Sushi Tower

I love America's Test Kitchen and saw a recipe for Crab Tower. Since I don't eat crab, I decided to substitute it with sushi rice instead. It is simple but surprisingly very filling...

We had it for dinner a few days ago with some Fried Aubergine-Miso and some home-made dipping sauces on the side.

Assembly takes patience and some creativity :-) I didn't have a fancy ring mold, so, I cut out a 4" tubular piece from plastic soda bottle and used it for assembling the tower.

Ingredients

2 avocados
1/2 yellow bell pepper
1/2 red onion
1/2 cucumber
2-3 small red radish
1 cup sushi rice
1 tsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp sushi vinegar
1 tsp lemon juice
salt to taste

either a chef's ring mold
or a 4" plastic pvc mold

Preparation

1. Start cooking the sushi rice per directions
2. Meanwhile, mix together the sushi vinegar and sesame oil to form a sort of vinaigrette and set aside
3. Chop the veggies - slice or dice
4. Add 1 Tbsp of the sushi vinegar+lemon juice+sesame oil 'vinaigrette' to the veggies and set aside
5. Slice the avocados, add lemon juice and salt to taste, mix gently and set aside
6. When rice looks done, stir in the rest of the sushi vinegar-sesame oil vinaigrette
7. Transfer rice to a cookie sheet to cool in front of a fan to make it shiny
8. Assembly: Place the ring mold on the serving dish, spoon some avocado mixture at the bottom, then the sushi rice, then arrange the veggies on top. Try not to squish down the too much. Then, carefully remove the mold, to leave the assembled items standing in a "tower".
9. Serve with Fried Japanese eggplant in Miso sauce