Sushi Saturday

I love making sushi!! I still need practice for making the rolls nice and neat, but I like the versatility of sushi, with just a few ingredients and imagination you can create a beautiful and tasty thing.

Yesterday we went to the market in Delft (will do a review post on this market soon) to pick up fish for the sushi. We bought 300 grams of salmon. There were some interesting fish and shellfish there, but I didn’t really feel like putting it in sushi, so good old salmon and avocado sushi was on the menu. What I also made as filling was japanese omelette (tamagoyaki) and tuna salad, see below for the recipes. This dish takes sometime to prepare, but most of the time you’re not actively cooking, so it’s nice to do on a Saturday or Sunday.

How to prepare sushi rice

Rice for 3 rolls (maki), double, triple, quadruple, etc if you need more: 

  • 125 ml sushi rice
  • 20 ml rice vinegar
  • 20 ml sugar
  • 0.5 teaspoon salt

Rinse the rice under water until the fluid is more clear than when you started.

Rinsing the rice
I wash the rice four times before I put it in water in a pot.

Put it in water in a pot. Let it stand for about 1 hour. After 1 hour put the lid on and let it stand for about 45 min-1 hour.
Rinse the rice under water until the fluid is clear. Normally I loose my patience (this is after four times of washing) and stop rinsing it when the fluid is semi-clear. Put the rice back in the pot and cover with water, let the water be about 1 cm higher than the rice. If you want, you can take about a tablespoon of water out and replace with a tablespoon of sake, for a softer flavour of the rice. Bring it to the boil, reduce the heat and let it simmer for 4-5 min. Taste the rice in order to judge how much time you need to steam it in the next step. Bring the heat down even more and let it steam under a lid for another 4-5 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and let it stand for 10 min. Put the rice in a bowl.

During the 10 minutes it is time for the vinegar-mixture. Put vinegar, sugar and salt in a small saucepan, put it on low heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved.

Sugar vinegar mixture
The mixture will end up like this after the sugar has dissolved

Let the mixture cool a bit. Mix the rice and the vinegar. Let it stand for about 20 min.

Here below are some fillings

Simple vegetable sushi:

  • 1 carrot
  • 1 avocado
  • 1/3 cucumber

Slice carrot, avocado and cucumber.

Salmon avocado: 

  • 300 grams salmon (this was for about 5 rolls of just salmon avocado sushi)
  • 1 avocado

Slice the salmon into strips and the avocado into slices.

Tamagoyaki, Japanese layered omelette: 

  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • a pinch of salt
  • about 1/2-1 teaspoon of sugar

Beat the eggs gently. Mix in soy, salt and sugar. Heat up a pan on medium-high heat (I use a standard Western one, I don’t have a tamagoyaki pan yet), put in some oil. Wipe the excess oil with some kitchen paper (you’ll use this for the second layer). Pour in about 1/3-1/2 of the egg mixture, fry it until the top is almost solid, roll the omelette up. Wipe the oily kitchen paper around in the pan, put in the rest of the egg mixture, lift the egg roll so that the new raw egg mixture can get underneath the egg roll, fry until the top is almost solidified and roll it up. Fry it for a few seconds pressing down on the top. Put on a plate.

To take a look at a better technique, see Ochikeron’s recipe: Ochikeron’s Tamagoyaki Recipe

Tuna salad:

Ingredients for tuna salad
  • 1 can of tuna in water
  • 2-3 tablespoons of mayonaise
  • 1 teaspoon of soy sauce

Open a can of tuna in water. Put the tuna in a sieve, drain and press out the water until the fish mixture is more or less dry (it won’t be totally dry). Put it in a bowl, mix in mayonaise (add one tablespoon at the time and mix to check it doesn’t get too wet) and soy sauce, taste and see if more soy sauce is needed. Put aside.

Rolling maki:

Here’s my set-up yesterday of fillings and rice:

Sushi rice, plates, tamagoyaki, avocado, cucumber, tuna salad, salmon, small bowl of water and nori sheets

And this is how I set-up the work station:

Work station set-up
Work station set-up

For this amount of rice, you’ll need 3 nori sheets. Put a nori sheet on a plane surface on a baking paper (or a sushi mat). Put 1/3 of the rice on a nori sheet, spread it evenly , leave a bit of the nori paper empty. Put filling on the rice in the lower middle.

Omelette
Tamagoyaki with cucumber

Start rolling, keep it tight! When you reach the empty part, put cold water on it, this will act as clue. Use the baking paper or a bamboo mat to make it a tight roll. Repeat with a new nori sheet until you’re out of rice. Wash your hand with water, if they get too sticky. Cut them up into slices with a sharp knife. And voila:

Sushi!
The results

Serve with soy mixed with some wasabi. I’ll hope you’ll try this out!

By the way, I’m thinking of buying a new camera for blog and vacation photos and videos, because my phone doesn’t take nice pictures anymore. Does anyone have any tips?



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