


Once you have all your ingredients, it's time to put all of your guests to work, creating their own sushi creations. I set out to steaming bowls of sushi rice in the middle of the table, lay the fish, fruit and veggies on platters all around, and let everyone channel their own sushi chef. People can choose to make rolls with bamboo mats or plastic wrap, or stay conservative with sushi pieces of rice mounds topped with fish. At times, I have even been known to just go with sashimi and have a few bites of rice in between. Amy is pictured above. She had never tried to make sushi before, but she was turning out better looking rolls than anyone at the table within minutes.

My kids love these sushi parties. I don't really encourage them to go with the raw fish though, providing them with lots of veggies and some chicken fingers to roll up in the rice. For our last dinner, Bella stuck to her favorite, the chicken nugget roll, but her friend surprised me by making a gorgeous tuna and avocado roll.

Everyone had a blast, and everyone walked away very full.

Grilled Fish with Kabayaki Sauce and the Steamy Kitchen Cookbook Review

I love Asian flavors, but I don't often cook with them. My comfort zone is more in the heavy cream and butter zone of the kitchen. But I love it when a cookbook inspires me to get out of my saucy French habits, and play around with more exotic flavors. It's really about letting go of my fear of embarrassment that I won't be able to find the lemongrass or the seaweed shreds in the produce aisle.

When I went to BlogHer Food this summer, I went to a wonderful party on the last night that was organized by a trifecta of amazing food bloggers: Jaden from the Steamy Kitchen, Elise from SimplyRecipes, and Ree from the Pioneer Woman. These women are my inspiration, the golden standard of food blogging. I would have been content to simply sit next to them on a bus, but the party was a dream come true: intimate with great music and decadent food everywhere. And when the guests walked out, each received a foodie dream swag bag. Tucked into said swag bag was a postcard to receive a copy of Jaden's The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.

I promptly popped the postcard in the mail, and forgot about it. A few weeks ago, I received my copy of the Steamy Kitchen, and I instantly began drooling. With the gorgeous color photos of fish and meat glistening with brown sauces, the drooling is inevitable. But as soon as I tore my eyes away from the pictures and began perusing the ingredient lists, I breathed a sigh of relief. These recipes were completely doable, with short lists of ingredients.

The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook was exactly what I needed: Asian cooking, demystified.

I decided to jump right in with the Grilled Fish with Kabayaki Sauce. I literally wanted to lick the picture on the page. And once I made the sauce (it took less than 10 minutes), I was able to lick the spoon to my heart's content. The recipe is an adaptation of that Japanese grilled eel with sweet soy glaze that you sometimes get in sushi restaurants. As eel is hard to find in our supermarkets, Jaden suggested using catfish instead. I chose to indulge in Chilean Sea Bass instead because I love how it tastes so much like lobster.

Grilled Fish with Kabayaki Sauce (adapted to serve 2)

Ingredients

for the Kabayaki Sauce:

1/2 cup of soy sauce (125ml)

1/2 cup mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine) (125 ml)

3 tablespoons of sugar

For the Fish:

1 tablespoon of high-heat cooking oil (I used vegetable oil)

2 firm fish fillets, about 6 oz each, patted dry (I used a large Chilean Sea Bass filet cut in half)

6 cups of steamed short-grain rice

one small handful of dried or toasted seaweed shreds (Kizami Nori), for garnish (I omitted)

2 tablespoons of thinly sliced green onions (scallions), for garnish

1. In a small saucepot over medium high heat, stir together the Kabayaki Sauce ingredients. When the sauce begins to bubble, immediately turn the heat to low and let it simmer for 4 to 5 minutes, until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Be careful, as the sauce can easily thicken too much, and you'll end up with caramel! If it becomes too thick, whisk in a tablespoon of water at a time.
2. Set a large frying pan over high heat. When the pan is very hot, add the oil and swirl to coat pan. Lay the fish fillets in the pan, not touching each other. Fry for 2 minutes until the bottoms are browned. Brush the Kabayaki Sauce glaze on the fillets. Flip the fish over and brush the top of the other side. Fry for another minute or two, until the fish flakes easily and is cooled through.
3. Serve the fish over rice and pour additional Kabayaki Sauce over the fish. Top with seaweed shreds and green onions.

I served this with lightly sauteed sugar snap peas and rice.