So, we wanted to make sushi tonight. Earlier, I went to the grocery store, got the avocados, cucumbers, nori, and some fillings. Anyway, apparently we didn't know we were out of sushi rice. So, we got creative. Sushi, meet couscous. Couscous, meet sushi. It doesn't stick as well, so we had to cheat a bit and use some cream cheese (which we would use anyway, with the salmon) to make it stick, but overall, not bad.

At any rate, the moral of the story is that when you're both tired and hungry, improvising with couscous seems like a genius idea.

Any other cooks out there?

P.S.: Throughout the preparation of the sushi, the topic of Stephon Marbury did not come even once, which proves that we're not obsessed.

Posted by Solace:

So, we wanted to make sushi tonight. Earlier, I went to the grocery store, got the avocados, cucumbers, nori, and some fillings. Anyway, apparently we didn't know we were out of sushi rice. So, we got creative. Sushi, meet couscous. Couscous, meet sushi. It doesn't stick as well, so we had to cheat a bit and use some cream cheese (which we would use anyway, with the salmon) to make it stick, but overall, not bad.

At any rate, the moral of the story is that when you're both tired and hungry, improvising with couscous seems like a genius idea.

Any other cooks out there?

P.S.: Throughout the preparation of the sushi, the topic of Stephon Marbury did not come even once, which proves that we're not obsessed.

Yeah, I like to cook myself. Never tried to make sushi, though. I've been hooked on these cooking shows, Top Chef, Food network and Hells Kitchen. I have even reworked some of the recipes I saw on Top Chef and they came out pretty good if I say so myself. The problem is, most of these recipes are expensive to make because they require so many damn ingredients, and most of the ingredients you only need for that one particular dish. Now I'm stuck with a bunch of odd ingredients. Talk abut trying to be creative.

Now, what exactly is couscous? I heard of it before, but I'm drawing a blank?



[Edited by - bigbeast on 27-07-2007 11:48 PM]

I've cooked with sage a few times. I know that it goes good with fatty-foods because its supposed to aide with the digestion of grease. I feel funny for knowing this

You can use sage when baking a whole-chicken or cornish hen. Mix the sage with garlic, thyme, and rosemary and rub it under the skin of the chicken. You can also use sage if your making a homemade stuffing.

Solace I got 1 word for you:

Sashimi

Couscous and raw fish? As a chef, I'm insulted.

Allanfan, sushi is easy enough to make but hard to do well. It's still a lot of fun to do on your own though and it usually comes out pretty good. Stick with making rolls. Get a bamboo mat and go to town.

In Japan, Sushi chefs spend 10+ years apprenticing, just to learn how to make the rice.

Posted by bigbeast:

I've cooked with sage a few times. I know that it goes good with fatty-foods because its supposed to aide with the digestion of grease. I feel funny for knowing this

You can use sage when baking a whole-chicken or cornish hen. Mix the sage with garlic, thyme, and rosemary and rub it under the skin of the chicken. You can also use sage if your making a homemade stuffing.

Ah ha. So there is a use for sage after all!

Posted by Allanfan20:

Couscous is good stuff, and Sushi is my favorite food, but put them together and that's kinda odd, but that's also a creative idea Solace. How did that turn out? And did you put the fish on top of the couscous or did you roll it up in black seaweed? I definitely wouldn't mind learning how to do it, but I hear you have to be really skilled to make it. Is that true?

I thought it was really good, almost as good as with sushi rice. The one cavaet was that you about 15% of all couscous eventually wound up not in the roll. How we did it: place the nori (seaweed) on the rolling sheet, put a thin layer of cream cheese on the seaweed (for stickage), place couscous next, just enough to stick. Then place whatever you're filling with in the middle: for example, smoked salmon and avocado. Thin slices and don't overfill. The final step is the most challenging -- finding someone who can actually roll effectively. I'm pretty crappy at it, but my girlfriend does a very good job, so I let her roll. Then you have it all rolled up. Get your big knife, and cut very gently into six equally sized rolls.

Posted by islesfan:

Solace I got 1 word for you:

Sashimi

Couscous and raw fish? As a chef, I'm insulted.

Allanfan, sushi is easy enough to make but hard to do well. It's still a lot of fun to do on your own though and it usually comes out pretty good. Stick with making rolls. Get a bamboo mat and go to town.

In Japan, Sushi chefs spend 10+ years apprenticing, just to learn how to make the rice.

Nah we weren't in the mood for sashami. Also, the only uncooked fish we used was smoked salmon. Other things were imitation crab, imitation lobster, and cooked snow crab meat.