Sushi is a food that I love. But it's also a food that I tend to only eat when it's been prepared for me. In my experience rolling your own sushi is time consuming and results in a kitchen floor covered in rice.
My own attempts thus far have pretty much been small rolls with a piece of cucumber or avocado stuffed down the middle (the fanciest I've ever attempted has been a spring onion and vegan cheese sushi roll).
However in the latest issue of VeganLife Magazine* there was a recipe for a simple sushi roll. Deciding it was high time I actually followed a recipe and learnt how to make sushi properly, I went about buying the ingredients and setting up stock in my kitchen. For the very basic sushi I've made before I was able to find what I needed (nori, sushi rice and a rolling mat) in my local Tesco. However for my first attempt at what was actual sushi I had to head along to my local Chinese Supermarket to pick up some extra ingredients such as black sesame seeds and rice wine vinegar (plus chopsticks, and some Japanese mochi for later).
Needless to say my kitchen still ended up looking like a child had played in it and I spent about the same amount of time mopping up rice afterwords as I did making the sushi. But the end result was the tastiest sushi I'd ever made though I'm not quite confident enough to start serving it at dinner parties.
Below are some of my tips for making your own sushi:
- One of my complaints about my own sushi over the years has been the lack of flavour. I discovered that one of the basic parts of a sushi recipe is to use a combination of rice wine vinegar, salt and sugar to add flavour to the rice once it has been cooked.
- This was my first attempt at 'inside-out' sushi (with the rice on the outside) and it was much harder to make than sushi with the nori on the outside. Be wise and master nori on the outside first.
- It's easier to work with sushi rice that has been left to sit for a few hours rather than freshly cooked rice.
- Sushi isn't the sort of dish you can quickly make for dinner - leave aside a large chunk of your day to creating your first batch.
- Buy a sharp knife that cuts straight through.
- Buy a sharp knife that cuts straight through.
- Always serve it with something! I'm a soy sauce fan but wasabi is meant to be good too. Sushi isn't meant to be eaten alone.
Have you ever had a go at you at making your own sushi? What are some of your tips?
Have you ever had a go at you at making your own sushi? What are some of your tips?
