California Roll Salad
photo by Pam-I-Am
- Ready In:
- 45mins
- Ingredients:
- 18
- Serves:
-
4
ingredients
- 1 1⁄2 cups long-grain rice
- 7 tablespoons rice vinegar (not seasoned)
- 1⁄4 cup sugar
- 1 1⁄2 teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon sesame seeds (preferably unhulled)
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped pickled ginger
- 4 scallions, cut lengthwise into thin 1 inch strips (about 3/4 cup)
- 1⁄2 cup finely shredded carrot
- 1 large seedless cucumber, quartered lengthwise, cored, and chopped (about 1 pound)
- 2 sheets nori (paper-thin sheets of dried seaweed)
- 1 avocado (preferably California)
- 1⁄4 lb surimi, if desired, sliced thin (mock crab legs) (optional)
-
For dressing
- 2 teaspoons wasabi powder (Japanese green horseradish)
- 1 tablespoon hot water
- 2 tablespoons cold water
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons ginger juice (squeezed from freshly grated gingerroot)
directions
- Into a large saucepan of salted boiling water stir rice and boil 10 minutes.
- Drain rice in a colander and rinse.
- Set colander over a kettle of boiling water (rice should not touch water) and steam rice, covered with a kitchen towel and lid, until fluffy and dry, 10 to 15 minutes (check water level in kettle occasionally, adding water if necessary).
- While rice is steaming, in a small saucepan bring 1/4 cup vinegar to a boil with sugar and salt, stirring until sugar is dissolved, and remove from heat.
- In a dry small skillet toast sesame seeds over moderate heat, stirring, until golden and fragrant and transfer to a small bowl.
- Transfer rice to a large bowl and stir in vinegar mixture.
- Cool rice and stir in sesame seeds, remaining 3 tablespoons vinegar, oil, ginger, scallions, carrot, and cucumber.
- Salad may be prepared up to this point 1 day ahead and chilled, covered.
- Bring salad to room temperature before proceeding.
- Dry-roast nori, 1 sheet at a time, directly above moderate heat (gas or electric burner), holding it at opposite corners and moving it back and forth, until it turns bright green, 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- With scissors cut nori into thin 2-inch-long strips.
- Peel and pit avocado.
- Quarter avocado and cut crosswise into thin slices.
- Add avocado to salad with surmimi if using and two thirds of nori strips and toss well.
- Make dressing: In a small bowl stir wasabi powder into hot water and stir in cold water, soy sauce, and ginger juice.
- Serve salad sprinkled with remaining nori strips and drizzled with dressing.
Questions & Replies
Got a question?
Share it with the community!
Reviews
-
Phenomenal salad! I did use only 1 cup of rice, because we like less of starchy ingredients and more of other bits in our food and 1 cup of rice normally is more than enough for 4, the way we eat. Other than that, absolutely no changes. Still was a large serving for 4. So full of those California roll flavours!
-
I'm going to a potluck tomorrow so I made a half recipe of this salad today and had some friends sample it for me. Omg, I could have tripled this and it would have been gone. Everyone including me LOVED it. I used brown rice and a seaweed black sesame seed seasoning instead of the nori strips but I gotta say this was like eating a California roll. My supermarket stopped carrying real canned crab so I bit the bullet and used the immitation stuff, who cared...NO ONE!!! They ate it all before I could even snap a photo. So with this test in mind, I'm tripling the recipe for tomorrow. Don't okit the ginger...it is essential to the flavor! I'm going to rock the potluck tomorrow. GREAT RECIPE!!!!
see 6 more reviews
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
<style>body { background: url("http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3639/3512121819_f2f1aaf050.jpg?v=0"); background-repeat: repeat-y; }</style>
OK, here goes. I live in Athens, Greece. I moved out here many, many years ago from Ottawa, Canada - so I am blessed in having two wonderful heritages!
I suffer from compulsive obsessive behaviour with regard to food and my psychiatrist thought it would be a good idea to find a 'society' where many have the same problem and try to find a cure.
So far, I've copied a couple of thousand recipes from this site and my psychiatrist has thrown the towel in and refuses to answer the phone when I call.
What did I do wrong?
Got 3 kids that keep me on the go - 10 and under at this point (2008) - I may not get round to updating this for a few years, so you'll have to do your own maths.
I teach English full-time and Greek Cookery part-time. I would like to make the cooking part of it full-time and the English Grammar part of it part-time.
That's all for now.