Making Sushi

As mentioned in the Kilkenny, LBJ won a free cooking lesson at a cooking demonstration we attended during the Savour Kilkenny food festival.  Last week, we attended the cooking lesson.

My trek to Citywest did not get off to a good start.  I got hopelessly lost in the country west of Dublin.  Eventually, I was able to turn around and get to the town of Saggart, where I was to meet LBJ at the Luas light rail stop (I drove; she took the train).  I could not find the stop, and my phone could not figure out my location.  Eventually, I pulled over, found the location on the phone, and made my way to the train stop.  But I had left LBJ standing in the cold for over 10 minutes, not a wise thing to do given her intolerance of the cold.

Somehow, we still managed to get to the Miele showroom (the location of the class) at 6:30, the designated starting time.  In fact, we were the second of three couples to arrive.

The class was about how to make sushi, and the instructor was Fiona Uyema, who also runs a very entertaining food blog here.  Despite being a bit frazzled about getting so lost (when will I learn that Irish road signs sometimes don't match Irish maps?), I had a good time.  LBJ, despite being left in the cold for 10+ minutes, did as well.  It started off with green tea, something we enjoy.  In fact, rumor has it that I might get some of this tea for Christmas, given how much I enjoy tea.

Next was some miso soup, which was also yummy.  (Everything was yummy, as expected.)  I can only hope that LBJ will make some in the future.  We also had endamame, which LBJ and polished off much faster than the other couples.  Hmm...were we a bit hungry?

Now, the main event - making our own sushi (as opposed to watching Fiona make the miso soup).  First up was a Temake, or hand roll.  We picked our own ingredients.  Here is my attempt, which wasn't too bad.  The important thing is that it tasted very good (I think I put mango and red pepper in it).

How about a little something for the effort?

Next was a big sushi roll.  Again, LBJ did better, but my attempt was perfectly acceptable - better than I expected.

Action photo of the hand roll (with avocado, red pepper and mango)

Look, I was taking the class seriously:

Being a "mature student" is not as easy at it looks

Our last roll was uramaki - and inside out roll.  I think I did a little better at this one, although again not as proficient as LBJ.  That's ok - she has attended cooking school, and I was smart enough to marry her!

FABJ claims that she doesn't like seaweed, but we suspect that we could get her to eat the inside out roll if she didn't see it.  She used to like sushi quite a bit, particularly salmon rolls.  Same for ORBJ.

Anyone else thinking of "Inside Out" by Phil Collins?

Finally, we reached the best part of the class - eating all the "big" rolls (we got to eat the small temaki rolls right after we made them).  The only down side was the rolls were served family style.  This was bad for me because many people included shrimp and/or crab in their rolls, and I'm allergic to shrimp.  Fortunately, most people wanted to eat the shrimp, so I had a fair amount of salmon and veggie rolls to myself.

Enjoying the fruits of our labor, so to speak

All in all, it was an enjoyable evening.  And it took us very little time to get home.  The only down side was that LBJ had forgotten to tell her mum how to turn on the heating, so she was cold and grumpy (understandably so!) when we returned.  And FABJ had a bit of meltdown about going to bed, although she's doing much better this week.  We give her a sticker every morning that she gets dressed by herself without any fuss.  She quite likes this scheme and has gotten a sticker every day this week.  Although the eagerness to get dressed will fade over time, it has been a very pleasant week.