Sorry for the long absence! Been mugging for a test. Which I felt went horribly unwell. But, on the bright side, it’s over now and I can finally go back to being a couch potato. And, of course, cooking!
Haven’t made sushi before, though I’ve known friends who claim that it is a rather fun and fairly simple thing to do. So, I decided to make a batch for my friends, and for the birthday girl. So if you wanna try it out, hope this helps you with your sushi cravings! (:
I like to start out by gathering all my ingredients, so that I wont have to frantically look for them when my hands are dirty. Basic ingredients you’ll need for sushi would be rice, the calrose kind which are from Australia (or so my dad says), seaweed, vinegar, and of course, your sushi mat to roll your sushi. You’ll also need ingredients to put into your sushi; crabstick, salmon, unagi, jellyfish, whatever you like, just get those, and you’re all set!
Gathered my ingredients
So I started by cooking my rice first, so that while its happily steaming in the pot, I can prep my ingredients and by the time my rice is done, I can start rolling. Wash your rice, depending on how many pax you’re cooking for, measure it, and place it in the cooker. I used about two cups of rice and that was enough for about 4 – 6 pax for a light snack. To make things easier, use a standard sized cup to measure your rice. 1 cup of rice to 1 1/4 cup of water. Do remember to use the same cup for measuring both the rice and water, or else your rice would get either too dry or too moist.
1 cup of rice to 1 1/4 cup of water
With my rice cooking away, I can begin my prep on my ingredients to roll the sushi with. I got hotdog (birthday girl’s favorite), crabstick, cucumber, salmon, teriyaki chicken and avocado. I also got some jellyfish from Sushi Deli, so if you want raw salmon or octopus, you can buy them off the shelf and make your sushi with it. First up, the hotdog and crabstick went into the steamer. All you have to do is just allow it to steam for about 15 mins and its done!
Fresh from the steamer!
Now, while my crabstick and hotdog were enjoying a steam bath, I started doing my marinade for my chicken. A couple of weeks ago I was watching Nigella Kitchen, featuring a teriyaki chicken marinade recipe. I decided to try my hand at it and substituted chicken for salmon, to test out the recipe. Fortunately, the recipe was a hit and I decided to make teriyaki chicken sushi. Something that isn’t what you’ll usually hear of. The ingredients, method of cooking can be found here. Try it! (:
So, I mixed mirin, sake, brown sugar, soy sauce, grated ginger with a splash of sesame oil, and allowed my chicken to soak in this glorious brown mixture. Because I was going to use this for my sushi, I sliced up the chicken into strips. If you’re cooking it as a dish, dices of chicken would go perfectly with rice.
Soaking up all the teriyaki goodness!
Into the pan goes the chicken without the marinade…
When the outside of chicken is cooked, marinade in, lid on, simmer for 5 – 10 mins
Scoop out the chicken, leave the marinade in, turn up the heat and let the marinade turn into a lovely thick gravy. Turn off the heat and you should get something like this! For a more comprehensive list of instructions, click here.
Now, whilst I was cooking my chicken, I placed two slices of salmon into the steamer. Because I had to bring the sushi out to my friends, using raw salmon wasn’t a good idea. But cause my friends can’t get enough of salmon, I decided to work out something for them.
Steamed salmon is a good alternative for those who don’t consume raw fish!
After the salmon is cooked, fork it and you should get something like this. This would make it easier to lay it on the sushi. Remove the skin if you wish.
Well, now that all my ingredients are cooked, I can start laying them out in plates and get ready to wrap my sushi! I sliced up my cucumbers and halfed the crabsticks and hotdogs. Found an avocado in the fridge so I pitted it and sliced it up. Alright, so now you’ve got all your ingredients ready for rolling, your rice should also have done its time in the cooker!
You will need to mix the rice with vinegar to make it sticky and to add taste to it. I would suggest getting this packet of powdered sushi mix. It’s really convenient and you just have to follow the instructions on the packet. You can find it in most major supermarkets, NTUC, Cold Storage, Giant etc.
I scooped my rice out into a basin, so that it would be easier to mix the rice with the vinegar. While you’re mixing the vinegar, you have to fan it so that the rice cools and sticks together. I used a fan cause I was doing this alone, but if you have a friend in the kitchen, you can get your friend to help you out because the fan kept blowing the powdered mix all over my face.
Now, let’s roll!
You’ll need a bowl of ice water, so that you can dip your hands into it before you get your rice. Now, I think its better if you learnt how to roll the sushi from a video, because it’s more interactive than reading words. So you can view a quick tutorial and get a rough idea on how to roll your sushi.
Add whatever ingredients you want, be creative and get rolling! Make different combinations and match different ingredients instead of the usual ones you find at sushi restaurants Afterall, that’s the best part of cooking, putting all the ingredients that you love!
Teriyaki chicken and crabstick sushi! My friends loved it! (:
Look at the feast that awaits!
It was a marvelously fun experience to make sushi. I guess it doesn’t look as pretty and uniformed as those that you get outside, but I loved putting ingredients that I enjoyed. When you cook with love, there’s just something a little different about the taste that you don’t get from eating out. Hope you’ll try this out and you’ll have as much fun as I did! Blogging about this makes me crave for sushi again! Well, I’ll leave you with one last picture, and be sure to come back and read about Flora’s birthday celebration at Jap buffet restaurant, Irodori.
Till then, happy rolling!
– Wanted
Snap Shots 