Hi everyone
Okay I confess I have been terrible at blogging lately…It’s been a crazy two weeks, with my parents gone away to India for medical treatment, my exams, my day job, wedding in the family, new born baby…(not mines lol) but you get my point. Juggling everything else in my life & especially with those connected to me #support. Well, finally I have time to sit, breath & blog!!!
My cousin is a huge lover of sushi-like the obsessive lover kind I swear it! And I am not even exaggerating…So she asked me to teach her how to make sushi for beginners, hence its that time of the month where most of us are broke! So she is going to make them herself & bring her very own sushi bar home.
I am not a sushi fan but I really find amusement in making sushi. If you haven’t tasted sushi before than you will have to taste it to know if it is your thing, it either is or is not.
Sushi isn’t more complicated than vinegar rice rolled in seafood & wrapped in seaweed. However, there are many types of sushi out there that might sound complicated. For now here are the two most common:
Makizushi – meaning “rolled sushi”. Generally wrapped in Nori (seaweed), soy paper, vegetables cucumber/carrots) or shsiso (perilla) leaves. There are several variations of Maki Sushi or Sushi Rolls 5 different types to be exact.
As for the second most popular:
- Nigirizushi – meaning “hand-pressed sushi”. Typically made of a hand formed rectangle of sushi rice with a swipe of wasabi on top, finished with some type of topping or Neta (normally Salmon, Tuna, or other seafood). Basically an oblong formed piece of rice with some kind of a topping.
Easy and Delicious Sushi
Ingredients
- Fish, shellfish or salmon
- 1 cup uncooked glutinous white rice (sushi rice)
- 1/2 cucumber, sliced into thin strips
- 1 avocado – peeled, pitted and sliced
- 4 sheets Nori-dried seaweed (layer sheets prepared for making sushi)
- 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
- Sugar
- pinch salt
Optional condiments:
- Wasabi
- Pickled ginger
- Soy sauce
Method
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Rinse the rice & boil in a pot of water until cooked. Rinse the rice repeatedly until the rice water is not cloudy.
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Wash & cut the carrots in half long wise and then cut them into long skinny strips.
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Cut the crab/salmon/seafood into little strips and make sure they are pretty even in length.
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Check on your rice. If it’s ready, take it out and put it in a dish. Take a bowl and pour in about two tablespoons of rice vinegar. You can add more or less depends on your taste buds and how separated you want your grains or rice. It is better to put in less right now and add more later. Add in sugar and salt and stir until it dissolves (repeat until it tastes good).
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Pour the mixture onto the rice and mix thoroughly by “slicing” the rice. Add rice vinegar if needed to make the grains of rice separate easily.
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Place the seaweed layer on a bamboo mat and then spread rice onto the seaweed. It should be spread out so there are no empty holes and it should fill the middle third. Dampen the end edge with rice vinegar so it sticks when you roll it. Place the strips of the veggies and the seafood onto rice.
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Roll the bamboo into a long roll by first folding the bottom third in then roll it up. It should look like a tube of some sort. Now remove the sushi roll from the bamboo and cut.
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Cut down the middle of the roll, take each half and place them parallel to each other. Repeat by cutting both halves down the middle simultaneously, take those portions and repeat one last time. This cutting technique insures that the ingredients do not spill out of the roll.
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Serve with choc sticks & a bowl of soy sauce with a little of wasabi.
Bon Appetit!
Chef Tasneem Saith
CHEF Thyme 