Comfort Sushi

When I think about comforting post-stomach flu food, sushi is not the first thing that springs to my mind. Apparently it is the first thing that springs to my five-year-old daughter's mind. She hadn't been able to keep anything down for two days, then when she finally could eat, she only wanted sushi. Not sushi with raw fish on it, or any fish at all. Just a small sushi roll (maki) with a little piece of avocado inside, the only kind that she ever eats. A little soy sauce on the side for dipping. No wasabi, of course.

So we decided we'd all have sushi. I bought toasted nori sheets and some baked teriyaki tofu from the store. At home, we already had the sushi rice, avocados and soy sauce (and for the adults we had wasabi, mayonnaise and chili garlic sauce). We also had miso for miso soup, which I thought might also help my girl's stomach.

My husband made the rice while waiting for me to return from the store. Once I was home, I mixed the chili garlic sauce with the mayonnaise so that it was good and spicy, and made the miso soup. Meanwhile, my husband sliced the avocados and tofu. Our unfortunate house guest, who was being a very good sport about being stuck at home with us and our sick kid and one very energetic stir-crazy healthy one, rolled the sushi. (I should add at this point that none of us are expert sushi chefs, and our presentation left much to be desired according to Japanese standards. But I thought our large plate of sushi was beautiful in its imperfection. And it did taste good.)

I brought the first pieces to my daughter. She ravenously crammed the first bite into her mouth. Then she stopped and smiled with her mouth full of food. My husband anxiously asked, "Does it taste like real sushi?" "Yesh." She ate that piece, declared she was finished, and closed her eyes for a nap.

How to Make Sushi
It might seem weird, but I think sushi can be a great comfort food. You can make it comfortingly soft and squishy (like we did with just avocado, and additionally baked tofu for the grown ups), or add crunchy things like cucumber or blanched asparagus for a little more textural interest. It also makes a great kid food, since it looks fun (Hey, little wheels!), is slightly sweet, and you can eat it with your fingers.

First of all, you will need to make sushi rice.

Sushi Rice (adapted from Food Network's Alton Brown)

Ingredients
2 cups sushi or short grain rice
2 cups water, plus extra for rinsing rice
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt (I think it would be fine to use less salt, maybe even just one teaspoon, which is what we did. Most likely you're going to be dipping in soy sauce, which itself is extremely salty.)

Place the rice into a large, heavy bottomed saucepan and cover with cool water. Swirl the rice in the water, pour off and repeat 2 to 3 times or until the water is mostly clear.

Pour 2 cups of water into the drained rice. (At this point, many people recommend soaking the rice in the cooking water for 15-30 minutes. If you don't have time for this, just skip it. The rice will still turn out OK.) Place the uncovered saucepan over high heat and bring to a boil. Then reduce the heat to low and cover. Cook for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and let stand, covered, for 10 minutes.

Combine the rice vinegar, sugar and salt in a small saucepan and heat until the sugar dissolves. Do not boil. Transfer the rice into a large wooden or glass mixing bowl and add the vinegar mixture. Mix thoroughly. Cool the rice to room temperature before using. Warm rice will make the seaweed soggy.

Assembling the sushi
You will need a sushi mat (buy at an Asian grocery or order online), your sushi rice, sheets of nori (the dark seaweed "skin" of the sushi), and whatever filling ingredients you desire. For the filling you can use avocado, cucumber, shitake mushrooms, grated carrots, blanched asparagus, tofu, tempeh, or whatever you can think of. Be creative. On this last batch that we made, we also used a mixture of mayonnaise and chili garlic sauce to spread along with our filling ingredients. It worked, kind of like a vegetarian "spicy tuna" roll.

After you've got everything you need, start putting it together. You can find a good tutorial, including very helpful pictures, here. It's not hard. If your roll doesn't seal, wet your fingers slightly and apply moisture to the edge. It will cause the nori to stick to itself.

To make the dipping sauce, mix wasabi paste with soy sauce. Don't use too much wasabi or you will cry tears of true pain. As an aside, most all the wasabi you can get here in America is not wasabi, which is rare and therefore expensive, and grows only in Japan, but a mixture of horseradish and mustard. Here in Decatur, I get most of my Asian ingredients at the Dekalb Farmer's Market, but probably Whole Foods would have them as well. Or of course, any Asian grocery.