5.23.09 | sushi night

after a nice lunch in echo park, Steve and I made our way to little tokyo market place to get all the goods for our japanese dinner.

baby mixed greens with miso tahini dressing (veganomicon)

because i use low-sodium miso paste, i decided to add some soy sauce to-taste and a bit of lemon juice to add depth to the dressing. it was so good and easy to make. we poured the dressing over some baby mixed greens from trader joe's, but i imagine that it would also be great as a dip with crudités.

steamed asari (manila) clams (recipe available at rasa malaysia)

i had previously made this recipe without the mirin and really enjoyed it. this time i decided to follow the recipe and was really disappointed at how sweet the broth turned out. i will definitely be sticking to just sake in the future. i find that nigori sake adds just the right amount of sweetness to compliment the savory clams.

spicy tempeh rolls (recipe available at the post punk kitchen)

i luckily already had some sushi rice and tempeh at home, so we just picked up a few ingredients and a couple of bamboo rolling mats at a japanese discount store. the seasoned rice vinegar from trader joe's worked out perfectly for the rice and didn't require adding the additional sugar the recipe called for. we chopped up our scallions into the filling and layered lots of avocado on top...yum!! We made a second roll with some bbq unagi sauce, tempeh and avocado...our version of a caterpillar roll. we didn't bother roasting the nori sheets for both rolls and they turned out just fine. in lieu of wasabi, we added chili oil to our soy sauce for dipping.

the rolls turned out surprisingly well for being our first attempt at sushi. they were a bit on the big side and had a bit too much rice...but I think that can definitely be perfected with more practice. the tempeh I had at home had flax seeds in it which i thought overpowered the other flavors, so i think the plain variety would work best. i would definitely like to play around some more with the fillings and perhaps incorporate tempura in the future....the possibilities are endless!!!