Shopping list
sushi rice
wasabi paste
Japanese soy sauce
shitake mushrooms
nori seaweed
Photo right: Smoked salmon, surimi, crayfish
Cozy on the free Saturday we make sushi, together with the kids. Making your own sushi may seem harder than it is. It can also be simple to make yet beautiful and delicious. Today we begin with a simple form: Onigiri (sushi balls with a surprise).
In Japanese cooking it is super-important that the food always looks clean and attractive. But classical Japanese flavors do not agree very much with our Western taste. Since sushi is eaten all over the world the traditional Japanese way to make it is adapted to the Western taste.
How to make Onigiri
Start with cooking sushi rice
Put 4-5 cups of rice and as many cups of water in a pan.
Bring the water to a boil and turn the heat low.
Leave the pan on until all the water has evaporated.
Stir the rice well and take the pan from the stove.
Make the vinegar powder as stated on the sachet, all is in there.
Pour the vinegar into the hot rice and stir well. Taste the rice on flavour.
Let the rice cool down fast. Put it on ice blocks covered with a wet towel.
The preparation of the sushi balls
Grab some cold rice from the bowl with a piece of cling film.
Pull the cling film tightly around the rice to form a ball.
Twist the ends of the foil tightly and take the rice out.
Make a number of rice balls, try to make them the same size.
TIP! Place a bowl of water with vinegar at hand to avoid the sticky rice sticking to your fingers when preparing the sushi. Dip your fingertips in between sushi rolling into the water, it works a lot easier.
Cut strips of a sheet seaweed and tape two crosswise around a ball, it will stick.
Cut the shitake into strips, fry it in a tbspoon sesame oil tender and brown.
Place a piece of shitake and a crayfish on each rice ball.
Give a dip of Japanese soy sauce with a drop of wasabi on the side. Watch out! Wasabi is very hot!
Pour a tablespoon of oil in the frying pan and toast some sesame seeds. Shake them regularly until they are light brown.
Roll balls of rice, a little surimi or salmon, some rice again.
Roll the ball through the sesame seeds, place a piece of surimi or nori with surimi on it.
Dress up the rice balls as clean and neat as you can, Japanese style!
Tomorrow we make a more classic variation, makizushi!