Marisa Baggett shares the recipe for Green Beans Amandine Maki (With Beef and Crab). Her years of experience as a chef and her knowledge of Southern cooking shine as she prepares her latest work of art.

Classic green beans amandine was the inspiration for this sushi roll.  But when playing around with ingredients, I couldn’t resist the idea of a surf and turf that included succulent King crab leg and beef tataki. What resulted was a fantastic combination – crisp green beans, toasted almonds and crab topped with thinly sliced beef tataki drizzled with brown butter soy sauce.

Green Beans Amandine Sushi Roll with Beef and Crab

For each roll:

1 4in x 7in piece nori

about 1 cup prepared sushi rice

1 large crab leg, about 7 in or 1 imitation crab stick cut in half lengthwise

about 4 green beans, blanched and cooled

1 TBSP toasted almond slivers

1 tsp finely chopped scallions

5-6 very thin slices of prepared basic beef tataki

2 TBSP butter

1/2 tsp soy sauce

Place nori horizontally on a dry, flat surface. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap, about the same size of nori, on top. Using the nori as your guide, lay pieces of beef with edges slightly overlapping, across the center of the plastic wrap. Lift away from nori and set aside.

To assemble the roll, place nori horizontally directly on your work surface rough side facing upwards and spread with a thin, even layer of prepared sushi rice. Flip nori over. Place crab or halved crabstick pieces horizontally in the center of the nori, being sure that it extends to the edges. Spread toasted almonds across the crab. Sprinkle scallions on top. Place green beans end to end on top of other ingredients.

Roll according to the method for rolling inside out rolls.  Before cutting roll, carefully lay beef on top of the roll. Leave the plastic wrap intact. Gently press beef to roll with an uncovered bamboo rolling mat. With plastic wrap still intact, cut roll into 6-8 pieces, dipping knife in water between cuts. With plastic wrap still intact, gently press beef once again to the roll with a uncovered bamboo rolling mat. Carefully lift away plastic wrap. Arrange pieces of sushi on a serving plate and set aside.

Place butter in a pan and melt. Continue to heat butter until it turns a deep brown, but not burnt. Remove from heat , place it on a plate and instantly add soy sauce. Pour hot butter sauce over sushi roll.

By Cookie Jeans

Chef Anthony Bourdain, the popular host of the TV show No Reservation (Travel Channel) and the unofficial food expert of the world’s different cuisines, was once interviewed in a local lifestyle magazine if he gets jaded with the food that he gets to taste around the world. I cannot cite his answer verbatim but the gist of his response was this: Yes, he does get jaded with the food but that is only limited to some regions in Europe. In Asia, however, he could never feel jaded because, in his own opinion, in China alone, he could eat different recipes everyday for the rest of his life and that is the tip of the iceberg.
It only goes to show the variety of Asian cuisine: from the mostly spicy Thai cuisine, the mostly raw Japanese food to the varied influence found in Philippine food (Chinese, Malay, Spanish and American). When we say food, what comes to mind is that it is first subjected to heat in whatever form. With that in mind, it is hard to imagine how Japanese food came to be defined as such, but it is still food and Japanese food brings one of the most unique eating experiences. As for me, I have always been a fan of sushi. But I have learned how to make sushi in the most unconventional classroom: the online cooking games.

Cooking games have been around quite a long time now and they usually attract their fair share of devoted fans. I have never been one of those devoted fans of cooking games but I admit to playing cooking games once in a while. I never thought that I would get anything educational through it but funny enough, I did. I found out through cooking games that to make a good sushi, make sure that the fish is very fresh (as it is eaten raw). You slice it in thin strips, and then you wrap it inside rice shaped like a ball. Then you get a thin film of seaweed and put the rice there. Before rolling the rice and the seaweed, make sure that the seaweed is place on a wooden mat used to roll the sushi (All these could be brought at the nearest Japanese convenience store). Once all the ingredients are tightly packed, you can now take out the wooden mat then slice the roll into easy to bite sizes. Get your favorite wasabi sauce and give your sushi a deep. Remember not to put too much wasabi sauce for it is very, very hot to the tongue. The sushi is now ready to eat so you may feel free to enjoy.

These few instructions could be better understood if one plays sushi making in the aforementioned online game. Just by looking at the graphics one could easily follow the simple steps in sushi making. Who said that games have no any useful benefits to man does not know what he is talking about.