Simple Sushi Rolls

Anyone who knows Liz and I, knows that we LOVE Sushi! We were craving it while at our parent's house the other night, but we only had shrimp, so we decided to make some California rolls. If you're not crazy about sushi this is a good roll to start with. It's super easy to make and pretty yummy!

Yields 4 sushi rolls:

Ingredients:
1 medium Carrot
1 Cuccumber
1 small bunch of Cilantro
1/2 Red Bell Pepper
1/2 Mango
1 Avocado
1 pckg of raw, frozen Shrimp
1 pkg of dark green Nori (seaweed for sushi)
1 bamboo rolling mat
(Bamboo mats and Nori are very cheap and can be bought at World Market or a local Asian market.)


Sushi Rice:
2 cups water
1 cup short-grain. sticky rice

Directions:
Cook the rice in a rice cooker for best results.
When the rice is finished, put it in a bowl and mix in about 1/4 cup of Rice wine vinegar.
Let the rice sit in the refrigerator until cool.

Meanwhile cut the carrots, cucumber, mango, bell peppers, and avacado in long, thin slices.

Unthaw the shrimp. It's best to unthaw them in an ice bath (bowl of water with ice cubes) to keep them crisp and fresh. Add 1 Tb. olive oil to a skillet on medium heat. Place the shrimp on skewers. Lightly saute the shrimp in the skillet until pink.
Then place the shrimp on a baking sheet and season with ssalt and pepper and any other seasonings you like. We used cajun seasing but garlic is also yummy.

Bake them in 350F oven for about 5 minutes.

Cut each Nori (seaweed) sheet in half. (Half of a Nori sheet makes one sushi roll).

Cover a bamboo mat with plastic wrap. Place the seaweed horizontal on the edge of a bamboo mat (on the edge closest to you). 

Scoop a spoonful of rice into your hands and roll it into a tight ball. Then smash the rice onto the seaweed. Repeat until the seaweed is covered with about 1/4 inch of rice.

Place the veggies, mango, shrimp and cilantro across the center of the rice.

Tightly roll the sushi until the ends meet.

Cut into rolls with a sharp knife, being careful not to tear the seaweed.

Traditional California rolls are made with the rice on the outside. To do this, put the rice on the seaweed the same way, but before adding veggies and shrimp, flip the seaweed so that the rice is laying against the bamboo mat and the seaweed is face up. Then add the veggies on top of the green seaweed and roll with the rice on the outside.
Add avocado to the top by simply slicing very thin pieces and sticking them on!

Serve with ginger and soy sauce.