David's Plate: Pizza and Sushi

Well it's been a while since my first couple of posts, and imaginably, some tastiness has transpired. Where to begin...

Since Sarah, Vanessa and I moved into the Norwalk apartment each of the gals have trumpeted a dinner call. "Let's make homemade pizza!" Vanessa would declare every week for four to five months.

Or, "OH!!! I want to make sushi!" from Sarah, for just as long..

Well finally it happened. Not in one night mind you, but within one week, the ladies finally got what they wanted. Let's start with the pizza, since this was cooked the weekend before the sushi.

I actually found this to be not a big deal to cook. Vanessa, a woman possessing the baking skills that all men must dream of in a girlfriend, handled the dough, while I cut up and prepared the toppings. When making homemade pizza, I really prefer a real rustic look, with the dough rolled out into whatever amorphous shape is easiest to attain while creating the largest pie. I also generally prefer thin crust pizza.

Here are a couple of our pies:

The Meat Pie

Beef Kielbasa, Pepperoni, Red Peppers, Caramelized Onions,

with Asiago Cheese, Parmesan Cheese, Tomato Sauce and Herbs

On the periphery of this photo you will notice some of another pie. That one was asparagus and caramelized onion with mozzarella and parmesan cheeses, and red sauce and basil. All good stuff.

The Veggie Pie

Asparagus, Mushroom, Red Pepper

with Three Cheeses, Red Sauce and Herbs

The pizza was delicious! We forwent the formal sit down meal this night in favor of a eat-while-you-work kind of thing. We were always making one pizza, while another one cooked, while another one was devoured, all with a steady flow of wine in our glasses. A good time was had.

Then the next week end... damn.

You need to understand, this was the night of the Superbowl. While not heavily vested in either of the teams, I was looking forward to sitting on the couch and doing nothing. I was planning on making a big platter of nachos and sitting down to watch the game. Sarah was thinking otherwise. After week after week of hearing the same line, "OH! We should make sushi!" I succumbed to peer pressure. Okay, fine, on the night of the Superbowl we can make sushi and watch the game.

There are a few problems here. Firstly, of all the cuisines in the world, there is perhaps none so refined, none so specialized, and none so artful as Japanese. I am well aware of this, and not surprisingly to readers of this blog, I am rather a sushi elitist. I was not about to make mediocre sushi if I could help it. Second problem, I was away in the afternoon and Sarah did not begin to make the rice until I got home and the game was about to begin. Third problem, we wanted to make a few types of sushi. Fourth problem, Sarah did not make enough rice. Fifth problem, we were using a kit, which contained a novella of instructions that we did not take the time to fully read. Sixth problem, one of our two fishes could not be eaten raw (apparently). Seventh problem, and perhaps the worst of all, I was already hungry.

So the game began, and with it, the preparations for the rice. Sushi rice takes a long time to prepare. You need to get it just right so that its fluffy and sticky. Like everything having to do with sushi preparation, it is an art. Customarily, when someone apprentices to make sushi professionally, the first skill they must master is how to make the rice. Many sushi masters with workers under them still prefer to prepare the rice themselves, to get it just right. Our rice, after some minor bottom burning (from following the instructions about the heat instead of going with our instincts), turned out all right - mostly. The only real problem was the quantity. It took a little over an hour to prepare the rice. Thank heavens for DVR.

All the while that Sarah was working on the rice, I was chopping away with my Shun knives. I spent forever, making the finest matchsticks of carrot and cucumber imaginable. I cut thin strips of chicken breast, covered them in panko and deep fried them. I diced scallions, and dry roasted a mix of black and white sesame seeds. I prepared the tuna into what I was guessing was the right shaped cut for rolls (again, another art that I knew absolutely nothing about. Then upon reading that Mahi Mahi should not be had raw, I threw it in a pan with some ponzu, soy sauce, mirin and ginger. What a pain in the ass! It would have been half time by now, and I had the television paused and still hadn't watched a minute.

I started to snack on raw tuna sashimi, and pick at whatever I could find. Poor Sarah, I was so hungry, I must have been quite obnoxious to be around. When all of the prep work was done, I left Sarah to make the rolls, while I grumpily watched some of the game. My stomach at this point made it all too obvious to me how little I actually cared about these teams. I just wanted to eat. The hell with the Superbowl - it was nearing 10:00.

Two and a half hours after we started working, we sat down at the table to eat.

Tuna Sushi and Sashimi