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Check out pioneerwomancooks.com 2 very picture intensive posts. It answered alot of questions (and misgivings) I had. For me sushi is really scary!! I am going to give it a go soon. As for dessert how about pots de creme au chocolat? It is rich and decadent but is served in those cute little pots and oh so sensual.

It depends what kind of sushi your making. If you're doing maki (rolls), then I suggest guessing "low" on the rice -- too much rice, and you'll end up with a weird, burrito-style roll that is more than lacking on visual appeal.

I actually had a lot of fun at a friend's house the other day making sushi -- she had laid out a stack of nori, and had several covered bowls of rice and various toppings. We all put our sushi together ourselves, which led to interesting combinations, and everyone got good practice.

I've also found a lot of helpful advice at Just Hungry and Just Bento, both for sushi and for making Japanese food in general.

I'm not sure about dessert. Perhaps something a long the lines of chocolate-covered strawberries? (I know, wrong season.) But I think you might want something light, and also edible with hands or chopsticks. . .

Good luck, or, as the Japanese would say, ganbatte! (do your best)

When we do sushi at this house, its never this full blown formal affair where we get the sashimi grade fish and try to make nigiri like the pros.
No way, that's a guaranteed failure without some kind of know how and a lot of effort.

How about just a nice night of making hand rolls together? Just make a batch of sushi meshi (make your own rice vinegar base, or they sell powders to mix into cooked rice), get some sheets of nori and your favorite fillings.

You can try thinly sliced cucumber, broiled eel, avocado, fish roe, flaked fish, strips of raw fish if you're so inclined, shrimp, crab, lobster, strips of omelet, kombu, etcetc. The sky is the limit.

Just lay them out and go for it, buffet style. Assemble your own rolls on your plate with the nori, rice and fillings. Informal but fun and intimate nonetheless. Its probably not the super fancy meal you were thinking of, but it'll make the dinner less stressful for everyone.

Maybe a nice dessert afterwards would be bittersweet chocolate mousse dusted with macha powder to give it a Asian kick? You can wash down the sweet richness with some freshly brewed green tea.

I agree with Skythe, try to use less rice, even though it looks hard to cover nori.
First of all, do you have a sushi-rolling mat (makisu)?

Since I live in the Midwest (I sooo miss fresh fish), I rely heavily on avocado, smoked salmon, fake crab meat sticks and canned tuna.

Nigiri is a bit tricky, though once you get used to doing it it's not too bad.
One alternative is gunkan-maki (battleship sushi), which is kind of fun because you can make any kind of "salad" for topping (tuna, crab etc).

I just made some last week with canned crab meat, mayo and a splash of ponzu (citrus-soy dipping sauce) and they were pretty tasty.
Fake crab meat is also an easy roll filling (along with avocado and cucumber, and wasabi mayo).

You can see how to make them here (though I do not approve corn on gunkan! just like Americans don't approve corn on delivery pizza in Asia :-))

if you have a rolling mat cover it with plastic wrap. :)

I love mochi! Good idea! :) Thanks everyone for all the sushi making insight!

Hillary
Chew on That

@fuuchan, we've been eating different mochi ice cream. The stuff we get from an Asian market near us is wonderful. The ice cream (we get green tea or strawberry) is creamy and rich and the mochi is chewy with a nice flavor of sweet rice but dissolves pretty nicely as you chew it.

As I'm thinking about it, though, I have had what you describe at a few restaurants and you're right, it's a sad ice cream experience.

Good luck with the dinner, OP. The advice about hand rolls is a great thought; low stress, fun and you can laugh at any "mistakes" which when you're assembling your own sushi with your SO don't really exist.