Tropical Sushi for One

One day, it was too hot to cook, and my fridge was nearly bare of things to eat cold or raw. What to do, what to do? Oh, of course! Sushi! It involves a little cooking to make the rice, but then you can get out of the kitchen until everything has cooled down.

½ cup sushi rice (small grain, white rice)

1 cup of water

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

1/8 cup rice vinegar

Nori sheets for wrapping makis

1 banana, cut in half width-wise and then each half sliced into three narrow strips

Vegan cream cheese

3-6 slabs of baked teriyaki tofu (store-bought or use the recipe from Chinese Kickin’ Salad)

1 TBLSP macadamia nuts or peanuts

1. Cook the rice in the water. Watch it, because small amounts of rice like this will suddenly be cooked and burning! Put the cooked rice into a medium-sized bowl.
2. Combine the vinegar and sugar in a small bowl. Pour the vinegar solution over the cooked rice, smooshing the vinegar into the rice with the paddle in a sweeping motion. Make wide Zs over and over in the rice, occasionally bringing the bottom rice up to the top until it’s thoroughly combined and the vinegar is absorbed.
3. Wait until the rice is COMPLETELY COOLED. 

Tra-la-la

1. Place a sheet of nori squarely on a sushi-rolling mat covered with plastic wrap. Make a little line of rice along the bottom of the nori sheet, about 1-inch wide by ¼-inch high. There can be a little gap at the bottom edge.
2. Onto that, pile the banana along the length of the rice pile, then little blobs of cream cheese, then the tofu, and then sprinkle on the nuts.
3. Add another thin layer of rice, moisten the other edge of the nori with a bit of smooshed rice, and roll the little darling up, using the sushi mat.
4. Repeat with the remaining ingredients. There will be two delicious rolls.
5. Cover the rolls with plastic wrap (you can take the stuff off of your mat and use that, if you’re tidy about it). Just lay the rolls on the wrap and then bring the rest of the wrap around to cover them. They don’t have to be tightly wrapped, just covered, top and bottom. Using a very sharp knife that has been dipped into cold water, slice the rolls in half width-wise, and then cut each of those halves twice more until you have eight coin-shaped slices from each roll.
6. Serve with wasabi and soy sauce or tamari.

Yummy!