Sushi form Caprese salad

[Doodad]

We were at out community garden and my wife mentioned she wanted Caprese salad with dinner. A neigbor's plot donated some sugar lump tomatoes which are tiny tiny and a light went off in my head.

I will wrap a slice of mozzarella with nori in a battleship shape and fill with basil and the tomatoes. Basalmic in place of ponzu and voila. Caprese gunkan maki.

[mkayahara]

Pics, please! Bonus points if you can make the basil into sheet form and use that in place of the nori.

[Doodad]

Pics, please! Bonus points if you can make the basil into sheet form and use that in place of the nori. 

←

I thought about that, but not sure how to go about it. Puree and dry in sheets?

Edit to add I have a dehydrator and plenty of basil. I have the tray to make fruit rollups so I could use that to dry the basil. At least as an experiment in fail.

Edited July 25, 2009 by Doodad (log)

[mkayahara]

If it were me, I'd blanch it first, then puree and dehydrate. If necessary, you could probably add a touch of methylcellulose, but I'm not sure it'll need it.

The thing I'd be most worried about is that it might not taste good...

[Tri2Cook]

I tried doing a nori-like sheet by drying blanched pureed mint. It was very delicate and difficult to work with. I did it thinner than the average nori sheet and dried it without heat in front of a fan. I think the thickness was the main problem. It worked pretty well other than being too easily broken.

[Doodad]

The thing I'd be most worried about is that it might not taste good...

←

Well there is that.

[mkayahara]

I tried doing a nori-like sheet by drying blanched pureed mint. It was very delicate and difficult to work with. I did it thinner than the average nori sheet and dried it without heat in front of a fan. I think the thickness was the main problem. It worked pretty well other than being too easily broken.

←

Even nori is pretty fragile when it's totally dry; the humidity in the rice often softens it up nicely. I wonder how a herb sheet would handle if you dehydrated it, then misted it lightly with water - or a flavourful liquid.