3 April 2012

Make your own Sushi in the Shire

Oops...so somehow it's been nearly 8 weeks since I last posted, I swear it was only a week ago, sorry.  I'm back to share with you the latest foodie experiment from the Shire!

One of our favourite cuisines at the moment is Japanese.  I love all the fresh flavours & simple dishes that don't leave you feeling full of stodge.  There's a great place in Windsor & it was during one of our recent visits that the fated words how hard can it really be to make sushi? were uttered!  So in blissful ignorance, with a shopping list compiled with help from our friend Google, we set out to buy our ingredients.  Three supermarkets later we eventually found what we needed in Waitrose.


We decided on 3 different fillings for our sushi, sweet chilli chicken, sesame salmon & grilled tuna with mango.  Granted I'm not entirely sure how authentic these fillings are?  To start with you have to cook the sushi rice & leave it to cool, then stir in a couple of spoonfuls of mirin & rice vinegar, which we already had in the cupboard.  So far so good!  We cooked the strips of sweet chilli chicken, thinly sliced a fresh salmon fillet then marinated it in a little sesame oil, pan fried a tuna steak until just cooked then sliced it & finally chopped a mango into small pieces trying to avoid ending up with a bowl of puree.

With all our ingredients ready, it was time to start construction...

First up you place a sheet of Nori, dried seaweed onto the rolling mat.  For the observant among you, yes our mat was the wrong way round on the board...you can see where this is heading!
  
 Next spread the rice over the nori, getting it as close to the edges as you can.

Spread the filling over the rice...by this point we realised the mat was the wrong way round for rolling!  Then you use the bamboo mat to roll it all together into a rather unattractive looking green sausage which it ready to be sliced into rolls.

Now through this photo montage you'd think it was quite straight forward, but far from it!  You have to try to keep everything in the roll, make it even & tight enough so it doesn't just fall apart when you slice it...oh & wrapping your own finger in it probably doesn't help!  So the end result, drum roll please....

Not too bad eh?  It's not going to win any beauty awards but it tasted good, we served it with the traditional pickled ginger, wasabi & soy.  Chopsticks proved problematic, the sushi pretty much collapsed in a heap when picked up.  Sushi scooped up with a spoon is probably not how the Japanese intended!  It was fun to make, if not a little frustrating & definitely not easy.  It's going to take a lot of practise before I'm ready to let it loose on anyone else.  For now I think we'll resort back to Misugo in Windsor for our sushi.  Has anyone else had a go at making their own? I'd be interested to hear how you got on & if you have any tips for me?   Till next time, Rebecca x

3 April 2012

Make your own Sushi in the Shire

Oops...so somehow it's been nearly 8 weeks since I last posted, I swear it was only a week ago, sorry.  I'm back to share with you the latest foodie experiment from the Shire!

One of our favourite cuisines at the moment is Japanese.  I love all the fresh flavours & simple dishes that don't leave you feeling full of stodge.  There's a great place in Windsor & it was during one of our recent visits that the fated words how hard can it really be to make sushi? were uttered!  So in blissful ignorance, with a shopping list compiled with help from our friend Google, we set out to buy our ingredients.  Three supermarkets later we eventually found what we needed in Waitrose.


We decided on 3 different fillings for our sushi, sweet chilli chicken, sesame salmon & grilled tuna with mango.  Granted I'm not entirely sure how authentic these fillings are?  To start with you have to cook the sushi rice & leave it to cool, then stir in a couple of spoonfuls of mirin & rice vinegar, which we already had in the cupboard.  So far so good!  We cooked the strips of sweet chilli chicken, thinly sliced a fresh salmon fillet then marinated it in a little sesame oil, pan fried a tuna steak until just cooked then sliced it & finally chopped a mango into small pieces trying to avoid ending up with a bowl of puree.

With all our ingredients ready, it was time to start construction...

First up you place a sheet of Nori, dried seaweed onto the rolling mat.  For the observant among you, yes our mat was the wrong way round on the board...you can see where this is heading!
  
 Next spread the rice over the nori, getting it as close to the edges as you can.

Spread the filling over the rice...by this point we realised the mat was the wrong way round for rolling!  Then you use the bamboo mat to roll it all together into a rather unattractive looking green sausage which it ready to be sliced into rolls.

Now through this photo montage you'd think it was quite straight forward, but far from it!  You have to try to keep everything in the roll, make it even & tight enough so it doesn't just fall apart when you slice it...oh & wrapping your own finger in it probably doesn't help!  So the end result, drum roll please....

Not too bad eh?  It's not going to win any beauty awards but it tasted good, we served it with the traditional pickled ginger, wasabi & soy.  Chopsticks proved problematic, the sushi pretty much collapsed in a heap when picked up.  Sushi scooped up with a spoon is probably not how the Japanese intended!  It was fun to make, if not a little frustrating & definitely not easy.  It's going to take a lot of practise before I'm ready to let it loose on anyone else.  For now I think we'll resort back to Misugo in Windsor for our sushi.  Has anyone else had a go at making their own? I'd be interested to hear how you got on & if you have any tips for me?   Till next time, Rebecca x