Braised Chicken with Tomatillos and Jalepenos, Courtesy of Anne Burrell

John will disagree with me, but I have a food crush on Anne Burrell. Sure she may be a bit eccentric, but her recipes look absolutely delicious. In case you aren’t familiar with her, she hosts Secrets of a Restaurant Chef along with a slew of other shows on the Food Network. John’s grandmother actually thinks she carries a striking resemblance to John’s mother, which is kind of funny…

Because John is not a fan of her, I only watch her when he’s not home. On one of those occasions, she was sharing her recipe for braised chicken with tomatillos and jalapenos. I love jalapenos. So much in fact, that I have a jalapeno plant working its magic in my garden right now. However, my peppers aren’t quite ready yet, so I had to go out and buy some. So I knew I wanted to try this recipe ASAP.

I was only a little hesitant because I had never worked with a tomatillo before. Come to find out, the tomatillo isn’t actually a tomato – despite how the name might sound. It’s a relative of the nightshade or gooseberry family; and comes wrapped in a husk. I could go as far as saying it could be compared to a tomato in terms of texture and mouth-feel.

This, my friends, is a tomatillo.

Much to my dismay, the fruit itself was sticky. For those of you who know me by now, you know that I HATE BEING STICKY. But other than that, it was generally easy to work with.

I found this recipe to be incredibly easy to follow; though it’s very time-consuming. With all the chopping and browning of the chicken, you’re standing at the stove for quite some time. Well, at least that was the case for me; because my chopping skills are less than average.

I chose to make a couple of alterations to her recipe based on my own personal preferences. Anne’s recipe calls for 4 thighs and 4 legs. I chose to go with all thighs and I chose to leave the skin on, since it creates some nice flavorful brown bits at the bottom of the pan as it browns.

I’m a thigh girl, what can I say?

When working with the jalapenos, I chose to leave some of the seeds in. The recipe calls for no seeds, since that is where the heat of the pepper stems from. But John and I both like a little heat, so I chose to let some stick around for the ride.

The first word that I used to describe the taste of this meal was “delightful.” I kid you not. It was a light and bright sauce, it was savory because of the chicken, it was just everything I was hoping it would be when I first watched Anne make it. I was also pleasantly surprised with the flavor of the tomatillos. They’re sweet enough to counteract the spice from the jalapenos and added a really nice balance. John even liked it! Thank you Anne Burrell 🙂

If you’re looking for something fun to make that’s not in your every day routine, try this recipe.

Homemade Sopressata (Italian Salami)

Before I moved to Rhode Island, I was only familiar with a couple of different Italian salamis: pepperoni, Genoa and one that my grandfather called “hard, smoked salami.” To this day I don’t think he’s revealed its actual name. When I moved, however, I was introduced to capicola and sopressata. Because I have a TERRIBLE time pronouncing them correctly, I joke and call them cap-a-ho and souporsalad. But I digress.

John and I have been talking for a long time about learning to make our own sausages and salamis; so last week, I looked up a recipe for homemade sopressata…and today we tried it out.

We ground 7 pounds of pork and started the curing process by adding the following spices:

• 1 tbsp. ground black pepper
• 2 tsp. ground white pepper
• 1 tbsp. non-iodized salt, finely ground
• 1 tsp. ground coriander
• 1 tbsp. minced garlic
• 1 cup of grappa vinegar

The rest can be summed up by this brief video. (Yes, I’m in my comfy clothes…don’t judge me).

We have to let the salamis hang in a cool, well-ventilated room for 1-2 weeks and then in a warm, well-ventilated room for 2-3 months. It was certainly a messy experience; but well worth it, I think!

Paella – My Version!

So John and I have become couponers because we practically live at the grocery store. That being said, we were able to hit some pretty nice deals on seafood this week; and because I still had my homemade chorizo still sitting in the fridge that I had made the day before, I decided to take a big risk and attempt paella.

Now, for those of you who are not familiar, paella is a Spanish rice dish that is often adorned with chicken, seafood and peas – but I ABSOLUTELY HATE peas, so I opted to leave them out. (No really. I won’t even touch a dish that has peas in it…even if they’ve been removed for my sake. I’ll know they were there).

John and I are pretty big fans of Tyler Florence, so we chose to use his recipe as the main guideline for this and made a few changes along the way to better serve our needs with the ingredients that we had. Our recipe called for:

• 4 cups of short grain rice
• 6 cups of water (we chose to use chicken stock for added flavor)
• 2 large chicken thighs cut in half – skin on
• 1 pound chorizo
• 1 pound cherry stone clams
• 1 pound large peeled and cleaned shrimp
• 1 pound rock crab claws
•  1 tablespoon dried cilantro (most of the time it will call for parsley)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 can crushed tomatoes
• 1 Spanish onion, diced
• 5 cloves of garlic, crushed (I left them as large chunks because we love garlic, here)
• 1 teaspoon turmeric (because the price of Saffron is just outrageous)
• 1 lime cut into wedges
• 1 teaspoon paprika (to season the chicken)
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano (to season the chicken)
• salt & pepper to taste

Now, this is quite an expensive dish to make and if John and I hadn’t hit the sales that we did, I probably wouldn’t have tried it.

Step 1:

In a paella pan or large shallow skillet (we used the latter, as we don’t have a paella pan…yet) add the 1/4 cup olive oil and saute the chorizo over medium-high heat. Once cooked through, remove and set aside.

Cooked Chorizo

Step 2:

In the same skillet, brown the chicken – skin side down first. Once you have a nice crust on both sides, remove and set aside.

See the nice golden crust?

Step 3:

Again, in the same skillet saute your onions, garlic and cilantro (or parsley, if that’s what you prefer) until they are nice and tender. Then add the tomatoes.

Delicious paella juice, as I call it.

Step 4:

Fold in the rice so each grain is coated in the juice and pour in your 6 cups of warm water or stock – let simmer.

Every now and then, make sure you GENTLY stir the rice mixture so nothing ends up sticking to the bottom. Later on you might notice some sticking, which is fine – that part is quite yummy – but you don’t want any stickage right now.

Step 5:

Once the rice has soaked up the liquid and has swelled and become somewhat fluffy, add the chicken back into the pan. I tried burying my chicken pieces a little bit, so they had a better chance of cooking through. This is also a good time to add your chorizo back to the pan as well.

Step 6:

Add your seafood to the pan. Shrimp will usually take between 7-10 minutes to cook through. Clams even less but because we didn’t have a proper paella pan, our skillet was a bit over-crowded, causing the cooking time to extend. We actually had to pull the seafood out and steam in a separate pan so they would all cook through. The crab claws we pre-cooked, so we were essentially just warming them through and letting them take on the flavor of the paella juice.

**NOTE: At this point you do not want to stir your paella – this will cause the rice and fish to not cook properly. Let it sit. This is when you’ll start to notice some rice creating nice, yummy crispy bits at the bottom of your pan.**

Step 7:

Once everything is cooked through, remove from the heat and let sit for a few minutes. Garnish with lemon or lime wedges (we also used a handful of chopped green onion).

Step 8:

Eat!

Ta Da! This was so big it needed an aerial shot.

 

Now, if I had thought this through instead of just jumping right in, I would’ve cut this recipe in half – maybe even more than that – because when all was said and done, we had enough food for about eight people.

We’ll have leftovers for days!!

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for my next delicious recipe!

Birthday Lemon Bars

Lemon & Powdered Sugar birthday bars

My cousin’s been living with me and John for about four months now. He attends New England Tech and had to move up here from North Carolina, so we opened up a room for him while he figures out the area and finds a nice place for himself that he can afford.

Today’s his birthday, so I decided to make him lemon bars in place of a birthday cake. He loves lemon anything, so I thought this would be perfect. It’s also a very easy recipe.

You’ll need:

• 1 cup of softened butter
• 2 cups of granulated sugar, divided
• 2 lemons, juiced
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 large eggs

Step 1:

In a medium bowl, mix together 2 cups of flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and the butter. Once combined, press onto the bottom of an un-greased 13×9 baking pan.

Step 2:

In a 350 F degree oven, bake the crust for 15-20 minutes or until the crust is a nice golden brown.

Step 3:

Whisk together the remaining sugar (1 1/2 cups), flour (1/4 cup), eggs and lemon juice. Pour this mixture over the cooked crust and spread evenly over the top.

Step 4:

Bake again for another 20 minutes. Add powdered sugar once the bars are cool.

 

I’m not a big fan of lemon desserts, so I will not be partaking in these, but John and my cousin seem pleased.

Homemade Mexican Chorizo

If you could have experienced the smells coming from my kitchen, you’d die.

I’ve decided that I want to embark on the homemade sausages adventure. We spend so much money each week on pre-made sausages that it’s almost a sin – and I find that my stores tend to carry packaged meats in a variety of cuts for a cheaper price. In the spirit of Cinco de Mayo, I decided to take a stab at homemade chorizo first.

(I’m also a fan of Portuguese chorico – which is smoked and not as spicy…I might make that in the near future as well).

Of course, I had no idea what I would even need; so I consulted my good friend Google and stumbled upon the blog “La Cocina de Leslie” in which I found a nice recipe for Mexican chorizo that didn’t seem too intimidating.

It called for:

• 2 dried guajillo chilies ( we ended up using Pazilla chiles, since we couldn’t find guajillos in our local market)
• 2 dried ancho chilies
• 2 to 4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 medium onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 pound ground pork (with at least 20% fat)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• !/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

John and I are the spice family. We have a copious amount of spices in our kitchen from our various adventures over the past year. The only thing we needed to make a trip out to the store for, were the chiles and ground pork. I tried to follow her recipe as closely as possible despite having different chiles.

Step 1:

Toast the chiles in a dry skillet for 10 seconds on each side. Once toasted, add enough water to cover the chiles. Bring the water to a boil, then shut off the heat. Allow the chiles to soak in the water for twenty minutes. This re-hydrates them and gets them nice and tender.

Here you can see the chiles have softened from the liquid.

Step 2:

In a blender combine the chiles, onion, garlic and 2 tablespoons of the cider vinegar. (You should have seen me at this point. I was practically bawling my eyes out thanks to good ol’ Mr. Onion…) You want the mixture to come out resembling the texture of ketchup. While Leslie says to add more vinegar or water to the mixture to help it reach this consistency, I chose to use the liquid that the chiles sat in. This gave the mixture deeper flavor.

See? Ketchup!

Step 3:

Add the chile mixture and all of your spices to the pork at this point and mix well.

**NOTE: If you are combining by hand, make sure you only use one hand. Using both will alter the temperature of the meat and could cause it to spoil on you**

If it weren’t for the fact this could make you sick, I’d eat it like this!

Step 4:

Let the mixture sit overnight in the refrigerator. This allows all of the flavors to marry.

Step 5:

When ready to serve, saute in a greased pan and enjoy!

Hot and delicious!

Wait until you see what I decided to use mine in ;). Stay tuned!

 

 

 

My Chiles Rellenos

I swear, I come up with some real good ideas sometimes.

John and I were at the supermarket just the other day and I saw that poblano peppers were on sale. Now, I had never had them before, but I love peppers AND I happen to follow Kraft recipes on Pinterest so – enter that *bing* noise you hear in your head when you come up with something brilliant – I thought I’d try my own version of chiles rellenos.

Prepped for the Oven

The Kraft recipe calls for:

• 4 large  poblano chiles (we ended up going with 3 – the store’s peppers weren’t very impressive)

• 1 cup  TACO BELL® Thick & Chunky Salsa

• 1/4 cup  chopped fresh cilantro

• 1/2 tsp.  ground cumin

• 1-1/2 cups  chopped cooked chicken

• 1 cup  cooked long-grain white rice

• 1-1/4 cups  KRAFT Mexican Style Finely Shredded Four Cheese, divided

Now, I followed the process of this recipe almost verbatim, but decided to stray from their version of salsa and make my own. Actually, I made something very similar to the sauce I used in my huevos rancheros. I used:

• canola oil
• 1 medium white onion
• 1 12-oz can crushed tomatoes
• 2 chipotle peppers in adobo
• 2 tsp. adobo sauce
• 1 tsp. chili powder
• 1/2 tsp. cumin
• 1 tsp. fresh garlic
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 tsp. paprika
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro

Cook the onions in the oil over medium heat until they’re translucent. Then add in (one at a time, of course) the tomatoes, peppers adobo sauce and the spices. I promise you that once you try this, you may never want to buy the jarred stuff again. There’s nothing better than that fresh taste….unless you’re into processed sugars; then stick with the jarred stuff.

The Steps:

To roast the peppers, place on gas stove burner over medium flame. This will get the skins nice and charred, making them easy to peel off. To make the process even easier (yes, it can happen) hold under running water, then peel away blackened skins.

Cut lengthwise slit in each chile, but don’t cut through both sides. Remove the seeds.

Take your salsa mixture and spread half onto bottom of your baking dish that has been pre-sprayed with cooking spray. Mix the chicken, rice and half of the cheese into the remaining sauce and mix until all combined. Stuff the peppers with this mixture.

In a 350 degree oven, bake your peppers for 30 minutes, and enjoy!

complete with roasted corn.

Oh yeah, I’m a genius ;).

 

 

Traditional Tiramisu

You know, I never realized how spoiled I am.

The weather was gorgeous earlier in the week, so John and I decided to take advantage of it by traveling to Federal Hill in Providence to explore the Italian Markets. I’ve been stressing with finals so he thought it would be a nice break to go walk around and see what the markets had to offer. Of course, I welcomed the break :).

Federal Hill Center.

Now, I realize that I’m very late to the party; but I recently discovered a splendid YouTube channel called “Laura in the Kitchen” hosted by Laura Vitale. We’ve been watching at least ten episodes a day. She makes traditional and modified versions of classic dishes from Italy, France and the U.S. I’m not a promoter or anything, but you should check her out if you’re feeling like trying something new. (Her cupcakes looks AWESOME! Anyway…)

On her site, I found a recipe for tiramisu – which I love; so I decided to give it a try. Luckily for me, I was in the perfect area to get the ingredients. John and I explored all the shops, but did our shopping at Tony’s Colonial. There we bought:

Anchovies! Not for Tiramisu, but still delicious

and

Ladyfingers. You want the hard ones for this recipe, not the soft.

We also bought Marscapone cheese, heavy cream and unsweetened cocoa powder. John and his family are espresso drinkers, so I didn’t need to buy that, but it’s necessary to soak the ladyfingers. Speaking of espresso…..we also stopped for cappuccino!!

mmmmmmm

On to business. Here’s what you’ll need for tiramisu:

All the ingredients

• Ladyfingers
• 1 1/2 cups cooled espresso
• 1 16oz tub of marscapone
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• She used rum in her recipe, but we didn’t have any on hand so we omitted it

Step 1: Whip the heavy cream in a large bowl and let chill in the fridge.

Step 2: In another large bowl, cream together the mascarpone, vanilla and sugar. Once combined,  fold the whipped cream into mascarpone mixture one half at a time.

Step 3: Add espresso (and rum if you’re using it) to a good-sized bowl and set aside. Also have a 9 x 9 baking pan and your ladyfingers and cocoa ready.

Step 4: Dip each ladyfinger into the coffee mixture and lay in the bottom of your pan until the bottom is covered.

Step 5: Pour half of the mascarpone and cream mixture over the first layer of the espresso soaked ladyfingers and spread it evenly. Sift 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder over the cream once it’s spread.

Step 6: Lay one more layer of soaked ladyfingers and repeat step 5 – using the last of the marscapone mixture and cocoa.

Unfortunately, you can’t dig right in. You have to let this chill for at least 3-4 hours before serving.

Yeeeah buddy

There you have it! Laura Vitale’s Tiramisu. I’m thinking next time, I’m going to try to use strong coffee instead of espresso, as I found the taste to be too strong – though everyone else seemed to disagree ;). Stop by and check Laura’s site and YouTube channel out and TRY THIS RECIPE!!!

Out of my comfort zone: Schezuan Steak

Steak isn’t my thing.

I mean, I’ll eat it but ONLY if it’s done a certain way (I like mine still mooing). Yes, I realize I’m difficult. John is a very big steak fan and I’ve been feeling really guilty about being the reason why we don’t have it as often as he would like. To give you an idea, I can have chicken as my main protein all day every day. That’s how John is with rare cooked steak. So this week I decided to step outside of my comfort zone and cook him Schezuan steak.

I know it sounds fancy, but it’s a really simple recipe that my mom and dad would make every now and then. I remember liking it when they made it so I thought I’d try it. It’s only fair after all – John cooks my favorites all the time. You should have seen his face when I told him I wanted to attempt this – like I came from Mars; but I digress. Here’s the break down:

Ingredients

• Steak, duh (Any cut you prefer; this time around, we chose steak tips and cut them into chunks)
• Soy sauce – Approximately 4 tablespoons
• Granulated sugar – 4 tablespoons
• Ketchup – 4 tablespoons
• Oil – 2 tablespoons
• Red pepper flakes – depends on your personal preference
• Water – 1 cup

Cooking Process

I know I didn’t mention this sooner, but this is a marinated steak so the first step CAN NOT be skipped! Well…I guess it can, but the meat won’t be as flavorful if you skip it. Anyway…This marinade is the perfect mix of sweet and spicy :).

1. In a mixing bowl, add all of the ingredients minus the steak (see? told you this was easy) and whisk together. Once all of the ingredients are blended together, pour into a large Ziploc bag. Add your meat to the bag and let sit for four hours or, for maximum flavor, overnight.
   

   Here’s our steak tips marinating!

2. When you’re ready to cook, remove the steak from the bag but – and I can’t emphasize this enough – DO NOT GET RID OF THE MARINADE!!!!!!! Add the marinade to a pan and bring to a boil. You want to cook any raw meat that happened to stay behind and by boiling it, it allows the marinade to reduce and thicken. This will now be your dipping sauce.
3. Grill the steak to exactly how you want it. (I made John grill. I’ve seen my mom’s terrible luck with grilling; and since I’m basically just like her, I don’t want to risk it).
4. Serve the steak alongside your side dishes of choice. Just don’t forget about that dipping sauce!

That’s pretty much it, folks! I told you this recipe was simple. I like to play it safe when I go out of my comfort zone…unless someone else is making it, then I’m a risk taker. All that’s left to do now is…

…Eat!

Finished product. Not bad for my first time (thanks to John’s help, of course).

Four Generations of Minestra

So, the dreaded winter cold visited our house last week and all of us fell victim.

In an effort to make us all feel better, I decided to learn my father’s recipe for Minestra (Min-est) – a feel-good soup of ham-based meats and greens. It was the best idea I ever had. It’s quite an expensive soup to make. My dad’s version requires pepperoni (2 smaller sticks or 1 large), hot Italian turkey sausage (1 package), smoked ham-hock, a daisy ham, escarole (3 heads), cabbage (1 head), salt and pepper.

There’s not much to it!

My dad would always make it around Superbowl time. It’s the perfect winter soup; and since there aren’t any additional flavors aside from the meat and greens, it pleases pretty much everyone. I’m not a ham eater – although I am a pepperoni fan – but the broth and greens are the best comfort food I can think of. The thing about this soup is that it’s also time-consuming. I’ll share the recipe with you, but you need to promise that when you make this for you and your family, you keep in mind that this particular recipe has been handed down four generations. I’m the fifth; and I will be teaching it to my kids…if I decide to have them. If you don’t like the finished product, I can only apologize and say that you’re missing out; this soup is by far one of my favorites. But, I’m sure there are ways you can play around with it and make it your own as well.

Step One – The Prep:

Take the pepperoni and sausage and cut into 1/4-inch slices. (This is just my rough estimate. You can go as thick or thin as you please. Just remember it’s going to be cooking for a few hours so don’t make it too thick or thin as it may not cook properly.)

Cut the daisy ham into chunks. The ham-hocks you can leave whole. My dad usually uses one large (and I mean LARGE) one. I was unable to find sizable ham-hocks at my store, so I settled for a package of four small ones. They are what really flavor the broth.

As for the greens, cut them down into larger-scale bite-sized chunks. Because these will wilt down, you don’t want to cut them too small. I just gave the greens a good ol’ rustic chop with my knife and called it a day. Once they’re cut, soak them in cold water to clean them. They will stay in the water bath until you’re ready for them.

Step Two – Making the Stock and Cooking the Meat

These two steps are done at the same time, which is quite convenient.

Add all of the meats – the sliced sausage and pepperoni, the daisy ham chunks and the ham-hocks to the stock pot. Cover the meats with water. MAKE SURE YOU PUT ENOUGH WATER THAT THE MEAT IS COMPLETELY SUBMERGED AND THERE IS ABOUT AN INCH TO TWO INCHES OF WATER ABOVE THE MEAT. This is important. Some water will evaporate and you don’t want anything to dry out.

Boil the snots out of the meat until the ham-hocks are are tender and start to fall apart. By this point, you will want to take the ham-hocks from the pot and remove the bones and fat. Once cleaned, the meat can go back into the pot and rejoin his friends.

This step usually takes just over an hour.

Step Three – Add the Greens

Once the meat is all cooked and the bones and fat are removed, it’s time to add the greens; which have been soaking in their water bath. Drain the greens as well as you can and start adding them to the pot. Once all the greens are in, add a palm-full of salt and a generous sprinkle of black pepper. Yes, the meats are quite salty, but you also want to season the greens. Nothing worse than greens that have no taste…

Cover the pot and let boil until the greens are wilted and cooked through. You want them soft but not falling apart. When I made this, it took about two hours for all of the greens to cook through.

That’s it! The entire process takes anywhere from three to four hours but it is so worth it! The broth takes on a nice smoky flavor from all of the ham and the pepperoni and black pepper give it a nice kick – without making it super spicy. This is the kind of soup that you can feel warm your whole body.

So. Good.

This recipe will leave you with enough soup for four adults and plenty of leftovers (assuming you don’t all eat it at once).

Please, enjoy.

Homemade Sushi: Attempt One

John and I love sushi. We go out for it at least once a week. For any of you that enjoy it, you know how big of an expense that can be. One day, he and I decided to take a stab at making our own, in an attempt to save some money.

Believe it or not, we were able to get all of our cooking ingredients from our local market. (We went to Whole Foods – not a chain grocery store like Stop & Shop. It was slightly more expensive but not by much…we knew we would get exactly what we were looking for there).

We bought:

• Sushi-grade Salmon
• Sushi-grade Tuna
• Imitation crab sticks
• Avocado
• Cucumber
• Sushi rice
• Nori Seaweed
• Tobiko (small fish eggs for added texture)
• Pickled Ginger

Our fish of choice

John has had experience rolling sushi, as he owns an as-needed catering company – aside from his entertainment business. (He’s only really busy catering around the Holidays). But this was my first attempt at the process. Actually, it’s more like a procedure. Everything has to be precise or else the roll will fall apart on you.

Of course, the first step in the process was cooking the sushi rice. Sushi rice is slightly different in that cooks differently so it can maintain that sticky texture. You can try using other rice, but it won’t hold together as well. Once the rice was cooked and cooled, we began assembling our rolls.

**Disclaimer: if you want to try rolling your own sushi, make sure you dampen your hands with a little water or sesame oil. If you don’t, you’ll have a nice new pair of rice gloves for the winter :). It’s sticky stuff!**

Sushi rice and Nori
Keep a little space of seaweed uncovered so you have something to adhere the other end to.

You can buy sushi rolling kits almost anywhere. My aunt got me and my sister one for Christmas last year. It comes with  a bamboo mat that is used for rolling and forming the sushi. Unfortunately, I’m not the one who has it; so we used plastic wrap instead.It didn’t come out as bad as I thought, but the mat definitely would have been easier.

Note to self: steal kit from sister…..

Formed inside-out roll!

I had a hard time assembling the inside-out rolls – the ones where the rice is on the outside. Everything kept falling apart; so I left John in charge of those. I will say, though, that I made a mean looking roll when the seaweed was on the outside!

My handmade Spicy Salmon roll topped with Spicy Mayo

To make some of our rolls spicy, John put together a spicy mayo concoction, which is:

• Mayonnaise
• Sriracha
• Vinegar
• green onions
• and a dash of soy sauce

We made a total of five different rolls. It was a time consuming endeavor, but well worth it.

We’re gluttons, it’s fine.

We figured we spent fifty dollars total on all of the ingredients and was able to get the equivalent of four restaurant meals out of it. Of course, because we’re sushi gluttons, we only got two meals :).  When comparing it to the restaurant we usually visit: we get three rolls, soup and salad for $12 a person (that’s the lunch special); but when making it ourselves we estimated it to be around $5 a person. Not bad if I do say so myself :).