Horseradish

Creamy Horseradish Sauce:

1/4 cup Vegenaise
1 Tbsp. prepared horseradish
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper, to taste

•In a small bowl, whisk all the ingredients together until blended.

*This can be served with lentil cakes*

If you're afraid of learning how to make sushi rolls because you're leery of handling raw fish, relax. Many of the most popular sushi varieties sold in the U.S., like California roll and Philadelphia roll, contain no fish at all. They're a perfect blend of starch and vegetable ingredients.

Let's take a look at some basic sushi making tools and principles.

What You'll Need to Make Sushi Rolls

Sushi rice - Sushi rolls use a special high-gluten short-grain rice instead of the long grained white rice you may be used to. It's typically sold in the market as sushi rice and has a distinctive oval or "pearl" shape. The gluten makes the rice grains adhere to one another like a kind of sushi glue and helps the role stay together. About a half-cup of rice is used in a typical sushi roll.

Nori - Nori is dried, toasted seaweed. It's sold in paper thin sheets for sushi making. It provides an earthy flavor to sushi and also works to support the roll during preparation. The easiest sushi style rolls to make use nori as the outer layer. For California style rolls, nori is used as an inner layer (this is also referred to as inside-out sushi). When used on the exterior of a roll, the nori gives the sushi a dark green/gray appearance. Usually one-half sheet of nori is used for each sushi roll.

Bamboo mat - This small, woven, food safe mat is used to roll sushi into a tight cylinder before cutting it into crosswise (bite sized) pieces.

Sesame seeds - Used for flavor and decoration, sesame seeds or occasionally fish eggs are sprinkled on the outer layer of inside-out sushi rolls like California rolls.

Plastic wrap - Used to help roll inside-out sushi.

Sweetened rice vinegar - You can combine sugar with white rice vinegar or buy sushi vinegar already sweetened. It is sprinkled over the cooling rice to provide added flavor.

Vegetables - Roll style sushi is characterized by a multi ingredient center that often includes small strips of julienned vegetables like radish or carrot.

Main ingredients - The center of a sushi roll typically contains vegetables and another ingredient in equal or slightly larger proportions. The main ingredient could be raw tuna, cooked shrimp, avocado (California roll), cream cheese (Philadelphia roll) or even spam (Hawaiian roll).

Wasabi - Wasabi is radish root that's sold in powdered form as a condiment for sushi. It's typically reconstituted with water, soy sauce, rice vinegar or rice wine. It has a horseradish style bite, so serve it on the side instead of in the sushi rolls you prepare.

How to Make Sushi Rolls

1. Prepare rice according to package directions. There's usually an added step of soaking and rinsing the rice before cooking. Be sure to cook the rice in a non-reactive (non-metal) pan.
2. Sprinkle sweetened rice vinegar on the cooling rice.
3. Tear off a piece of plastic wrap about twice as long a bamboo sushi mat and cover both sides of the mat with wrap.
4. Place a half-sheet of nori on the plastic covered mat.
5. Wet your hands and spread a half-cup of prepared rice over the nori to a depth of about a quarter of an inch. Leave a top border of a half-inch rice free. It will help to seal the roll later.
6. Add a thin sprinkling of sesame seeds (optional).
7. For California rolls, flip the sheet so the rice side is against the plastic wrap. Wait a couple of minutes to perform the flip so the rice doesn't dislodge from the nori.
8. Add a strip of ingredients, like carrot, imitation crab and avocado along the top-third of the sheet
9. Roll the sushi ingredients into a tight cylinder starting at the end opposite the bare nori border. Use the mat as leverage.
10. Cut the roll in half lengthwise, and then cut each half-roll into three equal sections.

Horseradish is most commonly sold bottled as ground root, mixed with vinegar, and rarely, cream. A rural market may, in season, have it whole.

If horseradish is prepared from the roots themselves, rubber gloves should be worn as the hands can actually be burned severely by handling the chopped root. Eye protection is stronglyrecommended, and if using a blender or food processor, or even a hand grater, it is advisable to work outside for both ventilation and because the odor will linger in an enclosed space.