Sushi + Fruit = Frushi!

This year my family celebrated New Year's Day by hosting the Third Annual New Year's Day Dessert Brunch at our home. While planning the shindig, my husband and I had a brilliant idea for a dessert, inspired by a food review I had read earlier in the week. We decided we would tackle frushi, the delicious love-child of fruit and sushi.

We committed ourselves to the plan about three days before the event...which seemed like a lot of time. How hard could it be?! Well, it was a good thing we decided to test the recipe first because we would up making three batches before we had one that we felt was up to our standards!

Lesson 1: The rice we used was a sushi rice prepared with coconut milk and sugar and it was VERY sticky. So sticky that it needed to sit in the fridge overnight.

Lesson 2: Melons are very juicy. Let them sit on paper towels for a while to bleed out some of the juice.

Lesson 3: It's very hard to take the membrane off of a grapefruit section. Get an extra fruit to practice on. Luckily the failures were still delicious.

Lesson 4: Haribo Gummi Raspberries look like they'd make a great caviar. Looks can be deceiving.

Lesson 5: Seaweed tastes fishy. Who wants fishy dessert? Well, now you can get sushi wraps made of soy paper, especially designed for dessert sushi! They come in a 5 pack and are very pretty, coming in all different colors.

Not a lesson, but a brilliant discovery: Slice a banana into flat strips. Saute the strips in butter and sugar to caramelize. Let the pieces cool and place on top of rice, nigiri style. Drizzle with the caramel sauce. They look exactly like Unagi!!!

The fruit sushi was so much fun to make and a huge hit at the party. To keep with the vaguely Asian theme and flavors, we also served Pineapple Ginger Pound Cake, Lapsong Souchong Infused Chocolate Cake, Ginger Cookies, and Fortune Cookies. A giant bowl of steamed and salted edamame added a savory note and we served a selection of sake and plum wine. Delicious!!!