Cooking with friends is one of life's greatest pleasures especially when you're both entering new culinary territory and you have a bottle of prosecco and Campari to boost morale.
Last Friday one of my oldest friends invited me over to make sushi together. She stocked up on all the essentials from the Longdan Express in Shoreditch and got the booze in. I looked on in excitement, refilled our glasses and passed her things. By the time we sat down to eat, we were so pleased with ourselves that we would have declared anything we had created was delicious - it just so happened that it genuinely was.
First things first: buying your fish. If you're making sushi, you have to make sure that your fish is the freshest you can get. We got salmon and prawns from a local fishmonger (tell them you're making sushi and they'll give you the best stuff - no one wants to get sued now do they). We also bought fish sticks for what we ended up calling our "Wow Now Dirty Roll" because we put mayonaisse in it. (NB: only buy fish sticks from Waitrose or similar foodie alternative - no MSG for me please).
Making your sushi
Prepare your rice. Use the method of bringing 2x as much water to rice to the boil, then covering and letting rest for 20 minutes if you're going for white rice as this keeps the rice starchy - to stick it together. If you're making brown, then prepare as normal. Once your rice is done, check for excess liquid and drain if necessary then season with salt and rice wine vinegar (a couple of teaspoons' worth should do). Leave the rice to cool a little or ideally prepare in advance and refrigerate it.
Then lay out your sushi mat with a strip of seaweed on top, shiny side up. Thinly coat the seaweed with rice spreading from the bottom of the strip up to about 1" from the top. Make a small hollow in the centre of the rice and add your fillings in long strips. Once you're happy with your creation, roll the sushi in the sushi mat as tightly as you can until it's entirely rolled up, then roll it a little more to seal the end. The bare 1" of seaweed should stick to the roll you've made to seal it. If it doesn't quite do this of it's own accord, then wet it just a little with a brush or piece of wetted kitchen towel.
We used these combinations, but you can do whatever you like:
Salmon, avocado
Cucumber and crabsticks
Prawn, crabstick, avocado and mayo
We also left a little over for sashimi and made one no-rice roll which was a little more flimsy but just as delicious.
The essentials:
Sushi rolling mat
Seaweed sheets
Rice vinegar
Wine or cider vinegar
Wine or cider vinegar
Sesame oil
Wasabi paste
Soy sauce
Teriyaki sauce (the condensed version - but can be replaced with soy and honey)
Teriyaki sauce (the condensed version - but can be replaced with soy and honey)
Rice (we used brown, which added a certain rustic effect to our rolls *ahem*... what I really mean is if you want it to look pristine, use white)
Cucumber
Avocado (make sure it's ripe)
Pickles (we chose some comedically named 'pickled vegetables for students' but I'd encourage you to explore all alternatives. I am a big pickle fan)
Salad to serve
Salad to serve
Making your sushi
Prepare your rice. Use the method of bringing 2x as much water to rice to the boil, then covering and letting rest for 20 minutes if you're going for white rice as this keeps the rice starchy - to stick it together. If you're making brown, then prepare as normal. Once your rice is done, check for excess liquid and drain if necessary then season with salt and rice wine vinegar (a couple of teaspoons' worth should do). Leave the rice to cool a little or ideally prepare in advance and refrigerate it.
Then lay out your sushi mat with a strip of seaweed on top, shiny side up. Thinly coat the seaweed with rice spreading from the bottom of the strip up to about 1" from the top. Make a small hollow in the centre of the rice and add your fillings in long strips. Once you're happy with your creation, roll the sushi in the sushi mat as tightly as you can until it's entirely rolled up, then roll it a little more to seal the end. The bare 1" of seaweed should stick to the roll you've made to seal it. If it doesn't quite do this of it's own accord, then wet it just a little with a brush or piece of wetted kitchen towel.
We used these combinations, but you can do whatever you like:
Salmon, avocado
Cucumber and crabsticks
Prawn, crabstick, avocado and mayo
We also left a little over for sashimi and made one no-rice roll which was a little more flimsy but just as delicious.
The Wow Now Dirty Roll in formation...
For the miso soup:
White miso paste (Waitrose will sell you this one)
Teriyaki or soy sauce
spring onions
Seaweed (you can tear strips from your sheets)
Tofu
Directions:
Stir the miso paste into a pan of simmering water. Once it's simmered for about 5 minutes, take off the heat, add the rest of the ingredients and serve.
White miso paste (Waitrose will sell you this one)
Teriyaki or soy sauce
spring onions
Seaweed (you can tear strips from your sheets)
Tofu
Directions:
Stir the miso paste into a pan of simmering water. Once it's simmered for about 5 minutes, take off the heat, add the rest of the ingredients and serve.
For the salad dressing:
Rice wine vinegar
Teriyaki sauce (the syrupy one - though you can replace with normal teriyaki or soya sauce and honey if you don't want to fork out on loads of different ingredients)
Sesame oil
Wine or cider vinegar
Directions:
Shake together (I use a jam jar) and pour over fresh salad of your choice.
Directions:
Shake together (I use a jam jar) and pour over fresh salad of your choice.
The cutting of the rolls was ceremonious and accompanied by squeals of delight. You'll need a sharp knife to make sure you don't deform your rolls in the process.
Oh and of course my lovely friend had made fro yo for dessert... buy buying Waitrose yoghurt and, er... freezing it. Hazlenut. Yum.
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