Daring Cooks Challenge November 2009 - Sushi

Time has just flown by for me! I completely lost track of VeganMoFo and ended up not posting at all after the first week. Well I hope next year's going to be a more properly planned VeganMoFo for me. It was a good month though! I really enjoyed reading all the mofos, even if I didn't comment a lot.

Well this is the my first Daring Cooks challenge! My Daring Bakers challenge was not so successful last time but this Daring Cooks challenge was really something that I enjoyed.

THE NOVEMBER DARING COOKS CHALLENGE: SUSHI

The November 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was brought to you by Audax of Audax Artifex and Rose of The Bite Me Kitchen. They chose sushi as the challenge.

I was pretty excited since the beginning of the challenge as sushi is something that I make at least 1 weekend in a month. And there was plenty of room for vegan ingredients. So, I was really looking forward to it.
When I make sushi however, I always make it the same way - rolled with avocado, tofu and cucumber. This challenge was very interesting as I actually cooked and seasoned the rice the way it should be. I also made different types of sushi as was required.

Although quite time consuming, I really enjoyed this challenge and mostly enjoy eating these sushi. They were really tasty and will definitely take something out of this challenge!

The challenge required 3 types of sushi to be made:

Dragon sushi roll - an avocado covered inside-out rice roll with a tasty surprise filling.

I used tofu (marinated in black bean sauce and lightly fried) for the inside filling and fermented black beans on the outside just before covering with avocado.
I found the fermented dried black beans at the Chinese Store. They are quite tasty.



Decorative sushi - a nori-coated rice roll which reveals a decorative pattern when cut.

I used tofu (marinated in Guilin Sauce and fried), chinese chives, carrot and cucumber as filling.



Nigiri sushi - hand-shaped rice rolls with toppings.

I used fried tofu again with pickled courgette slices rolled and secured on top of the rice with a strip of nori.

For the pickled courgette (zucchini), I sliced them thinly using a vegetable peeler them marinated them while preparing the other ingredients in some rice vinegar, salt, sugar and chilli sauce.

I think this one was my favourite! The pickled courgette added great flavour!



All were very tasty and I was very satisfied with this challenge!