No-Rice Sushi Recipe

The pictures that Jon put up of the sushi-making are pretty pointless without the recipe, which is:

Parsnip and Brazil Nut Sushi (courtesy of Roger Melvin)
Makes 40 - 50 pieces

No rice! Good for those of you trying to cut the carbs. Soaking the Brazil nuts overnight makes them more digestible; however you can also use them raw if necessary.

Sushi Mixture
1/2 cup Brazil nuts - soaked overnight, drained, rinsed and chopped
3 cups parsnip (400g), peeled and chopped
Juice of one lemon
2 Tbs apple cider vinegar
1½ Tbs raw honey
¼ tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground black pepper

Put "Sushi Mixture" ingredients in a food processor. Pulse briefly until the parsnip and nuts are in suitable little rice-like chunks. Take care not to make the mixture too fine.

To make nori rolls:
5 sheets of nori seaweed
Sliced avocado, red pepper and carrot
Snow pea sprouts

1) Use a bamboo sushi mat to make your rolls. Place a nori sheet on the mat and spread evenly a bit less than 1 cup of the sushi mixture, leaving about 3cm gap at the top of the sheet and about 1cm at the edge nearest you. About 1/3 of the way up the sheet make a line of your fillings across the sushi mix.

2) Roll carefully from the edge near you. Pull the bamboo mat out of the way as you go, keeping the roll as firm as possible.

3) Leave the roll face down on the loose edge for a few minutes - it will stick by itself this way. Or dab a small bit of water on the edge to seal it.

4) Slice each roll into about 10 pieces and serve with shoyu (good quality soy sauce).


Use whatever fillings you like. Any vegetables sliced thin, or even tuna. Experiment with whatever you have in the fridge. Also, if you don't have apple cider vinegar, use white wine vinegar or rice wine vinegar, or even apple juice. Don't be afraid to make subsitutions. I don't like having to buy a bottle of something just to use 2 tablespoons of it, so see what you have in the pantry already that you can use.

Holy Sh*t, it's been 1 year...

Hi All,

August 4th was the 1 year anniversary of Gay and I leaving American soil. It was a year ago on that day that I threw almost everything that I owned into Gay’s mom’s rented car enroute to catch our Air New Zealand flight. The car was stuffed from having not only my worldly possesions but Gay's as well. Having to sit on my bags, I contorted my body into an uncomfortable position in order to get into the car. I finally got in and Gay, sitting in the front seat, looked back at me with an uneasy look in her eyes. I looked back at her with the same expression and I verbally expressed what we both were thinking by saying...“Gay, what are we doing?” She shrugged and laughed and Gay’s mom got nervous.

A few hours later we had checked our luggage and were sitting in the terminal waiting to board. It was at this point that the weight of everything started to hit me. I remember feeling a lot of tension as my mind was uncontrollably playing detailed and engrossing films about every catastrophe possible waiting for me. At one point Gay got up and went to the bathroom and I remember the conversation in my head…
“Dude, is she coming back?”
“Yes, she’s coming back”
“But, she took her backpack and her backpack had her passport and wallet. Why would she take her backpack?”
“Yeah, that’s true….Naaah, look, she’s coming back don’t worry about it. And take it down a notch you’re freaking me out.”
“No. you’re just in denial, you’re gonna have to make this trip alone and you…”
“Shut up!”
“No you Shut up!”
“No you…”
“Oh, Hi Gay”

So needless to say she came back and the rest is history. But it was a trying couple of hours for all three of us.

Update
No too much to update on our side. I had some drama at work, nothing bad (in fact quite flattering as another tech company in the area tried to poach me), but the result went from me being a contractor to me being a full-time employee. Which has ended up working out really well. I’m getting more hours and actually a bit more money as it turns out which is great as Gay and I are trying desperately to save. Of course that didn’t stop me from going snowboarding a couple of weekends ago and I’m contemplating heading down with some friends to Christchurch this weekend for some more. The winter shows no signs of abating either and I’m now wearing my polypropylene long johns 24/7. Somehow kiwi houses are built in such a way that it ends up being colder inside the house than outside. It’s weird. Other than that, my squash season finished less than triumphantly as I ended up winning only 2 games. Gay, on the other hand, I think only lost about 2 games.

Pictures
Below is a random collection of pictures. There is some from my company’s Midwinter Bavarian Beer and Sausage Party. The Immigrants (my band) played and you get to see me in leiterhousen, and I’m dead sexy. There are also some pics of creative dishes that Gay has been making as well as a picture of me planning the ski trip I went on and also some pics of a mountain biking trip I did on Mt. Arthur.

Also Google Maps has updated their database to include detail of New Zealand so if you're interested this is a satellite view of Nelson.


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