Sushi making from simple ingredients that your children will devour!

A fun tactile activity that develops fine motor skills… and is also yummy.

What more could you want?

Step 1 : Getting ready

Here is what you will need : 

  • Tortillas or wraps
  • Cold cuts of your choice
  • Cream cheese or grated cheese 
  • 3 or 4 bananas
  • Peanut butter
  • Garnishes of your choice.
    Examples for savory sushi: capers, olives, mustard, mayonnaise … Examples for sweet sushi: nuts, grated coconut, chocolate chips, cake decorations, make do with what you have!

All the ingredients can be substituted for others, make your own version of the recipe! They can be vegetarian or vegan if you wish. Be creative with the ingredients available at home.

Here are the tools you will need:

  • A big knife and a small knife
  • One or two cutting boards
  • Bols to lay out the ingredients in front of you   

Lay out the bowls with the ingredients in the center of the table and spread the tortillas on the cutting boards.

Step 2 : Assembly

The whole family can participate! Younger children may be responsible for simpler tasks, while older children may be involved in more complicated tasks such as cutting ingredients.

Cream cheese or nut butter acts like glue. Cover the tortillas completely by spreading the cheese or nut butter.

Then put the garnish of your choice: sliced meat or banana for example, in the center and roll the sushi. Good news, if you are not satisfied with your roll, you can simply unroll and start again!

Step 3 : Time to decorate!

Now that the wraps are rolled tight, you can slice them into small sushi! It is now time to decorate them.

You can choose to decorate your savory and sweet sushi with the garnishes of your choice! Capers, olives, grated carrot, mustard, mayonnaise are great choices for your savory sushi, or for your sweet sushi, you could add nuts, grated chocolate, cake decorations … Be creative, you are now master sushi chef! Have fun, you can even test strange combinations.

Diary

In today’s diary, the children can document the day’s activity. For example, by drawing the whole family cooking together, or by describing how the activity went.

If your child is documenting alone, you are invited to ask him or her questions to feed and improve the journal entry. Here are some questions you can ask:

  • Did you prefer the savory sushi? Or sweet?
  • What would you do differently next time? Could we incorporate other tastes, sauces or spices? Other foods? Other decorations?
  • Do you think we could make multicolored sushi or sushi in different shapes? How would you go about it?

Did you know...

  • … There are many ways to prepare traditional Japanese sushi. Maki are rolled sushi, Nigiri are formed with the hands and Sashimi are composed of only raw fish that has been carefully carved.  
  • …We will generally see fish or seafood, Nori (dried seaweed leaves), rice vinegar, marinated ginger, tamari (soy sauce) and wasabi (horseradish sauce). 
  • … In the very beginning, sushi did not look like the beautiful creations that we see and taste today. Over 2,000 years ago, the Chinese shared a method of preserving fish with the Japanese, the method of making layers of rice, fish and then rice, and so on, in large clay containers, with a lid. The lactic acid produced during fermentation caused the moisture in the fish to be extracted and prevented it from spoiling. Over time, this has given way to the sushi we know today. But beware, the version you see in restaurants in Canada is often different from real Japanese recipes, because they are adapted to North American tastes.

To takes things further, if you have chopsticks at home, this is an opportunity to teach children how to use them. All the better for this activity to develop fine motor skills.

To go takes even further and especially if the children have a sophisticated palate and want to experiment with all kinds of sushi, here is a website that shows us how to make sushis (with rice salmon and fruit) right at home. 

Another fun activity you can do at home is one I like to call  Les Piccolos. You just have to prepare celery sticks and butter them with either cream cheese or peanut butter and cover them with sunflower seeds. The result looks like a flute, or a piccolo.

Activity by M. Coco