How To Make A Paradise Roll

And now for something completely different!

Around about 11 or so years ago, while at my favourite Japanese restaurant in Cairns, the Yama, there was one night when trade was slow.  This coincided with me wanting to try something that was just a bit different to my normal fare, but it was one of those times when nothing on the menu overly appealed to me.  Chef Sammy-San was always known to experiment with different things and different ways of making new things for the menu and they were mostly excellent but, on this night, he wasn't experimenting.

I found my own thoughts beginning to drift to an experiment of my own, to create a new Sushi roll that just might find a niche market at the restaurant.  While sipping Sake and slowly devouring a bowl of Edamame, my thoughts began to crystallize when I thought about some of the things that Sammy-San had already invented.

Little by little the thoughts came together.  Take some fresh Salmon, add crispy grilled Salmon skin and some Avocado and place inside a sushi roll.  But, no, not just an ordinary sushi roll, oh no, this one had to be thick and it had to be inside out - and, yes, for a finishing touch, the fresh and grilled ingredients would be wrapped inside a sheet of egg.

So this is what transpired on that night.  Start by taking a strip of freshly cut Salmon skin and salt quite liberally :-

 

While waiting for the Salmon skin to be grilled nice and crispy, take a sheet of egg from the stock, like so :-

Next, take a sheet of Nori and liberally add Sushi rice, spread as evenly as possible over the full length and width of the sheet, like so :-

Now take the sheet of egg and place on a rolling mat, then invert the rice and Nori onto the egg, like so :-

It is then necessary to await completion of the grilling of the Salmon skin - a crispy and tasty piece of which is then added, together with a slice or 2 of Avocado, like so :-

Now add some generous cuts of fresh Salmon and start rolling, like so :-

Once firmly rolled, cut in half using a very sharp knife, then cut each half into generous portions, like so :-

Arrange tastefully and artfully on a nice wooden Sushi dish, garnish with colourful green weeds and serve with Wasabi and Pickled Ginger.

If you're as lucky as I was on that night, you'll even get the rest of the crispy Salmon skin to crunch on :-

And there you have a tasty, substantial and quite different type of Sushi roll.  It is also served with Soy Sauce, though the flavour doesn't do the roll any favours.  You might also find, as I did, that Wasabi isn't needed either as it doesn't help the delicate flavour of the meal.  Some Ginger goes very nicely with it though.

It became instantly popular with most of the regular customers and, for a long time, it featured on the "specials" board.  It took a very long time to be incorporated into the menu because Sammy-San felt that the preparation time, especially long because of the need to grill the Salmon skin, might not be popular with customers who simply wanted to eat quickly.

Despite this, there were many orders for it over all the ensuing years until the Yama closed, on 29 June, 2008.  During that time, the only occasions when ordering Paradise Roll was actively discouraged was when it was part of a "take-away" order.  This was because the Salmon skin could lose its crispness during a lengthy drive back home before being eaten.

Sammy-San is still around and often encounters many of his regular customers who will always have something nice to say about the Paradise Roll.  This was my one and only contribution to Japanese cuisine and my only claim to real fame - if I'd been on a commission for the sales that ensued, I'd also have been very wealthy indeed.