Bribery & Fish

Jussi is off in Chicago, while I'm sticking it out London style. So in an attempt to bribe him to come back to London as soon as his business trip is over I'm posting about the sushi we made before he left. He is the sushi master.

The thing about sushi is that it is much simpler to make than it actually looks. Well if you are also under the impression that rolling things up together looks complicated - but it does when you have all those colours, swirls and raw things wound up into a delicious piece of tastiness that melts in your mouth, not in your hand. But for some reason, no one ever (or at least out of the people I know) makes sushi.

I highly recommend it for a dinner party or date evening even, because you can get really into it - pairing this that and the other. Perhaps that is how you find a soul mate, its really your sushi mate. Who doesn't think that having prawns, salmon, spicy mayo, mango and cilantro all in one is totally ridiculous, but rather makes it for you every time with some toasted seasame seeds sprinkled on top. Now say that ten times fast every time you pretty please? See soul-sushi mate.

The most essential item in making homemade sushi is the quality of the fish. Get something that is fresh, beautiful, and the guy who is preparing it for actually knows what sashimi is and doesn't look at you funny. Your basics would include salmon, tuna and some eel, throw in a bit of yellow tail, squid or roe if you want to impress. For the two of us, 100 grams of two types of fish plus some extras is more than enough.

By extras, I mean if you want to take your sashimi to the maki level. Not to the next level, the MAKI level (make you say that with a deep voice with sushi master knife in hand and master chef bandana around your head). We tend to go for mango (oh yes mango), avocado, imitation crab, cilantro, crispy onions, cucumber etc. But just play with your flavour sensations and experiment. We tend to get a bit carried away with the maki and should be really having more nigiri, but perhaps thats the sake.

As for the rice, that itself is also easy if you know how to cook rice perfectly anyways. Somehow growing up in Hawaii with rice at every meal I was trained well (on a side note, it also took me a really long time to decide that I could actually live without a rice cooker, I still think they are brilliant).

So Jussi want to come back and maki sushi with me (oh bad pun). Or better yet, lets plan a trip to Japan! Oh and remember the chop sticks!