This sushi parfait is a delicious and fun alternative to sushi rolls. It’s loaded with crunchy cucumbers, avocado cream, sushi rice, cherry tomatoes and best of all slices of home made gravlax!
Why Do I Love Sushi Parfait?
It’s easier to make than traditional sushi rolls! This sushi is a perfect alternative for someone who has little to no experience making sushi rolls or don’t have the right equipment to make them.
I recently made this for a friend’s birthday and it saved me lot of time and a potential stress. It takes lot of practice to make beautiful rolls of sushi and I certainly wasn’t going to try making them for the first time on my friend’s birthday.
Beautiful Presentation. Layer sushi ingredients in a martini glass and place them on a colorful desert or salad plate. You will impress your family/guests with fancy, restaurant quality presentation!
Plan Ahead to Make Gravlax
Salmon or Steelhead trout cured in salt, sugar and dill is not only delicious but it’s very simple to make, which is why I love gravlax! When I make my gravlax, I usually serve it after two days of curing, but gravlax can be cured for up to 3 days, so you have to plan ahead of time for this sushi recipe.
How to Cook and Prepare Rice
Lot of people may be intimidated by cooking rice, especially sushi rice but it’s not that complicated. You don’t need expensive rice cooker either. Before you make your rice however, be sure to purchase quality sushi rice. There are large variety available in Asian grocery stores and even more so on Amazon.
- Rinse the rice. Rinse 2 cups of sushi grade or Japanese white rice with water. Rinse rice until you no longer see white, murky water.
- Don’t add too much water when you cook rice. After the rice is drained, transfer to a medium pot and add 2 cups water and bring pot to a boil. You don’t want to add too much water to your rice. Most rice end up being very mushy because too much water was added.
- Adjust the cooking temperature. First bring the pot to a boil and boil rice for 10 minutes. Then lower the temperature, cover the pot and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Steam the rice. Lastly, turn the heat off, keep the pot covered and let the rice rest in the pot for 10-15 minutes. After that, you should have a pot of fluffy, tender rice!
Once your rice is cooked, you need to transfer sushi rice to a bowl and season it with apple cider vinegar and sugar mixture while it’s still hot. For additional flavors, I like to add chopped dill and/or chopped pickled ginger to sushi rice!
How to Assemble Sushi Parfait
Ok so you got the gravlax and sushi rice part, you also need avocado cream, diced cucumbers, cherry tomatoes to assemble the parfait.
Use 8 oz regular martini glass or stemless martini glass and layer with cucumbers, avocado cream, and lastly with sushi rice. Then on top of the rice, stack four slices of gravlax in the middle, cover one side of glass with additional cucumbers and another side with 3-4 halved cherry tomatoes.
As a final touch, garnish with micro greens and/or crumbled sea weed! I garnished mine with some pickled red onions as well, which I always have in my fridge.
Variations of Sushi Parfait
You can make different variations of this parfait. Substitute other seafood toppings instead of gravlax; you can try:
- Imitation crab meat
- Sushi grade tuna
- Tuna or salmon poki
- Bay shrimp
Gravlax Sushi Parfait
Ingredients
Gravlax
- 1½ lbs wild salmon, steelhead or arctic char with skin. For large fillet, cut fillet in half, lengthwise.
- 1 tbsp sea salt
- 1⅔ tbsp demerara sugar
- ½ cup fresh dill
Sushi Rice
- 2 cups sushi rice
- 2 cups water
- 1 tsp salt
- ⅓ cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp chopped dill (optional)
- 2 tbsp chopped pickled ginger (optional)
Toppings
- 2 avocados
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp mayonnaise
- 2 tbsp greek yogurt
- salt to taste
- 2 cups english cucumber or persian cucumber finely diced
- 1½ cups cherry tomatoes, halved
- ⅓ cup pickled onions as garnish (optional)
- ⅓ cup micro greens as garnish (optional)
- 1 sheet seaweed crumbled as garnish (optional)
Instructions
Gravlax
- Day 1: Combine salt and sugar. Blot excess moisture from salmon with paper towel. Place salmon fillet skin side down on a sheet of plastic wrap, and sprinkle sugar and salt on top. Wrap tightly, and chill in the fridge overnight.
- Day 2: Take salmon out of fridge and unwrap. Transfer fillet onto a plate and blot excess moisture with paper towel. Place fish on fresh piece of plastic wrap, skin side down and cover with ¼ cup fresh dill and wrap tightly. Chill in fridge overnight.
- Day 3: If 2 days of curing time is sufficient, unwrap fillet, remove skin and cut into twenty-eight thin slices.If you want to cure additional day, repeat instructions from Day 2, but before wrapping the fillet in fresh piece of plastic wrap, remove old dill and replace with ¼ cup fresh dill. Chill in the fridge overnight. Unwrap the next day, remove skin and cut fillet into twenty-eight thin slices.
Sushi Parfait
- Place rice in a medium pot and rinse with water until water is no longer white and murky. Drain the rice well and add 2 cups water and salt to the pot.
- Place pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Boil rice for 10 minutes, then turn down heat, cover the pot and simmer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, turn off heat, leave the cover on and let it rest for 10-15 minutes.
- In the meantime, place avocados in a small bowl, and mash with fork. Add lemon juice, mayonnaise, greek yogurt, salt and mix until smooth and set it aside.
- When the rice is done, fluff the rice with spoon or fork and transfer to a medium bowl. Add apple cider vinegar and sugar to a small cup and stir to combine. Sprinkle vinegar mixture to the rice and fold rice gently. Set the rice aside to cool completely. Once rice has cooled, fold in dill and or ginger to the rice.
- To assemble sushi parfait, layer martini glass with diced cucumbers, avocado cream, then sushi rice. Add four pieces of gravlax, additional diced cucumbers and 3-4 halved cherry tomatoes on top of rice.
- Garnish sushi parfait with pickled red onions, micro greens and/or crumbled seaweed. Serve with side of soy sauce.