BBQ Sushi -- The BBQ Grail Roll(s)
 

Recently a causal eatery has opened near my house. It a nice restaurant that serves up some great food. They have an amazing smoked tri-tip sandwich that I have to eat a couple times a month.

I've struck up a friendship with the two owners. They also own a popular sushi restaurant in Sacramento. I was talking to the owners about my interest in fusing Asian flavors with traditional America BBQ techniques. I talked to them about some of my ideas and they thought it would be fun to see what we could come up.

Tonight I made the trip into Sacramento and got a chance to watch the Executive Sushi Chef make regular sushi while we played in the back of the house. It was a blast.

I took with me some North Carolina vinegar sauce and a few other things along with some pulled pork and some pulled pastrami I did.

When you make sushi rice you season it with rice vinegar, sugar and few other things. I had the idea of using the vinegar BBQ sauce to season the rice. It turned out nice.

Here's some of the rolls we came up with. There's some work to do, but we have a good solid base for coming up with some menu ready sushi rolls. Since they have a smoker at one of their restaurants they'll be able to recreate whateve we come up with.

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Pulled pork, pickled cucumber (forgot what it was called) with fried shoestring potatoes. The soy wrapper worked great. The pickled cucumber was to try and mimic cole slaw with an asian flavor. It was pretty tasty, but needed something else to make it pop.

http://thebbqgrail.com/wp-content/up...02/Sushi11.jpg
Pastrami, sauted garlic, onions, ****ake mushroom. This was pretty good, we later paired this with a miso garlic sauce that we mixed with BBQ sauce. That had a nice flavor.

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Pastrami, fried shoestring potatoes, cream cheese and grilled asparagus.

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Had to have some sprouts!

Very interesting & creative - pics look great - I'd definitely hit those. Are these going in the California TD?

Those do look good. Was the pork and pastrami ice box cold or room temp, or warmed?

The roll with the sauted onions, garlic and such had the pastrami sauted with the veggies.

The other rolls the meat was room temp. I smoked it last night and and was kept cold. I pulled it cold onsite, so by the time the sushi rice was done it was room temp.

Possibly. I've got a more "California" idea. If it doesn't come out, I'll probably enter these.

Looks fantastic

http://thebbqgrail.com/wp-content/up.../02/Sushi1.jpg
This is what I used to make the sushi rice. Lots of vinegar and since it's got apples for a sweetner it worked great for sushi rice.

I love Sushi with an ice cold Sapporo, 23oz that is, with plenty of Wasabi. Now that Sushi creation you came up with looks like tasty treats to me, so what beer are you pouring, and when can I join you for a taste :becky:

Outstanding! Good looking presentation.

Very nice!:cool: I love stuff like this that forges into unknown territory.:thumb: I hope you keep at it. As for the California Throwdown, since it is a "Special", you can make more than one entry, so you could put these in along with your other ideas if you like.

You mean stuff like my Q-Shi in the nouvelle Quisine throwdown a few weeks ago? :becky:

I would hit any of those, Larry! They look great!

Well, I didn't want Larry to think he stole your idea...but YES!

It's hardly an original idea. There's already one restaurant in Sacramento selling a roll with what they call BBQ pulled pork. And they've been doing it for years.

Dang that looks and sounds excellent!