Sushi

Unfortunately I’ve got conjunctivitis and can barely type at the computer. Hence the recipe drought. I’ve also been on holiday in Hungary, and once my eyes recover I’ll definitely share some impressions with you. Culinary ones too. For now I need to lay off it. Just a few more days.

Luckily Piotr came to my rescue. He’s been a good mate of mine for a fair few years. Of all the people I know personally, and know this well, Piotr is the most widely travelled. I’ll tell you a bit more about our friendship once my eyes are better and I get round to posting his kimchi recipe. Today, though, it’s Piotr’s sushi. The simple kind you make yourself at home.

I’ll admit I’ve never made sushi myself. I’m no great connoisseur either. So I’ll leave the recipe to Piotrek and take his word for it that it turned out like the sushi at an inexpensive Japanese eatery. Most importantly, Piotrek travels to Asia a lot and has finally started blogging about it. Do pay a visit to Piotr’s Packed Suitcase.

And here, of course, is the recipe for homemade sushi (everything below is Piotrek’s. Thanks, mate, I don’t think I can count on Kaja any more ;):

“I always smile a little wryly when someone tells me they’re going out for sushi. They often say it as though it were the seventh wonder of the world. I mean, saying you’re going out for tomato soup and Silesian dumplings sounds a bit silly, but ‘going for sushi’ somehow sounds different, special, exotic.

I won’t deny I’ve been to a restaurant serving fish and rice in Poland myself, and I even liked it.

What I remember with a tear in my eye, though, is my trip to Japan, where sushi is as commonplace as pierogi and the aforementioned tomato soup are in Poland.

There are the most luxurious restaurants, where a master in training spends two years learning just to cook the rice, and the prices can empty the average traveller’s wallet.

Then there are the conveyor-belt places, the so-called ‘belt sushi’. Portions go past on little coloured plates, each colour a different price. Sushi on red plates might be 90 yen, on navy-blue ones 130. You can also choose a special dish from the menu on the screen, and moments later freshly made sushi arrives at your table.

And then there are the shops and express stores, where you find ready-made sets in plastic boxes, at various prices and with different accompaniments. Some shops only put them out at certain hours to keep them as fresh as possible, especially in the afternoon and evening so people coming home from work in Japan can pick up a meal.

In convenience stores like 7Eleven they’re out all day and can look rather sorry for themselves by closing time. There are also tiny places where a sushi master stands making sets all day, sticking on a price label and putting them in the fridge. Those sets are the cheapest and very fresh, and the price is much lower than in Poland.

Just as shops in Poland sell pierogi, pancakes, goulash or other ready meals, that’s how sushi is sold in Japan.

Back from Japan, shopping in Biedronka, I spotted a sushi-making kit in Poland too. Cheap, about 17 PLN. So I duly acquired it by the time-honoured method of buying it, to make homemade sushi for the first time in my life.

That culinary experience got me working on my skills. Next time I made sushi with ingredients I’d bought separately. Here’s the recipe.”

PS

As you can see, Piotr went to some trouble to keep the photography up to the standard of my blog 🙂 There are plenty of pictures below, though. They’re practically a step-by-step picture guide to making this sushi.

At a glance:

Prep time – allow 15 min. to cook the rice and another 15 min. for the maki (making a total of 30 minutes – a note from PrymitywnaKuchnia.pl)

Serves: 2

Calories: not many

Ingredients for homemade sushi:

• Sushi rice (9 PLN for about 0.4 kg) – you can practise with risotto rice too. Ordinary rice probably won’t do, because it’ll fall apart (sic!)
• Wasabi paste
• Sushi nori sheets – toasted seaweed sheets for rolling maki
• Soy sauce
• Rice vinegar
• Cucumber
• Pepper
• Smoked salmon
• Surimi sticks
• Avocado
• Pickled ginger

Method (I suppose you have to buy that kit for 17 PLN first ;):

Rinse the rice in water. Then add water in a ratio of 1 part rice to 1.2 parts water. Cover, bring to the boil and cook for about 10 minutes without lifting the lid. Under no circumstances lift that lid. A pan with a glass lid is handy.

Take the pan off the heat and leave the lid on for at least another 10 minutes.

Fill a glass ¼ full with rice vinegar and dissolve 2 tablespoons of sugar in it. Sprinkle the mixture lightly over the rice and mix gently.

Before you go any further with the sushi, the cooked rice has to cool completely. Don’t roll maki with warm rice. They won’t turn out properly and the nori sheets won’t behave at all.

Lay a nori sheet on the rolling mat and spread a thin layer of rice over it, preferably using a small plastic spoon.

Arrange the fillings on it, such as a strip of cucumber, pepper or avocado. You can also use split surimi sticks or a piece of smoked salmon.

Start rolling gently. I thought it would be harder but managed it first time, so I’m sure you will too.

Cut the rolled maki into pieces with a sharp knife and arrange them carefully on a plate.

Pour soy sauce into a little dish for dipping the maki. Put the wasabi on the corner of the plate or add it to the soy sauce dish. Pickled ginger is generally used between different kinds of sushi to cleanse the palate, but you can eat these with ginger too.

Chopsticks should always lie parallel, next to each other, on the lowest dish on the table. Sticking them into the rice is forbidden: it’s an omen of a death in the family. You’re not supposed to take a bite out of a piece of maki and leave the rest, either.

Drink green tea with your sushi.”

Sounds like the dish is ready, then. Enjoy! Although, having read it again, perhaps I should say ‘goodbye’, since the whole lot’s gone already 🙂