Unagi and Avocado Rolls with Carrot Sushi Rice

Barbecued eel and avocado rolled up in colorful carrot rice for an amazing sushi roll

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Sometimes you just have to scratch your head and ask yourself 'now why didn't I think of that?'.  I was uploading photos to the food porn photo sharing site Fridgg when I saw colorful carrot rice, and I mentally smacked my forehead and wondered why I'd never done that while making sushi.
After all, I put finely shredded carrots in my Maple Teriyaki Salmon sushi, though I layered them with apples before rolling up.  And I've tossed cooked rice with finely shredded carrot while making chirashi sushi, seen on the blog in my Spam Musubi Chirashi Sushi.  So it's not a giant stretch to think up tossing the carrot with the rice, then using the result in my sushi rolls.

I've talked about some of the ways I put up our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share vegetables during the growing season, to feed my family during the winter (talking about this is kinda the mission of this blog).  I roast and freeze my garlic crop.  I turn the tomatillos (and freshly roasted Hatch chiles from the grocery store down the road) into salsa verde.  I keep the Strategic Winter Squash Reserve in a cold corner of my breakfast nook.  Carrots are a bit different.  I shred them using the fine shred disc on my food processor then freeze them in zip top bags.  I can take out just what I need and it thaws rapidly.  If you don't have a food processor with a fine shred disc--I'm thinking box grater?

What exactly do those spiky holes on the 4 sided box grater do, anyway?  I've only used the large shred hole side and the slicer side.  Those spiky hole things just snag my knuckles (or get gunked up with cheese when the kids are first learning to grate cheese) and are a pain to clean.  If you know, I'd love to hear it in the comments.  It's been a mystery to me for a while.

Next thing on my mind:  unagi.  Unagi, or barbecued eel, is one of my favorite items on the sushi menu.  When we lived in Hawaii, my daughter and I would splurge on a sushi lunch at the Aloha Sushi nearby.  I'd get a couple of unagi hand rolls--the combination of warm eel and warm sushi rice in a freshly-made hand roll is irresistible to me.  Getting cold, pre made unagi in the grocery store just doesn't cut it, and since I can eat my age in pieces of sushi it makes sense to make it at home.  For this reason I pick up packages of unagi from the freezer section of the asian market (you can see it below).  They are ready when I've got the rest of the ingredients on hand.

My first sushi post details a lot of the steps involved in making sushi, complete with step-by-step photos.  I'm not trying to rack up additional page views when I refer you to it--I'm trying to keep this post as concise as possible while showing off the neat photos I took (because I am absurdly pleased with them).  You can check out my How to Make Sushi at Home post here.


For more recipes using avocado, please see my Avocado Recipes Collection. For more recipes using carrots, please see my Carrot Recipes Collection. These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, the garden, the neighbor's garden, and great deals on ugly produce at the grocery store.

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Rustic Roasted Carrots

Roasted carrots, simply seasoned with salt and a buttery spread, make a vegan addition to your holiday or Spring table

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Getting my family to eat cooked carrots can be a challenge.  Sure, they don't mind if I stretch our tacos or meatloaf with diced or shredded carrots.  Eating raw carrots as a vehicle to convey dip into the mouth is also no problem around these parts.  But every cooked carrot dish I've tried has been politely attempted and then untouched.  Until now.  This is too easy and too basic not to share.  I'm becoming enamored with side dishes that let the fresh flavor of the vegetables shine through--without overpowering sauces--and this is a good example of that.

I first made these carrots when I was overwhelmed with carrots from the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share, which is a testament to the wonderful soil our famers are creating.  When we first joined this CSA most of the carrots were stubby and deliciously sweet--not really useful for much in the way of a meal, but delicious to snack on.  After consistently amending the soil with a wide variety of organic materials, from manure and compost to donated straw and old hay, our farmers grow still delicious but now fat and long carrots, in large amounts. Which leads to me being overwhelmed with carrots.

Getting bulging bags of fat carrots each week--and not eating an entire bagful in between pick-ups--meant that our crisper was on carrot overload.  The composting guinea pig was thrilled with the tops and tips.  I saved out the largest carrots for eating raw.  I shredded and froze the smaller carrots for adding to all sorts of meals over the winter, like my Thai Turkey Cold Busting Hot and Sour Soup.  That left the medium sized carrots, and since I was roasting beets and radishes I figured I'd try roasting carrots, too.

I lined them up like I'd seen young carrots served at a restaurant in Atlanta in a previous life, gave them a drizzle of oil and a pinch of salt, and secured them in a foil packet.  When it came time to serve, my daughter grabbed some parsley to tuck into the sides for the photo--but this pretty dish never made it to the table.  We ate this with our fingers while standing in the kitchen and called it our appetizer.    Then I had a hankering for it again--inspired by some marked down carrots at the grocery store.  This time I roasted them on a rimmed baking sheet. The results again never made it to the table--or even a serving tray! We ate them off the baking sheet. Simple.  Rustic.  Good.

Since I had fun with HashtagOrangeWeek last month, where I shared a week's worth of recipes using the fresh Florida citrus from the Band Fruit Fundraiser, I thought I'd do it again.  With Easter coming up, I've decided to have HashtagCarrotWeek.  I'll start with this rustic side dish, continue on Friday with some sushi, and finish up the 'week' with muffins on Monday. So a week's worth of recipes using carrots, but stretched over more than a simple calendar week.  I wanted the savory squash pie linked up well before April Fool's day, you see.

For more recipes using carrots, please see my Carrot Recipes Collection. It's part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, the garden, the neighbor's garden, and great deals on ugly produce at the grocery store.


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Savory Squash Pie for April Fool's Day

A savory pie with Buttercup and Acorn squash, Manchego and cottage cheeses

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I never set out to make an April Fool's dish.

Actually, like the wolf in The True Story of the Three Little Pigs (Amazon affiliate link), all I wanted to do was borrow a cup of sugar to make my dear old granny's birthday cake be lazy while making a quiche. I mean, I pretty much threw everything in the Vitamix instead of chopping it all nice and pretty. The resulting mixture didn't strike me as faux sweet potato or pumpkin pie material until I checked it while it was baking. [And it wasn't done, so I hopped in the car to drive my son to sled hockey practice--we ate sandwiches in the car instead--and mulled over the strange appearance of my quiche.]  By the time we arrived at the rink I'd conceived the April Fool's idea hook.  Yes, the folks at hockey are used to my rambling and just smile and nod.

I just had to decide if it tasted good enough for the blog, so between my family, the folks at work, and my visiting parents this has been thoroughly taste tested.  Thumbs up.  Here ya'are.

This is a rich slice of savory squash pie, so we ate ours in small slices. With a salad it would make a lovely meal (though no, I don't have any cute April Fool's salad ideas.  That's what Pinterest is for!).

Acorn squash surrounded by Buttercup squash--new in our CSA farm share last year

Note:  to roast a winter squash, cut it in half pole to pole, scoop out (and compost) the seeds and strings, and place it cut side down on a rimmed baking sheet.  Add a ½ cup of water, and roast at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 30-60 minutes until the flesh is tender when you squeeze or poke it. Scoop out the flesh, compost the skins, and you're good to go.  You can even freeze this roasted flesh if you want--it's good in muffins or waffles.

I've revamped my Visual Recipe Index! For more ideas using winter squash, please see my Acorn Squash Recipes Collection, my Buttercup/Butternut Squash Recipes Collection, and my Winter Squash Recipes Collection. These are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, the garden, the neighbor's garden, and great deals on ugly produce at the grocery store.


I'm sharing more recipes on my Pinterest boards, follow me there. If you like a good peek behind the scenes like I do, follow me on Instagram. Need a good read? I'm sharing articles of interest on my Facebook page, follow me there. Want to know How to Use This Blog?