Sushi

There is something about sushi that can make someone with an otherwise minuscule appetite, suddenly consume their bodyweight in tiny perfectly formed pieces of seaweed covered rice.  Provided the rice is not dressed with too much salt or sugar, it can be a healthy meal, snack or canapé.

Although it takes a bit more effort to prepare the sushi than to simply buy it, it is considerably cheaper to make your own and you can put whatever fillings in that you want.

The key ingredient is the rice.  Long grain rice is too dry to form the sushi shapes.  Glutinous rice is called for – this is much easier to pick up with chopticks!  Sushi rice (together with the nori seaweed and the bamboo sushi mats) is widely available now in supermarkets in the UK and can also be bought online and in Oriental supermarkets.

Method for Cooking the Sushi Rice

1. Place the sushi rice into a medium sized pot and cover with cold water.  Swirl the rice around in the water to remove the excess starch from the rice then drain the rice through a sieve.  Repeat this step six times until the water is clear.
2. When the water is finally clear, sieve the rice for a final time and return it to the pot with the 2 Cups of water (minus the 2 Tablespoons) and the sake.  Bring the pot to the boil then put the lid on the pot, turn the heat down and simmer at a low temperature for 15 minutes. Once the 15 minutes is up, remove the pot from the heat and stand for a further 20 minutes without removing the lid.  This keeps the moisture in the pot and continues to steam the rice.
   
3. While the rice pot is simmering, mix salt, sugar and rice wine vinegar in a small bowl.  Stir this mixture periodically until the salt and sugar crystals have dissolved.
   
4. When the rice has finished standing, tip it into a large bowl and fluff it up with a wooden spoon.
   
5. Pour over the vinegar mixture and stir it into the rice.  Let the rice cool.
   

To assemble and roll the Sushi

1. Cover the bamboo sushi mat with cling film.
2. Take a sheet of nori and place it on the mat with the longer side facing you.  If you want fairly small rolls of sushi you might need to cut down the size of the nori.  For the sushi shown here I cut the sheets down to 5 x 7 inches.
3. Spoon roughly half a cup of the cooked, cooled sushi rice onto the nori and gently press it onto the sheet so that it evenly covers the rectangular sheet, leaving a small margin along the top edge (furthest away from you).  It’s a fairly sticky business so it can help to have a bowl of water handy to rinse your fingers.  Damp hands also help with the pressing down exercise!
4. I make a slight indentation horizontally along the centre of the rice to make a small channel for the filling but this isn’t strictly necessary. You can put a little wasabi in the channel if you like it. Place the filling along the centre.
5. Taking the bamboo mat, hold the filling in with one hand and use the other to tightly roll the mat and bottom edge of the sushi over the filling.  Give the mat a firm squeeze to make sure that the roll is nice and firm then continue rolling.
   
   
6. The sushi should come together and form a log shape. If the top edge does not completely stick to the roll, you can apply a little bit of water using your finger and it will do.
   
7. Cut the log in half and then each half into a further four pieces.
   
8. Serve with soy sauce, pickled ginger and extra wasabi.
   
   The sushi shown above are (left to right) salmon and cucumber, reverse sushi rolls with smoked salmon and avocado and chopped dill on the outside, and red pepper and avocado.

To achieve the reverse rolls, simply cover one side of the nori with rice, flip the sheet over so the rice is on the outside and lay the filling into the centre of the seaweed side.  Roll the sushi with the bamboo mat as for the other sushi and when you have the “log” shape, roll this onto a plate covered in chopped dill.