The November 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was brought to you by Audax of Audax Artifex and Rose of The Bite Me Kitchen. They chose sushi as the challenge.
I had it all planned--making sushi for the Daring Cooks challenge this weekend, as well as making some other Asian inspired favorites for a big weekend feast. Unfortunately, the sushi was not a success. Thankfully though, the rest of the dishes came out well.
I want to like sushi. I've tried many times to like it, but I just can't get past the nori (seaweed). It's a textural thing. I've actually eaten, and really enjoyed raw kelp plucked from the ocean while out on a boat for a marine biology program. It was crunchy and salty, and good. But the dried seaweed just seems really "fishy" to me. It must be something in the drying process that I object to.
Anyway, I bought all the ingredients and cooked the sushi rice per the directions. All was going swimmingly, until I opened the package of nori--I just could not tolerate the smell. I tried to roll the sushi but it really just grossed me out. Had I been more organized and not waited until the last day I could have used an alternative to the nori and still made a sort of pseudo-sushi, but I was unprepared and rather discouraged.
I did go ahead and make the rest of the feast--peanut noodles, egg rolls, sweet potato tempura, and chocolate filled wontons.
The sweet potato tempura is just thin slices of raw sweet potato, and a packaged tempura mix. The egg roll recipe is from the Steamy Kitchen cookbook, though I used my own filling of cabbage, carrots, edamame, and mushrooms. The chocolate wontons are also from Steamy Kitchen, though I baked, not fried mine. The peanut noodles are my version of Shari's delicious recipe.

Peanut Noodles
1 cup peanut butter (chunky or smooth)
1 (14-ounce or 398 mL) can coconut milk
1 teaspoon curry powder
½ tablespoon fresh gingerroot, minced
4 cloves fresh garlic, minced
1 teaspoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons soya sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 16-ounce package spaghetti or vermicelli
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