california rolls

lauren asked me the other day why bother to make a roast chicken when you can buy one from costco for $4.00. this is a very good question and i'll admit that the cost and time of roasting your own chicken seems more than $4.00. but without sounding all hippy and pretentious, we like to know where our chicken comes from: an organic free-range farm where chickens aren't subjected to hormone and salt injections.

we've always tried to buy everything organic, but after watching the documentary FOOD, INC, i was really implored to make a conscious effort in our market shopping, to know where our food comes from and how it's handled.

as i stumble off my soap-box now, i'll admit that we still occasionally buy a costco chicken (shred it up, throw some good barbeque sauce on it and stuff it in a buttered kaiser roll- an easy saturday lunch!). but i try to roast my own chicken as much as possible. i find that my own chicken also produces a better stock (but maybe that's just a mental thing).

anyway, here's what we had for dinner the other night: california rolls.

(i feel like i do a lot of rice-based meals for this blog. we do eat a lot of grains here. and i am korean. so i apologize if you guys are bored with my rice cooker.)

this is a super easy meal that works with both kids and adults. there's no fancy rolling involved, as everything is hand-rolled individually with the rice and everything tucked inside the seaweed like a taco.

ingredients:

roasted seaweed (cut into quarters)

rice

soy sauce

wasabi

4 eggs (cooked omelet style and then cut up into short straws)

2 avocados (sliced thinly)

imitation crab meat (shredded)

1 cucumber (julienned into short straws)

handroll each roll as you eat: layer rice, cucumber, crab, egg, avocado onto the seaweed. pour on some wasabi/soysauce. eat!

i'll accompany this meal with some miso soup. i don't have a good recipe for this as i do everything the way my mom does it (no measurements, just throwing everything together in a pot). i use anchovy stock, miso paste, soft tofu and scallions. but there are a bunch of good recipes all over the internet with detailed measurements. miso soup is really quick to make.