Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Fruit Sushi

A while back, I saw Wandering Chopstick's post on Fruit-shi, or Dessert Sushi. How cute! Mangoes, apples and watermelon cut up to look like fish, placed atop coconut rice balls. And the "California roll"? Adorable. Rice, fruit roll-up, fillings, made to look just like the "real" thing.

So off I went on my fruity adventure.

I cooked the sushi rice, substituting half the water with coconut milk. After it was done, I thought it needed more coconut flavor, so I added some chopped up dried flaked coconut. And some sugar, since I thought it needed to be a bit sweeter. The watermelon nigiri turned out pretty well. The rice didn't hold together too well, but it was better than I've had in some sushi restaurants out here, so I wasn't too upset. The watermelon looked kind of like fish, but I was disappointed that my mango wasn't ripe, it would've looked much better.

















The "California roll"? Don't really want to talk about it. My rice was still too warm, and it ended up melting the fruit roll-up. Which, by the way, had stupid cartoons all over it. Does nobody make plain, unadorned fruit roll-ups any more? Guess not.

Even when I let the rice cool off, there was no way this monstrosity was going to slice up nicely. One, I blame the HFCS packaged crap that I bought. Two, I blame myself, because I totally suck at rolling sushi.

In the end, however, it did make a pretty good dessert chirashizushi, of sorts. Coconut rice, watermelon, cucumber, honeydew melon, and crushed peanuts. Oh, and melted fruit roll-up fragments. It was even kind of pretty, with the rice being dyed green from my bunk fruit leather. But a picture? No way. Too embarrassing.

10 comments:

Betts said...

I've never tried making regular sushi. I don't think I'm nimble fingered enough. Don't they put something (vinegar?) in the rice to make it stickier? Are you going to try dessert sushi again?

Bob said...

Ok, that's a great idea. And hilarious. I bet you could do that with all kinds of stuff.

Wandering Chopsticks said...

If I don't look too closely, I can imagine the watermelon as toro.

My fruit roll-ups were in strips and had punch outs too. What's up with that? Didn't fruit roll-ups used to come in one big sheet?

Vicki said...

Hi Betts - I don't know if the vinegar makes it stickier, sushi rice is pretty sticky even w/o it. I may try again, when I feel like flinging sticky rice bits all over my kitchen.

Hi Bob - Just type "fruit sushi" into Google, you'd be amazed.

Hey WC - I long for the good old days of unadorned fruit roll-ups :)

Ari (Baking and Books) said...

Sorry you had so much trouble with this recipe, but I love the idea! I've only made regular sushi once.

And yea, why are plain fruit rolls up so hard to find? There are cartoons on everything these days, lol.

Vicki said...

Hi Ari - I'm not giving up on sushi, fish or fruit! Plain fruit roll-ups, however, I've given up on :)

Regina said...

These are so cute. I have been planning a "sushi" party where we all get together and make sushi and I think this would be a perfect dessert!

Vicki said...

Hi Regina -
What an awesome idea!

Anonymous said...

Could you use rice krispie treats instead of rice? Also you could try "Fruit By The Foot" instead of fruit roll ups which is actually 1 inch long strips. You would have to cut the sushi rolls first and then roll them with the fruit by the foot.

Vicki said...

Hi Anon - You probably could use krispie treats, but I'd add more fluff, otherwise it may be too hard to work with. I thought about the fruit-by-the-ft, but decided against it, I'd rather roll&cut than cut&roll.