California Rolls - by request

We made California Rolls while my mother was visiting. These things are so versatile, can be made in the morning or even the day before and are fairly easy but extremely impressive.

This recipe is written out as a process. Your final ingredient list will depend on your preferences but for convenience, the default ingredients are listed here.

3 cups rice
6 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon mirin
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 cucumber
2 avodacos
1 carrot
1 pound imitation crab legs
10 sheets nori

Rice:
2 cups rice (I use basmati, no I'm not crazy. Bear with me)
4 cups water
1 teaspoon salt

Toss all three ingredients above into a rice cooker. Cook. For those of you without a rice cooker, go buy one. They're marvelous.

After your rice is done cooking, dump it into a large bowl. I use metal.
Sprinkle on the following:

2 Tablespoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
1 Tablespoon mirin (rice wine, or to taste)
2 Tablespoons sugar

Use a large wooden spoon to fold ingredients in. Taste. Correct the taste if desired. Then start stirring and mashing the rice until it wants to be sort of a ball. I like to let the rice cool a bit and then use my hands. Fun.

Take a sheet of nori and place it shiny side down on a piece of plastic wrap with the lines running vertical from you. Take about 1/2 cup rice (depending on how "fluffy" you want your rolls) and spread it out in a thin layer, leaving about two inches of naked nori sheet along the edge away from you. To help with this, wet your hands and use wet hands to shmoosh the rice into the nori. This helps it stick better. Lay your filling about 1 1/2" from the edge closest to you. Don't overfill. If you do, it will fall apart and you will cry.

Filling:
1 cucumber. Peel, cut in half, deseed, hold it up to a sheet of nori and trim off the ends so that it's just as long as the nori or slightly longer. Slice it into thin sticks.

2 avocados. Cut in half around the pit, remove pit, cut into thin sticks. I've had some decent luck with mashing it a bit, too. Depends on your texture preferences.

1 carrot. Get a large carrot that's fairly uniform in girth for its entire length. Peel and make long sticks like cucumber.

Imitation crab. The leg kind is best, but if you have to get pieces then take it out of the packaging in a brick and slice into sticks.

Alternative fillings:

Egg filling
Using peanuts
With tofu
Seafood and spinach
And one I really liked a lot, mushroom and sweet potato.
You can also get a can of white albacore tuna, drain thoroughly, add a bit of mayo and salt, and spread this very thinly along the rice before adding other veggies.

Anyway, once you have your fillings of choice lined up, roll the roll. Make sure it's nice and tight along the length of the nori. You can use the plastic wrap to help you pick up that first edge. Once it's rolled, you can wet the clean edge of nori so it sticks but I never do. The moisture of the ingredients will glue it together for you when you roll it up in the plastic wrap, twist the ends, and keep them in the fridge.

This recipe makes about 10 sushi rolls. Cut each roll into 8 pieces and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds. Serve with gingered soy sauce, plenty of wasabi, and either a Jane Austen or Zhang Yimou movie.