Anime Club: Sushi Rolling

This month for our anime club meeting, I wanted to try sushi making. It was quite the learning experience, but for the most part, things went pretty smoothly.

First, I researched sushi rice recipes as this is the basis for a good sushi roll. The recipe I went with is this one. It's super easy to make. I made a small trial batch in a saucepan on the stove, but then I purchased a rice cooker to make a big batch for the meeting. Whichever one you are comfortable with will work. (Note: I had about 20 teens at my meeting so I use 10 cups of dry rice thinking that would be a good amount...WRONG...I made waayyyyy  too much! Next time, I would probably only make around 6 or 7 cups of dry rice.)

I found the sushi rice, nori, and rice vinegar at my local Asian market. To make basic sushi, you need:

• Sushi rice
• Nori sheets
• Carrot slices (I found bags of matchstick carrots at the grocery store that we the perfect shape/size. But you could also buy whole carrots and julienne them yourself.)
• Cucumber slices (I had a slicer/julienne mandoline that made cutting them up super easy and quick. But again, you could do this by hand with a knife.)
• Cream cheese
• Imitation crab meat
• Soy sauce
• Wasabi

I also provided the following:

• Wax paper (In lieu of spending a fortune on sushi rolling mats for 20 teens, wax paper works just as well!)
• Chopsticks
• Small cups - for soy sauce dipping (purchased at my local party store in bulk, but I've also seen them at Target.)
• Plastic spoons - for spreading rice
• Serrated knives - for making sushi slices
• Small plastic cups of water - This helps when you are trying to close your nori roll. If you wet your finger, it helps seal the nori closed.

Directions:

1. I had the teens come up to the counter and load up a paper plate with their ingredients. Then they took their stuff back to the tables. 

2. Lay out your nori sheet on the wax paper.

3. Spread a thin layer of rice onto the nori. Be careful not to lay it on too thickly or you'll end up with a sushi burrito!

4. Add your preferred ingredients on top of the rice (carrots, cream cheese, crab, etc.).

5. Use the wax paper to help you roll your sushi. Make sure you don't end up with the wax paper inside your roll!

6. Wet you finger to seal the nori roll completely. The warm rice should also help with this.

7. Let your sushi cool down for a few seconds before slicing to make it easier.

8. Carefully use a serrated knife to cut the sushi into slices.

9. Dip sushi into soy sauce or wasabi and enjoy!

This activity took a lot of prep ahead of time, but in the end it was worth it. The teens had a blast making (several) rolls of sushi and watching some anime.

Have you ever made sushi with teens? What ingredients did you use?