Deconstructed Sushi Bowl

I've been reading Heidi Swanson's blog for years. And I've been cooking from her book Super Natural Cooking for even longer. And this recipe, her sushi bowl (with a few minor changes), has been in our weekday meal rotation the entire time (though, funnily enough, it was my brother in law who originally found it online, right as I was becoming smitten with her cookbook).



We have it at least once a month, if not more. Not only do the kids love to eat it, but it's also a great recipe for them to help make. My nephew Kam (4 years old) especially loves to help with the oranges.

When I started to make it for dinner last week, Joey offered to do all of it herself, if I took pictures of the process.

Ingredients
2 oranges
1 lemon
2 T. brown sugar
3 or 4 T. soy sauce
2 T. rice vinegar

package of extra firm tofu
salmon
canola oil (a couple of tablespoons or so)
avocado
nori (I buy the pre crushed kind at the Asian Mart, which saves the steps of toasting and cutting. Strangely, this is a favorite of Joey's friend, who is super picky, but loves this recipe anyway. Also, I can't tell you the brand, because it's written in Japanese. If you can't find this, just crumble the regular Nori you'll find at Whole Foods.)
a bunch of green onions (washed and chopped... we forgot to do those for this batch. I'm the only one who eats them anyway.)
rice (cooked however you cook it)

Instructions
-Halve and ream out all the citrus through a strainer into a saucepan. The original recipe has you first zest them (and add the zest after the sauce has cooked), but Joey prefers it without the zest and she was the one making dinner. Do as you see fit.



-Add the brown sugar, soy sauce and rice vinegar to the pan. Bring to a boil, making sure all the sugar is melted.

-Remove from heat and let cool.

-Drain and slice the tofu. (This is a great job for the kiddos, especially considering that you don't need too sharp a knife to do it. Joey, however, wanted one of the big ones.)



-At this point, we decided to put the tofu back into it's original container to hold some of the marinade (maybe a third).



One less bowl to wash.

-Then we used another third of the marinade to soak the fish in. (No pictures. I'm sure you can imagine what it looks like.)

-After a half hour or so in the fridge, we poured some canola oil over them and brought the tofu and fish to the grill.


(Oh, there's a picture of the fish in the background. Too blurry? Well, maybe just go back to your imagination.)

-Cook over high-ish medium heat, flipping once, until nicely done (and a little crunchy on the edges).


(I bought one of those little vegetable grates and it works so well for stuff like this.)

-Now spin your avocado around on the cutting board.


(I'm not entirely sure that this step is necessary.)

-Cut your avocado.

-Put everything out (including the third of the marinade that you didn't do anything with. You did save that, right? No? That's too bad. It tastes really good over the rice. Also, do I need to tell you not to eat the marinade from the fish and tofu? Cause, don't do that.) and let people assemble themselves. (I mean assemble the food themselves, not like pull themselves together. Though for some, that may be necessary, depending on how excited to eat they are.)


(Joey wanted to show the avocado half she mangled next to the perfect one she didn't. I would like to draw your attention to those little crisp bits of tofu, which I ate immediately after taking this picture. All for Wendy.)

-Eat up.



Yum.