Surimi (Imitation Crab Meat) Mock Sushi Bowl

Course: main meals

PointsPlus™ Value:    6
Servings:  1

Preparation Time:  15 min
Cooking Time:  0 min
Level of Difficulty:  Easy

Not much cooking involved. Easypeasy. Not sure why it’s 6 points., but it’s healthy.

I know it’s not real sushi, nor in a bowl, but hey… whatever.

Ingredients:

•  2 cups cabbage, finely sliced  
•  1 small carrot, diced very small (or two baby carrots)
• 1 tsp onion, grated
• 1 tsp carrot, grated
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
• 1 tsp fresh garlic, grated
• 1 tsp Sriracha (more if you like it hot)
• 1 mushroom cap, sliced thin
• 1/4 medium English cucumber, diced very small
• 1 tbsp sweet pepper diced.  (about 1/8 of a small red pepper)
• 2 oz imitation crab, sliced thin or shredded  
• 1 Tbsp Pickled Sliced Ginger, minced (Gari)
• 1 Tbsp rice vinegar  
• 1/8 tsp toasted sesame oil  
• 1 tsp sesame seeds  
• 1 scallion, sliced thinly (diagonal)  
• 1 tsp reduced-calorie mayonnaise  
• 1 tsp wasabi, prepared
• 6 snow peas, sliced thin  
• 2 tsp tamari sauce   

Instructions:

To begin the dressing, in a small bowl mix the rice vinegar with grated onion, garlic, carrot and ginger.  Let that sit while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Slice the cabbage as thin as possible (you can option to dice it). Next prep the veggies by dicing, as small as possible, the carrot, cucumber and red pepper. Julienne the snow pea pods. Quarter and slice the mushroom (you can use any mushroom you want). Put those veggies in a bowl and mix them together.  Next slice the scallion on the diagonal into small pieces, put aside. Chop, slice or shred the Surimi (imitation crab).

To build the salad, plate the cabbage on the bottom, add crab and diced veggies and spread evenly over the cabbage.

In the same bowl you have the rice vinegar and grated veggies; add the wasabi, tamari and sesame oil, Sriracha and mayo. Mix the dressing to incorporate those ingredients. Mince the pickled ginger and add to finish the dressing.

Pour dressing over the salad and mix thoroughly. Finish off with the sesame seeds and scallions over the top.

Cutting Edge: A Must Have Kitchen Gadget

Many years ago, in downtown New Orleans, friends and I went to a sushi bar across the street from The Hard Rock Café.  The name eludes me; but what’s more important about this place was what they served.  We were introduced to variation on the crab roll.  What was different about the Rolls at this restaurant was that they wrapped Imitation crab sticks (kani fumi kamaboko) with a thin sheet of English cucumber.  The sushi chef would take an English cucumber and with surgical precision peel it along its length. See online demonstration video here.

I found an easier way to peel vegetables into sheets. I recently saw a vegetable peeler/sheeter used on the show Dinner:Impossibe.  The episode was where the host, Robert Irvine, is challenged to prepare and serve tons of food to hundreds of spelling bee students and their families.  One of the dishes they decided to make for the challenge was vegetable lasagna; and if I’m not mistaken there was some sort of dietary restriction (glucose allergy).  He needed to make pasta sheets out of something other than the classic broad pasta noodles.

That’s when they pulled some sort of gadget resembling a manual hand cranked pasta maker.  They placed a zucchini in the middle and cranked the handle, producing a thin long sheet of zucchini. The zucchini sheets were used in place of pasta sheets for building the lasagnas.

That is amazing… I was so impressed with how easy they could crank out sheets.  The sheets kind of look likeMame Nori (multi-colored soybean wrappers), used for making sushi rolls. If you’ve never used these colored soybean wrappers, they are pretty cool.  What I like about Mame Nori is it doesn’t have that strong seaweed flavor that Nori has.  Therefore, it is much more versatile and can replace things like pasta sheets, tortillas, rice papers or wonton wrappers.

I maybe the alone in thinking this vegetable peeler/sheeter is the greatest thing ever.  You may not be as excited to find out where you can get one as I am; and possibly only want to try using the soybean wrappers instead.  You can get the wrappes online at Amazon.com fairly inexpensively. Click this link and go toAmazon.com to order online.

At the end of the day, who knows if there are other kitchen gadgets that do the same as this vegetable peeler/slicer can?  I for one would love to know about it. There is always the option of hand peeling the cucumber.  I’ve tried and it’s not as easy as it looks.  So for those of you who want to check out this cool kitchen gadget; it’s called the Bron Coucke Vegetable Lasagna Slicer available at Amazon.com.

Check it out or let me know if there is something better.