Monday, September 10, 2007

Hawaiian Handrolls with Ham, not Spam

When my husband is out of town dinner plans become somewhat creative. I strive to find a way to make a single adult dinner with the remnants of plain Jane ingredients I used to make a simple, kid-friendly meal for my boys.

Tonight I was serving ham steak with barbecue sauce, steamed brown rice and cucumber slices. It was well received by the boys, but it certainly wasn't going to suffice for my dinner.

I've been toying with Nori. Nori is the seaweed sheets used for sushi rolls. I'm especially fond of very crispy Nori used for hand rolls. Hand rolls seem to be the easiest way to get the Nori sushi taste with the least amount of fuss or fancy knife work.

So, I slivered some of that cucumber, and then did the same to a scallion and a carrot. I thinly sliced about 4 ounces of the ham steak. I pulled a bottle of Chinese Chicken Salad dressing out of the fridge and pulled the Nori sheets from the pantry.

The true inspiration for the entire hand roll was the Shiso leaf I picked from the garden earlier in the day. So I washed two tender leaves and slivered them, adding them to the pile of vegetables.

I smeared some hot brown rice onto half a sheet of Nori. I dressed the pile of vegetables with a tablespoon or two of the bottled dressing. I placed 1/3 C of the vegetables onto the rice on each Nori sheet. The ham slices were added last. Rolled up into a tight bundle, they made for a fabulously innovative way to use Nori, eat the remnants from the kid's meal and to truly enjoy the pleasure of the Shiso leaf picked from the garden.

The Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand went with it fabulously!

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