Toasted Walnut and Mushroom Maki

This vegan roll will tempt even the most die hard seafood and meat lover. Hearty portobello mushrooms are simmered in a soy sauce based broth and paired with pleasantly chewy oven dried tomato slivers and scallions. The finished product is then rolled in chopped toasted walnuts. When preparing the walnuts, be sure to use a knife to chop them rather than a food processor. When the nuts are hand chopped, they add interesting and unexpected bits of crunch where the perfection of food processing can leave the nuts soft and a bit oily.

 Toasted Walnut and Mushroom Maki

Approx 1 hand sized portobello mushroom cap, stemmed and cleaned

2 cups soy sauce

1 1/2 cup water

1/2 cup mirin (Japanese cooking wine)

4 4in x 7in pieces of nori

4 cups prepared sushi rice

4 TBSP finely chopped scallions

1/4 cup oven dried tomatoes, cut into thin slivers (Sun dried can interchanged but the flavor will be stronger.)

1 cup of toasted walnuts, finely chopped but not ground

To prepare the portobello mushroom, cut the cap into 8 thick slices. (Before moving on to the next step, measure your slices against a piece of nori to ensure that you have enough. You will need 2 slices per roll and together the slices should cover the entire length of the nori. Compensate with additional mushroom slices if necessary.) Place soy sauce, water, mirin, and mushroom slices in a medium sized sauce pan and bring to a near boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove mushrooms from liquid and drain on paper towels. Allow to reach room temperature before using.

Place walnuts on a flat plate.

To assemble the rolls, place a piece of nori with the long end horizontal to your work surface and the rough side facing upwards. Cover entire surface of nori evenly with prepared sushi rice, about 1 cup.  Flip nori over. Place 2 slices (or more as needed) of mushroom horizontally in the center of the nori making sure that the mushrooms span the length of the nori. Place a few slivers of oven dried tomato on top of the mushroom and finally top with 1 TBSP scallions.

Roll according to the technique for making inside out sushi rolls.  Before cutting, place sushi roll on plate of walnuts and roll around to coat. Secure walnuts to rice by placing a plastic wrap covered bamboo rolling mat on top of roll and gently pressing. Cut roll into 6-8 pieces. Repeat steps with remaining three pieces of nori.

I prefer to serve this roll without wasabi and pickled ginger. Soy sauce for dipping is sufficient.