DIY Sushi

For Christmas I received a huge box of Japanese ingredients, condiments, tools and recipe book. I love sushi but have never made it. Knowing how notoriously tricky it is, I was well up for giving it a go.

First to make the rice. After washing, leaving to drain for an hour, boiling for 10mins then allowing to cool, you add a Japanese rice wine vinegar and sugar mixture. I had some "Sushisu" in my kit so I added 3tbsp. Thankfully I also had some plastic moulds for making the nigiri (rectangles) and hoso-maki (thin rolls)

I failed to take photos of the moulds in action but they were fairly self explanatory. After using the hoso-maki roll to shape the rice around some cucumber it was simply a case of wrapping it in the nori (seaweed sheet) which was actually way easier than I'd imagined. I put that down to working in a lab!

California rolls were harder as I didn't have a mold to help but they turned out pretty good for a first try - though I say so myself!

It does seem like a lot of preparation for some fish and rice, however it was a lot of fun and I was very proud of how my three types of sushi turned out. It tasted good too! I think this would be a great alternative to your standard "nibbles" if you wanted to impress your friends and family - I might practice the California rolls first though...

Everything I used to make the sushi (except for salmon and cucumber) is available online from sushisushi.co.uk