The California Roll makes me mad. Every time I go to a Japanese restaurant or sushi bar, I crinkle my nose when I see California rolls on the menu. If someone actually orders it, I just have to *sigh* I don’t know the history of how the California roll came into existence, but I’d be willing to bet my own bamboo mat that it wasn’t a sushi chef in Japan that created the original pseu-shi that is the ancestor to things like…Philadelphia and Las Vegas rolls. *sigh*…
But even with my mild aversion to the idea of a California roll, I have to admit that I love all the components (except rice): crabmeat, avocadoes, cucumbers. So every once in a while, I allow the California roll to serve as the inspiration for a super easy throw-together meal for a hectic weekday that would make Rachael Ray nervous about her job – a California roll in a bowl, properly referred to as the California B?ll here at the Delicious Life. ;)
Steamed white rice is the base. Two cups of hot cooked white rice get tossed with a tablespoon each of rice wine vinegar and soy sauce (more if you’re a saltaholic like me), and a teaspoon each of sugar, sesame oil, and toasted sesame seeds. Certainly, fresh hot rice tastes the best, but re-heated leftover rice works well since it will have things added to it. Pile the rice into a bowl, and then add the ingredients that make a California roll: chopped avocado, julienned cucumber, chopped crab meat, and garnished with julienned toasted nori. Yes this is a weekday meal and I had to use “krab” meat, okay? *sheesh* What am I? A sushi chef or something?
Variations of the B?ll make it onto the Delicious table fairly often for weekday meals. When I am good, and can plan in advance, I make the big Sunday dinner something that includes a large pot of rice, with the intention of having leftover rice all week. Sometimes the rice becomes fried rice, sometimes it’s stirred into soup to make it a meal, and often, leftover rice is made into B?lls. The same ingredients as the California Boll can take a substitution of broiled unagi instead of crabmeat and drizzled with the sweet unagi kabayaki sauce, or the rice base can be served with fresh maguro (tuna), chopped scallions, and a drizzle of spicy sriracha and sesame oil.
With almost no real effort and quite a few variations, the California B?ll was the perfect entry into Uncle Wiggly’s Good Time Cooking Contest, version Weekday over at Meathenge. Unfortunately, it is long past the deadline for entering the competition. In fact, it is so long past that Dr. Biggles has already selected a winner. But I was so inspired by the contest that I still wanted to post what I made for it. Thanks to Dr. Biggles, for giving me the inspiration and incentive to put a b?ll together, even if it is five days late.
(And of course, another round of *kiss kiss* congratulations to the overall winner of the contest, Saffron’s BLT from The Food Palate!)
How to Make a California Roll Bowl
Cook Asian short- or medium-grain rice in your trusty little Zojirushi rice cooker.
For every 2 cups of cooked rice, gently stir/mix in:
- 1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
Pile the rice into a bowl and top with:
- chopped avocado
- julienned cucumber
- shredded krab (do not dare use real crab! no one wastes real crab in a California roll)
- julienned toasted nori
If you’re FANCY, garnish with masago or tobiko (the crunchy orange flying fish roe). I also like to throw a little ball of wasabi in there for fun. Because I’m fun like that.
