Somen Sushi

November 17th, 2010 by justJENN

**This won second place in the Easy Kids Recipes – Asian Noodle Recipe Contest!

Look at this closely. No…closer. That’s not rice sucka, it’s noodles! Think of it as a somen salad all in a little roll. It’s darn good too. Something different for parties or to fool your friends…

ingredients:
2 bundles somen
4 nori sheets
Cucumber sliced thin
Carrot sliced thin
Char siu, cut thin
1 egg fried thin and sliced

sauce ingredients:
2 Tablepoons sugar
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
1 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar
2 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon mirin

Stir together all the sauce ingredients, set aside.

Boil somen for just 2 minutes – rinse and drain.

Separate the somen out into portions (4 nori sheets, 4 portions). I use the same nori that I use for spam musubi – on one nori sheet, spread out one portion of noodles.

You can fill this with whatever you want really. Today I just happened to have some nice farm fresh asparagus, so I rolled that with cucumber and carrot. Place the filling down about half of the way along the length of the nori.

Here’s the deal – I am a bad asian. I do NOT eat sushi, never have never will, therefore I know nothing about rolling. I’m sure there are fancy mats and devices to help you, but I just laid out a sheet of plastic wrap, put the assembly on top and hoped for the best. And it worked! I just rolled tightly, and the stickiness of the noodles sort of made the roll stick to itself.

Once it is rolled tightly, roll it in plastic wrap and keep it in the fridge for an hour or so until you are ready to serve. Using a sharp knife, cut straight down and into even slices.

Serve it with the sauce and you’re ready to go. These are great for parties, and so easy because you can do them ahead of time and keep them in the fridge. They are a fun alternative to ‘real’ sushi!