Serves 2 | Prep Time 45 min | Total Time 80 (ish) min
Three years ago I was fortunate enough to experience the most amazing trip to Japan after a lot of saving during my gap year and first year of uni. My brothers and I tried to experience as much as we could whilst we were there. We visited Osaka, Nara, Kyoto, Nagoya, Tokyo, and tried an array of traditional Japanese food: miso soup, ramen, tempura, yakitori, tonkatsu, takoyaki, okonomiyaki, onigiri, sushi.. You name it, we probably ate it!
Since that trip, I've wanted to recreate some of Japan's incredible food; so for my birthday this year I asked my brother and sister-in-law for some Japanese ingredients, and a rolling mat so that I could make my own sushi.
I was pretty impressed with how they turned out considering it was my first time, but I won't lie these probably took a couple of hours to make so don't start when you're already hungry!
Ingredients
sushi rice, 167g for 2, or 250g for 3 people
nori sheets, 2 or 3
sushi vinegar, ~1tsp
soy sauce
Fillings of your choice! I chose:
cucumber, 1/4 julienned
carrots, 1 small julienned
avocado, 1/2 thinly sliced
smoked salmon, 50g thinly sliced
cooked prawns, ~6 butterflied
Recipe
Rinse 167g sushi rice until the water runs clear.
Next, soak the rice in water for 20-30 minutes, then drain.
Add the rice to a pan and add 220ml cold water. Bring to the boil, then with the lids on, simmer on a low heat for 10 minutes.
Turn off the heat, sprinkle with the sushi vinegar, roughly mix, and leave to stand with the lid on for 10 minutes.
As the rice cools, prepare your fillings. To get a neat roll, it's best to julienne your vegetables (chop into thin match-sticks) so you can pack in as much filling as possible. For the carrots I chose to quickly sauté them in a small amount of soy sauce, honey and crushed garlic.
Lay one nori sheet (smooth side down) on the rolling mat. Using a wet spatula, evenly spread just under half of the rice onto the nori sheet, making sure to leave a 6cm gap at the top of the sheet.
Make a deep, horizontal groove in the middle of the rice, and layer your fillings into it.
Lift the nearest edge of the mat and carefully but firmly roll the nori sheet and rice over the fillings by pulling the edge away from you.
Once rolled, cup your hands over it and apply firm pressure on the mat, over the entire roll to ensure it keeps its cylindrical shape. Ensure the end of the nori (where we left a gap when adding the rice in step 6) is sealed so that the sushi roll cannot unravel.
Using a sharp knife, gently cut the sushi into 6-8 pieces.
For any left over rice, dampen your hands with water and shape the rice into oblong balls. Butterfly your cooked prawns and place on top of the rice ball to make prawn nigiri.
Serve your sushi and prawn nigiri with a dipping bowl of soy sauce and enjoy!
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