Sushi Made Easy

Most people think its hard to make sushi, but actually, it's very easy! There is minimal cooking involved and you can get as creative as you want.  You can put anything you like in a sushi roll. I like snow crab legs, fried soft shell crabs, shrimp, avocado, cucumber, and asparagus.  I've also used mango and kiwi.  Really, anything you think is tasty will do.

First, prep all of your ingredients while you are making the sushi rice.  Slice the cucumbers and avocado.  Steam and crack your snow crab legs.  Fry the soft shell crab.  Set all these items a side.  

To make sushi rice, bring 2 cups of water to a boil.  Add 1 cup of sushi rice, cover and cook for 20 minutes.  Remove from heat and leave covered until the water is absorbed.  Make certain that you use sushi rice.  It sticks together better than any other rice and helps hold the sushi roll together.  There's a reason it's called sushi rice.

Lay the seaweed sheet out on parchment paper.  Spread a thin layer of rice evenly across half of the seaweed.  

In a neat pile, lay out a strip of ingredients you are filling your roll with.  Start with the rice end and roll up the seaweed tightly.  At the end of the seaweed, run your slightly moist finger over it to seal the end and press it until it no longer pops open.  Slice inch and a half to two inch slices and enjoy!

Lenten Crab Meal

I'm always looking for great meatless dishes to eat during Lent.  Crab is one of my favorite ingredients and Lent gives me a great opportunity to eat crab.  With this meal, I incorporated crab into the main entree as well as two sides.  The meal is baked crabcakes, crab slaw, crab gratin, and steamed asparagus.  Everything in this dish is of course, gluten free.

I love crabcakes, but I hate when they are filled with breadcrumbs.  When I make crabcakes, I leave the bread crumbs out all together.  Who needs all that filling? Not me! I've made them with very little gluten free breadcrumbs, but I always find way back to baking crab meat with no breading or breadcrumbs.  It's just not necessary in my book.

I don't usually approve of using canned items in my recipes, but when it comes to crabcakes, I really don't feel like cracking open three pounds of crab legs without enjoying them immediately.  Sure, if you have the time and the will power to set them aside, you'll make an even better crabcake.  For now, I'm just going to use canned crab and save the legs for sushi and me.

I decided to try a crab slaw.  It's something I made up on the spot. It was a mix of seviche and coleslaw.  It was cool and crunchy with a bit of a bite to it.  It was good in a small quantity, but I definitely would keep this a an edible garnish rather than an entire side.

The habanero crab gratin was a bit spicy for my liking, but if you like hot peppers, you may want to add a bit more heat than I added.  I used three small slices of habanero and chopped them up finely.  Then sautéed them with the green onions in butter to begin the gratin.   I'm told this was delicious side dish, but it just wasn't my kind of taste.  Perhaps next time I will use chili peppers instead of habanero peppers.  

                                                         Baked Crabcakes

1/2 can lump or special crab meat

1/2 teaspoon spicy brown mustard

1/2 teaspoon franks red hot

1 egg lightly beaten

1 green onion top chopped

1 tablespoon melted butter

A couple pieces of fresh dill

Mix egg, butter, mustard, dill, hot sauce, and green onions in a small bowl.  In a larger bowl, pour mixture over crab meat and fold slightly until just combined. Spoon on to an aluminum foil lined baking sheet and set aside in refrigerator until ready to cook.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F and bake for 15 mins.

Crab Slaw

1 radish peeled and chopped

1/2 carrot shredded

1/2 lemon or Meyer lemon juiced

1/4 can crab meat

1 clove garlic minced

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and set aside in refrigerator until ready to garnish plate.

Steamed Asparagus 

Cut woody part of steams about 1-2 inches off the bottom of each asparagus spear.  Steam asparagus in steamer for 8-10 minutes or until tender. Salt and butter to taste.

Chocolate Doughnut Holes

I woke up from a strange dream. It didn't matter that all the people in the dream were not people I know in real life or the odd situation about how  I didn't have enough money to pay to get out of the parking garage at work. In this strange dream, I went to a family style restaurant with the parking attendant and some other people I didn't know and we were eating chocolate doughnut holes with white icing.  I haven't had doughnuts in years.

Unlike a lot of people in the world, I can't just go to a doughnut shop and buy some doughnuts to eat. When you walk into a bakery and ask if they have anything gluten free, they look at you like you are from another planet.  With all the flour in a normal bakery, the cross contamination would be so high that even if they used gluten free flours to bake, it would no longer be a gluten free finished product. So I decided to satisfy my craving. I set out to make a gluten free chocolate doughnut like I was eating in the dream.  

I have never made doughnuts before. This was a challenge I was thrilled to take. I searched for recipes online. I found a few I liked and then looked into gluten free recipes to compare notes.  It's always good to see how the original is made before modifying something into gluten free.

I mixed the dry ingredients together. Then added the wet ingredients. Mixed it a little with my mixer and put the batter in the fridge for a half hour to chill.  In the mean time, I prepared my deep fryer. This was the first time I've used my new deep fryer.  

After the batter was cooled a bit, I rolled the batter into balls around two chocolate chips each to give them a chocolate center.  Then I realized I didn't add any butter to this recipe.  It was too late to do anything about that.  I'd just have to roll with it and see how they came out.

I fried the first batch.  I let them cool, then cut into one.  As I bit into the chocolate doughnut hole, I realized that it didn't need butter. It was amazing just the way it was.  It didn't have the texture of a cupcake. I didn't want that. It was the chocolate doughnut hole from my dream.  I whipped up the icing, rolled them in it, and ate a few more.  Fantastic!

1 1/2 cups gluten free all purpose baking flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/8 teaspoon xantham gum

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

1/4 cup butter milk or home made butter milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

32-40 60% bittersweet chocolate cacao baking chips

Frying oil for your deep fryer

Icing:

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon cream

1/8 teaspoon vanilla

Mix gluten free flour, cocoa, baking soda, xantham gum, and salt in a large mixing bowl.  Add eggs and yolk, vanilla, and buttermilk.  Mix on low speed with a hand mixer until combined, careful not to over mix.  Chill dough in refrigerator for a half hour to an hour.

Roll dough around two chocolate chips and place on wax paper or parchment paper. If you line a cookie sheet, it is easy to move them around without disturbing them.  After they are all rolled into balls, preheat your fryer to 350.  Place a few in the fryer basket so none are touching.  Fry for two to three minutes, turning them occasionally. Place them on a plate to cool and repeat until all of them are cooked.

Make the icing by combining the milk, cream, vanilla, and powdered sugar in a small bowl.  After each doughnut hole is cooled, roll them in the icing one at a time.

They should last for two days.