urbanforks.com Growing and cooking food in a London garden flat

If you enjoy eating sushi then making your own is really fun and not too difficult; the picture above is some that we made and ate with friends last night. The hardest thing you’ll probably find it is getting hold of the ingredients that you need. The main things that you will need are sushi rice, rice vinegar, wasabi, nori sheets and very fresh fish. You should be able to get hold of almost everything, except the fresh fish, in a large supermarket. Or, if you go to a Japanese shop, you can stock up on these items as they last for quite a while in the cupboard.  The fresh fish is a bit harder as, to ensure that it’s delicious, it will need to be sashimi grade and no more than 2 days old.

If you live in London then my favourite Japanese shop is Atari-ya (‘atari’ means local in Japanese, and ‘ya’ means shop) and they have 4 branches across the city. They are run by Japanese people and usually you’ll find you’re the only non-Japanese person in the shop. You can buy a large variety of sashimi grade fish in any quantity you like, along with all the store cupboard ingredients you need. Alternatively, Borough Market has a great fish mongers and, particularly on a Friday, they’ll have fish that is fresh enough to eat raw. Otherwise you’ll need to find a good fish monger local to you and ask their advice in there about what they have that is fresh enough to be used in sushi.

Once you’ve got hold of all the ingredients then the first thing that you need to do is make the vinegared rice or su-meshi (‘meshi’ is the Japanese word for rice but also means meal, because rice is such a staple in Japan).

Su-meshi

First put the rice in a pan and rinse it several times in water to remove most of the starch. Then cover with fresh water that comes about half a centimeter above the rice.  Place the pan on a low heat with a lid on and cook for around 15 minutes until the rice has absorbed all the water. After about 10 minutes you’ll need to check it every couple of minutes to test a couple of grains and see if they are cooked. Also keep and eye out to make sure that it doesn’t start  burning on the bottom on the pan if all the water has been absorbed. If it gets to this stage but the rice is still a bit hard in the middle then just add a bit more boiling water from the kettle.

While the rice is cooking mix the sugar and salt into the vinegar and stir until it’s all dissolved and the solution is clear. Then put some clingfilm down on a work surface and spread the rice out on top of it. Sprinkle the vinegar mixture over the rice and use a spatula to move the rice around a bit to get it evenly covered with the vinegar, then leave to cool.

Once the rice is cool you can use it to make whatever sort of sushi you feel like. The ones I made last night were really simple: salmon nigiri and salmon and avocado maki rolls. To make the nigiri hand form the sushi into small oblong cubes, add a smear of wasabi and lay a piece of salmon on top. To make the maki rolls you’ll need a sushi rolling matt (see picture above). Lay a sheet of nori on the smooth side of the matt, spread a layer of rice about half a centimeter thick on top add strips of salmon and avocado along the middle of the rice and a long smear of wasabi then roll using the matt.

This was supper tonight, adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe to suit the ingredients we had available. It’s pretty quick to make and the recipe can easily be flexed to use up whatever you’ve got in the fridge, provided you’ve got a few key ingredients in the cupboard. Laksa has some lovely fresh and fragrant flavours in (similar to Thai cuisine) but also a hot, sweet and sour combination, which is perfect to warm you up when it’s cold and snowy outside.

Serves 2

From the store cupboard: 2 limes, 2 tablespoons fish sauce, 2 cloves of garlic, chunk of ginger, 1 tablespoon sesame oil, olive oil, tamarind paste, 400ml can of coconut milk, 80ml chicken stock, a few frozen kaffir lime leaves (available in Thai shops)

Whatever you’ve got to hand along the lines of: 200g prawns (or other fish or chicken), a couple of chillies (ideally red, but green is fine or some chilli powder), rice or noodles (any sort you like but I think that thin rice noodles are good), some herbs to garnish (coriander ideally, but flat leaved parsley or cress work well), any vegetables you like (I used a few mushrooms)

Take chillies, garlic, ginger, lime leaves and coriander stalks if you have them, chop finely and then grind to a paste in a pestle and mortar. Then add sesame oil, fish sauce, lime zest and juice.

Fry off this paste in a wok or large non-stick pan for a minute or so, then add tamarind paste, coconut milk and chicken stock. After simmering for a few minutes add pre-cooked noodles and prawns. Serve and add chopped herbs as a garnish.

If you’re using chicken or other meat you’ll either need to fry it in a separate pan first to ensure it’s cooked properly, or add right at the beginning with the paste and cook the whole thing for a bit longer.