Easy Sushezi
I love sushi, absolutely love the stuff. I often spend a few bob on it. Even if my finances are in dire straights, I always find a penny or two for a salmon supreme from Itsu. I really need to branch out and try some other flavours, but I can be a bit of a creature of habit sometimes. Hattie, my housemate, and I have been saying for months that we were going to have a sushi night and attempt to make it but never got round to it. Until it came to a rainy day in March and we had nothing planned, the obvious thing to do, of course: make sushi! We trotted down to the Japan centre and picked up our ingredients.
I’ve always been a bit dubious about making my own sushi, worrying about how fresh the salmon is in the supermarket. Until a friend of mine confirmed it doesn’t kill you, after she got back from a night out and raided the fridge. The only thing she could find was a raw fillet of salmon. Yep, you guessed it, she ate it as nature intended. Of course she was fine! The society we live in today has made us terrified to eat anything unless we are told its acceptable or safe. I think we need to let our hair down and eat a raw salmon fillet at four in the morning if that is what one desires! Buuuuut after saying that and being a right hypocrite, I went to the Japan Centre for my kit, just to be on the safe side. Plus it’s an amazing place to wonder around.
We went for salmon, tuna and crab sticks. Sliced into perfect pieces of sashimi in front of us by the experts. We picked up sticky rice, sheets of seaweed, sesame seeds and pickled ginger. After swinging by the supermarket on our way home for avocado (a must for sushi), peppers, cucumber and chives we were set.
I have to admit, we had a little help when making this. Help from a brilliant gadget called the Sushezi. A Christmas gift Hattie once received and thought she’d never use. It’s come straight out of the 1990’s and would look right at home on one of those videos you see in Debenhams with demonstrations of how to use a Bobbleoff (best way to get rid of those darn bobbles on your knitwear if you didn’t already know), or how to cut your carrots into roses with a handy gadget. You may scoff at it, but I love it.
To make your sticky rice, pour into boiling water and let it boil away for two to three minutes stirring occasionally to stop it from sticking. Then turn the heat down and let it simmer for around 15 minutes. Take it off the heat and let it cool. The Sushezi is a cylinder shape which splits in half. Fill each side with sticky rice, the finely chopped vegetables and the fish of your choice. Close it and it compresses the sushi into the perfect roll. Push it out onto the seaweed sheet, roll it carefully and cut it into pieces with a sharp knife. With every perfect roll we literally squeeled with excitement, we couldn’t believe how perfectly they came out.
To do the real thing, of course, you spread the rice over the sheet which is laid onto a rolling mat. Make a neat line of ingredients and expertly roll it. I will attempt it one day, but with the Sushezi just sitting in the cupboard… Anyway, these were the results, not bad. We ate the lot, and it tasted like the real thing, dipped in soy sauce with a thin slice of pickled ginger. Who needs Itsu when you’ve got a Sushezi.
I fully recommend it, so much fun and extremely satisfying to make.
Salmon, yellow pepper, avocado and chive
Tuna, avocado, cucumber and chive
Crabsticks, avocado and chive
