[Vegan] Brown Rice Sushi Bowl

This recipe was inspired by a 101 cookbooks recipe. I tried her version but I found the sauce a bit too heavy for my liking so I decided to omit it, and instead just make (brown) sushi rice and add more ingredients to the bowl.

It's a highly versatile dish. Use whatever ingredients you have lying around. I had some avocado, cucumbers, green onions, tofu, daikon pickles (recipe follows), and pickled ginger. But (if you eat fish) I'm sure some good sashimi quality stuff would work here. Or even a slice of chicken teriyaki, etc. Other veggies would work too. Especially anything pickled. Maybe some wasabi would be nice for those of you into that kind of thing... Or those slender little japanese Enoki mushrooms. I used some of the Trader Joe's seaweed snack which is basically just nori (sushi seaweed) that has been lightly salted/oiled. Which I prefer over just straight nori. But either works.

I like to use a really small amount of rice on the bottom because too much rice can be a bit much with the other ingredients. I would stick with about half a cup of cooked rice per person or so.

Daikon radishes are long white asian radishes. They are very large, and resemble giant white overplump carrots. Like all radishes, they don't do well with long term storage and are best prepared right after purchasing them. I found that my one daikon radish weighed nearly exactly one pound. If you can't find Daikons any mild radish will do here, but it will be more work to peel and chop so many little ones! You can often buy pickled daikon in supermarkets that have a large Japanese food selection.

Pickled Daikon, from Tyler Florence

Ingredients

1 lb daikon radish (about one medium size daikon radish)

1 cup rice vinegar

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup kosher salt

1. In a small saucepan, simmer the vinegar, water, and sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat.

2. Peel the daikon and cut into 1/4 inch rounds. Place in a colander and coat liberally with the salt. Allow to stand and drain for about an hour.

3. Once the daikon has drained a sufficient amount of liquid, rinse off all the remaining salt. Then, dry the daikon well.

4. In a clean container, place the daikon radishes and cover with the (cooled) vinegar/sugar pickling mixture.

5. Place in refrigerator for at least 4 hours or (best) overnight.

Brown Sushi Rice, from Alton Brown

Ingredients
1 cup (dry) brown rice.
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tsp salt

1. Cook the rice as per the package instructions.

2. When the rice is almost done, mix the vinegar, water, sugar, and salt in a small bowl and microwave for about 30-45 seconds until the sugar is mostly dissolved. Set aside.

3. When the rice is done, add the vinegar/sugar mixture and mix to coat evenly.

4. Set aside.

Brown Rice Sushi Bowl

(Rough instructions for preparing one bowl)

Note: this time, I used softer tofu so I didn't cut it into matchsticks, but I find that the harder stuff in matchstick form is better.

Ingredients

4 oz extra firm tofu, salted, pressed, and cut into matchsticks.

Olive oil

1/2 cup cooked sushi rice

1/2 avocado, sliced

1/2 small persian cucumber, cut into matchsticks (I leave the skin on)

1 green onion, diced (green part)

3 pieces seaweed snack (or 1 piece sushi nori)

1 tablespoon pickled ginger

4 rounds pickled daikon, cut into matchsticks

Sesame seeds for garnish

Soy sauce (or salt) for serving

1. In a nonstick skillet over medium heat, heat some olive oil to coat the pan. When hot, add the matchstick tofu and pan fry until golden brown on all sides.

2. In the meantime, assemble the bowl. Place the rice on the bottom of the bowl, then artfully place each of the remaining ingredients (cucumber, avocado, seaweed, daikon, ginger, and green onion) in small "corner" of the bowl. Make sure to leave a space for the tofu.

3. When the tofu is done, add it to the bowl. Sprinkle with some sesame seeds. Serve with soy sauce or salt on the side if desired.