California Roll

California rolls. Probably the roll that introduced us all to sushi and it's always a safe bet when going to a sushi bar. This post will show you how to make them at home.

Ingredients

Seaweed sheets for sushi rolls (Go for a medium priced seaweed. The cheap stuff will break too easily and the more expensive stuff is for hand rolls.)
Cooked sushi rice
1 Avocado, cut into large quarter slices
1 Japanese or Hothouse cucumber (I used Japanese cucumber here), peeled and julienned
3 Crab meat sticks, defrosted, and shredded

Tools

Bamboo sushi mat
A large bowl filled half way with water

A lot of this post is going to be almost exactly like the one for the Cucumber Avocado Roll, but with a minor difference in that we are adding shredded crab meat.

While the sushi rice is cooking, I prep my ingredients for my roll as well as set up my roll-making area. In this case, I first peel and julienne the cucumber and cut the avocado. After the crab meat sticks have defrosted, I place each one in between my hands and lightly rub together to make it shred like this.



Next I wrap the bamboo sushi mat with plastic wrap. This is key for easy clean up and to prolong the life of your bamboo mat.



I also prep the sheet of seaweed. Cut off 1 inch from the top.



When the sushi rice is ready, my set up looks like this. I have the bowl of water in the corner to dip my hands in to clean off rice from my hands. Dampen your hands in the bowl before handling the rice. It'll make it easier for you to manage. Be sure that your seaweed sheet is rough side up. That's where your rice will be going.



With damp hands, make a snowball of sticky rice in your hands and place it on one side of the seaweed.



Press down on the ball of rice with your hands, working towards the other side of the sheet and into the corners. If you have gaps on your sheet, just grab smaller amounts of rice and press it in.



Your completed sheet should look like this.



Gently peel the sheet up and flip onto the smooth side. Place julienned cucumber down in a horizontal row, followed by the quartered avocado slices and the shredded crab meat. Don't place your fillings in the middle of the sheet, but 3/4 down the sheet.



Now to wrap. You are going to wrap it similar to wrapping a burrito very tightly. If some of the filling starts spilling out a bit, that's ok. You are doing something right.

Lift the bamboo mat starting towards the end nearest to you while lightly curling your fingers where the filling is.



Then you are going to pull over the mat more and squeeze the filling in tightly with your hands.



Continue wrapping slowly and bit by bit until you get this.



Time to take it to the cutting board.

Cut the roll in half.



And then half the halves. And then half the quaters so you will have 8 pieces.

And then you are done! Serve up some soy sauce and enjoy. If you want it a little spicier and you don't have wasabi, try dabbing the pieces with Sriracha.