I really like sushi… but every time I eat raw ahi tuna, my stomach feels a little off the rest of the day. I can’t help but to still crave the sticky rice hugging the avocado, asparagus, and cucumber.

And how on earth do you eat sushi? Did you know that until August of this year I was eating sushi wrong. I couldn’t use chopsticks. When we were in Chinatown in San Francisco, the waiter presented me with a stir fry dish and chopsticks. No fork. While the waiter fetched me a fork, I decided to attempt to use the handicapped chopsticks (the ones with the rubber band), and I still couldn’t figure it out. Every piece of food fell back onto my plate. The rice was impossible… I think I was able to get one grain of rice on the chopsticks- one grain! The waiters lingering around laughed at me, and I’m pretty sure my waiter took his time to bring me the fork so that he could be entertained.

This dinner is what I call cooked sushi: all the concepts and ingredients from sushi (minus seaweed) but its cooked. The salmon is baked in the oven, the asparagus steamed, and the avocado and cucumber are sliced in thicker pieces than what you would find in a sushi roll. I stacked it with rice, spinach, salmon, cucumbers, asparagus, and avocado.

I guess its still pretty messy to eat if you try to get a bite of everything in each forkful… which of course I attempted. You should try it though, its delicious!

RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

4 salmon fillets

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup orange juice

1 teaspoon minced ginger

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 cup cooked jasmine rice

1/2 avocado, diced

1 cucumber, cut in slices

1 bunch asparagus (Sold at your grocery)

fresh baby spinach (eyeball amounts for each plate)

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine soy sauce, orange juice, garlic, and ginger in a bowl. Add salmon and marinate for 30 mins.

2. Cook the salmon: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 15-20 mins, depending on your preferences for salmon.

3. Meanwhile, cook Jasmine rice according to package instructions.

4. Steam asparagus in microwave for 3-4 mins. Cut up avocado in small pieces. Cut cucumbers in slices.

5. When salmon finishes, plate your meal: Jasmine rice, spinach, salmon, cucumbers, asparagus, and avocado.

SUSHI STACK!