Sushi

Ikea - Art of cooking - Make sushi! from Carl Kleiner on Vimeo.

I love sushi.  Sushi is wonderful. Yum Yum Yum.

It's pretty hard to get here in the UK, but everyone eats sushi all the time in Australia because it's so widely available, so fresh and at such good value.  Here in the UK, you can expect to pay about £6 for a medium box of Sushi from Marks and Spencers, but in Australia it's $4.50 which is around £3.

One mistake people make when they think of sushi is 'Oh but I don't eat fish'.  Well that doesn't matter! You can make heaps of lovely vegetarian sushi - just don't put the fish in it!  Try cucumber and some sweet chilli sauce, avocado and mayo, carrot and hummus, or even use tofu.  Don't miss out on the yummy Sushi vego friends!  It's also gluten free too if you omit the soy sauce for dipping.

And if you think it's hard to make, this short video by Carl Kleiner shows you how easy it is.

Quick note on Sushi Rice:  Sushi rice is a 'stickier' Jasmin type of rice.  It's meant to be pulpy and sticky which makes it stick to the sushi roll more.  See below for my sushi rice recipe.  Then all you need to do is buy some Nori (the sea vegetable that wraps the Sushi roll) and some 'horizontally cut' vegetables!

The best way to eat Sushi rolls is to dip them in soy sauce.  If you're gluten free, there are lots of gluten free options available now too - try Tamari, or some sesame oil.  There's lots of different ways you should 'eat' a sushi roll - but just do what feels right for you. Eating with chopsticks makes the whole experience more pleasurable too.

250g sushi rice
325ml water
1 teaspoon caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 table spoons rice wine vinegar

1. Bring the rice and water to the boil, reduce to simmer and simmer for 10 mins.  Remove the pan from the heat and cool.

2. In another pan warm the vinegar and sugar until disolved. add the salt.

3. Leave the sushi rice to cool for 30 minutes, then stir in the sweetened vinegar and pack the into a dish and pop into the fridge for at least an hour covered in clingwrap.

4. Then the rice will be sticky and cooled ready to use to roll your sushi rolls.  If the rice is too warm the n nori melts and goes sticky and goopy.  And you don't want that.

Then roll away my friends.