Mountain Goat Roll (Vegetarian) and Palisade Wedding Expo!

During the spring/summer, Palisade held a wedding expo to display their facilities and banquet menu. It was really nice, held indoors and outdoors with a bunch of great little bites. Pictured above is the platter I made for that event as well as an awesome sculpture made by Creative Ice.

For being a vegetarian roll, it has a meaty flavor that everyone can enjoy. However, it does have goat cheese in it. 

This roll consists of:
Cucumber (Cut into strips.)
Goat cheese
Stir fried Shitake mushrooms
Avocado
Sweet chili sauce (May Ploy)

For the mushrooms:
You should remove the stems from the mushrooms and slice the caps. You want to cut about twice as much as you think you will need because they will shrink when cooked.
Heat up a pan with sesame oil and add your mushrooms. The mushrooms will soak up the oil as they cook so if it looks like it's disappearing, don't freak out. 
Next you should add a little salt and fresh ground pepper, soy sauce and white sugar. Make sure you add enough sugar so that you can taste some sweetness. 
After you've added all your ingredients keep stir frying the mushrooms. You want to cook them till they're dark and kind of dried out looking. Don't worry about frying them to death. Over cooking the mushrooms gives them a great texture and kind of a charred, meaty taste. The roll is mainly made up of very soft ingredients, so having that "toughness" balances it out. 

The mushrooms are kind of addicting. I like eating them with goat cheese on a cracker as well. 

Moving on, 
Start a roll Uramaki style (rice outside) and place the cucumber, goat cheese (putting softened cheese in a piping bag makes this easier and less messy) and mushrooms inside. Try to have an equal amount of cheese to mushrooms because the cheese can overpower the other flavors.
Once rolled, I put sliced avocado on top and then pressed it with a bamboo mat to hold things together.
Cut your roll then top with sweet chili sauce and some roasted sesame seeds.

I usually don't like vegetarian rolls (and hardly make them) but this one is a great snack and is very light. Good for anyone who doesn't really like raw fish. 

Here are some more pictures from the expo :)