12.27.2006

Ghetto Gourmet.

Last night's culinary adventure in the vein of Clean the Fridge was in the form of "Sushi Fried Rice." I have thoroughly googled this concoction and have found zero other occurrances of the name, so therefore I am calling it mine!

Christmas Eve Eve while starting finishing my holiday shopping, I got takeout from the venerable Noble Fish, a local favorite Japanese grocery up in Clawson. For those who have never been, tucked in the very back, they have a takeout counter and a few tiny tables...and probably some of the best fish in the area. Always fresh, comparatively inexpensive and unpretentious, it is also no secret that they supply fish to many of the local sushi restaurants. Some restaurants do import their own fish, as Oslo did, but Noble is definitely a repuateble authority on fresh, awesome fish.

So as per usual, my eyes were far bigger than my stomach could ever hope to be. I walked out with sashimi to prepare myself and a a whole ton of rolls and pieces of nigiri fit for a party of about six, rather than two. If you are adept with the knife, it is a total deal to make your own sashimi - for a five dollar filet of fresh cut, sashimi grade mackrel, it probably would have been about $35 out and any good restaurant. Now I am no sushi master here, but mackrel's firm, oily texture is hard to screw up. It was tasty. But holy hell did we have leftovers and two whole plates of rolls left. With the next days being Christmas and Christmas Eve, we were under family's wing for absurd amounts of feeding already, so the poor sushi sadly lingered in the fridge for two days.

Last night we opened the fridge and longingly looked at the rice that was drying out and pondered what microorganisms were replicating in the raw scallop, tuna, mackrel and salmon. Probably nothing good. Still, it was far fresher than anything you'd ever get at a supermarket fish counter that alleged "sashimi grade" ... but still, there was a serious disconnect between the logical and the "ew this can't be ok" parts of the brain. But so much waste, so sad...what to do?

SUSHI FRIED RICE!

I took a big hunk of butter and tossed it in a large sautee pan and put in the leftover sashimi to sear first. (Scallop and mackrel.) Then I dissected the rolls and picked out the raw fish and also put that in the pan to sear. The fish should cook longer than the rice or vegetables. Then I picked out anything that wouldn't go well in the mix, like avocado. Hot avocado = gross. Then I crumbled up thr rice and the seaweed and fried it all aup. Added soy sauce and a little wasabi.

It rocked. Sushi Fried Rice is rather kick ass. Way better than any seafood fried rice I had ever had. It also reminded me to never eat fried rice out anywhere, as it is always leftovers!

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