Learning to cook could really be learning to cut - Eli's Kid Friendly Sushi Dinner. Last week was the very first dinner that Eli has come up with the idea, prepped and gloated over. It cracks me up that for him sushi has nothing to do with raw fish, but I took care of that for the adults.
Eli and Olivia are still on their learning to cook energy which I rather enjoy. The night before the dinner we talked about what we would have, made a shopping list, and brought Curran (age 5) to help Eli (age 7) shop. I "simply" monitored the list and all that entered the cart.
Curran was clear he wanted tapioca for dessert, but I couldn't find it so strawberry mochi balls and lime popsicals did the trick.
Our Kid Friendly Sushi Dinner Menu Included
Salmon (baked for the kids)
Yellow fin tuna (sashimi for the adults)
Unagi (cooked eel with sauce it is in the bottom left of the picture)
sushi rice (with mirin, rice vinegar and a bit of sugar)
cucumbers
avocado
roe (the bright orange in the center of the picture)
Miso soup (with seaweed, green onions, and tofu or smashed brains according to curran and Eli)
lots of seaweed (both large sheets to be rolled and small 2 X 2 inch which I made "sushi taco rolls" and expertly popped into my mouth.
wasabi and soy
The best part of this is prep was really simply - Eli did most of the chopping and put the ingredients in small bowls - so all was perfect. I have to admit that at times Eli's knife weilding ways scared me so I opted for a less sharp knife and delighted that each piece of cucumber had it's own shape and size.
The toughest part for Eli is that Curran who is usually a master of the kitchen only wanted to play with legos - so Eli spent 20 minutes of prepping coming up with ways to entice him into the kitchen. He finally did it when he said that we had "brains to smash" and Curran came running in.
When Curran entered the kitchen to "smash the brains" (aka cut the tofu into a million little pieces) they used butter knives as two small boys "smashing" with knives was way too much for my comfort level. So they got to have fun and I got to drink more wine before adding the tofu to the miso soup.
When it comes to creating the actual pieces of sushi and rolls that were consumed - all was perfect. Nothing was premade - rather all ingredients were put on the table as pictured above. In our house any way it's rolled or looks is perfect - as long as it's consumed. As you can see from Eli's "sushi" it's really a big piece of cooked salmon, avocado, rice, and a little roe wrapped in a big piece of seaweed.
Hope this gives you some ideas for your own kids "cooked" meals.
The post is very intellectually written, with lots of valuable information.
Posted by: H Miracle Review | April 26, 2011 at 07:54 PM
Thats amazing..i too had an experience of cooking in my childhood dayz and ur post made me to cherish the memories of past...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQVTXSgd2Cg
Glad that i visited ur post... wl come back and visit for sure..
Posted by: Kid cook | February 02, 2011 at 09:54 PM