Sushi Bowls & Miso Soup/Jiro Dreams of Sushi

All I did in Vegas was EAT. I guess we did some other stuff too, but it seems like everything was centered around food. Not that I'm complaining - everything we had was super. Arriving home, I decided to go with something a little lighter to maybe offset some of the heavy eating. No CSA this week, so no crazy vegetables. There were some good veggies in these sushi bowls though!

The local grocery store didn't have all of the ingredients for Miso soup, and I didn't feel like making an extra trip, so I decided that the Minute Miso paste sounded just as good. After throwing some of my own touches to the paste, it actually turned out to be pretty delicious. Plus, now I have a way to have Miso soup whenever I want. That's pretty great if you ask me.

Recipe: Kim Dreams of Sushi (Bowls) (and Spicy Miso Soup)

Ingredients (Sushi Bowl):

1 package imitation crab meat (or whatever kind of protein you decide)

seaweed salad (recipe below)

4 large carrots

1 cup radishes

1 cucumber

wasabi/ginger/garnishes

1 cup brown rice

1/3 cup rice vinegar

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

Ingredients (Seaweed Salad):

1 package dried seaweed

sesame seeds

1 tsp sesame seed oil

1 tbsp rice vinegar

2 tbsp soy sauce

Ingredients (Spicy Miso Soup):

Minute miso paste (or whatever you want as a miso base)

chili paste

tofu

green onions

Ok. Now that you have all of these ridiculous things. Start by cooking the brown rice. That always takes way too long. The key is to keep the lid on and don't peek! That lets water out and you get nasty hard rice. While that is cooking, prepare your vegetables. Slice the carrots, radishes, and cucumbers into bit-sized pieces. Break up or slice the krab meat however you like. 

For the seaweed salad, soak the dried seaweed in a bowl of warm water. Once the seaweed is tender, drain, and combine with sesame seed oil, rice vinegar, and soy sauce. Add a good sprinkling of sesame seeds.

For the miso soup, cook the miso paste according to the package. For my "Minute Miso", it was 3/4 tbsp for a cup of water. Add as much chili paste, tofu, and green onions as you see fit. For two people, we did 1 tbsp chili paste, 2 green onions, and about 1/4 package tofu. It was a good ratio.

Once the rice is done, add the rice vinegar, sugar and salt. Assemble the bowls with the rice on the bottom, and the seaweed salad, veggies, and krab meat. Use as much soy sauce, ginger, and wasabi as desired. I had some leftover homemade pickled turnips, and they went quite nicely. Enjoy with chopsticks!

Step-by-Step Instructions

Make some brown rice! Do it first. It always takes the longest.

Chop the veggies. These looked like a good size to me. To the left over there are my sweet pickled turnips.

Get the krab meat ready too. This looked like a good size.

This was the brand we used. It wasn't bad!

Soak the seaweed in warm water until tender.

The seaweed brand. Thanks, H-Mart!

Drain the seaweed and add 1 tsp sesame oil, 1 tbsp rice vinegar, 2 tbsp soy sauce (not pictured), and a good helping of sesame seeds.

Trust me, it's a lot better than it looks (and smells). Plus it's super good for you.

If the rice is still cooking (it probably will be), make the soup! Make the miso according to directions, and add the tofu, green onions, and chili paste. 

This chili paste really took it to another level.

Served garnished with seaweed! Yummmmmmmmmmm.

Once the rice is done, add the sugar, rice vinegar, and salt. Stir it up.

Assemble the bowls however you like. They are beautiful!

Unfortunately, Shaw's did not have chopsticks. They were still pretty good with forks.

Review: Jiro Dreams of Sushi

This movie is part documentary, part sushi food porn. If you don't like sushi, you will probably still appreciate it as a movie, but it certainly helps to have a taste for the stuff.

Is it getting hot in here? I want this in my mouth.

The movie made me feel guilty on two parts. First, the sushi bowls. Don't get me wrong, they were quite delicious. Compared to this man's life work, they pretty much don't even deserve to be called sushi. The fact that I didn't even splurge on real crab kind of makes me sad. Oh well, we all can't have 3 Michelin star restaurants. 

I also felt guilty because of the dedication this man had to his work. He really truly loved his job, and got restless during his time off. He is an old man, well past retirement age, but he says he will not retire until he's too ugly for people to look at while they eat. The way he talks about perfecting his craft and how passionate he is about his job makes me fee bad for not doing the same thing at my job. Don't get me wrong, I love doing what I do, but I don't think I've gotten to that level of dedication. 

The documentary was a great watch and very well shot. The accompanying music worked well. I don't want to talk Jiro up too much in case he turns out to be a child molester as well (frame of reference). Trailer posted below.