sushi #2

The coming of spring makes me want salads and sushi. Just like everyone else, I get less bothered about having hot meals for dinner as soon as the weather warms up. Maybe all the blossom springing into bloom around home and work brought an association to mind with the Hanami (cherry blossom) festival in Japan, but whatever it was that made me desire sushi, this weekend I was a bit spoilt, and treated myself to sushi two days in a row - one lot bought, and one lot home made.





Now I know that I have blogged sushi making before, but I do so again because I made some different kinds of sushi this time. I'm sure its a good thing to develop the repertoire!

This time I made nori maki again; the normal nori (seaweed) wrapped sushi, filled with smoked salmon, cucumber, spring onion and a little wasabi. This time I marinated the smoked salmon in a mixture of sake, shoyu and water for an hour before I used it.

I also had a try at inside-out sushi rolls. These were easier to form than I'd been expecting, which was a nice surprise. You start off in the same way as for the nori-maki, but cover the nori and rice with cling film once you've spread the rice on the nori, then turn it over onto the rolling mat so that the seaweed is on the top. I filled these ones with a similar filling; waabi, cucumber, smoked salmon, and then rolled the finished sushi rolls in furikake, which is a Japanese seasoning made from black and white sesame seeds, nori (seaweed), and red shiso leaves. It gave the outside of the rolls an appealing crunch.



And finally....drum roll please... I tried something entirely new: Onigri. These are rice balls filled with tasty morsels and wrapped in a strip of nori. I made one for each of us filled with smoked mackerel, and one each filled with a mixture of Omeboshi (Japanese pickled plums), mirin, and sesame seeds. Those plums were SHARP! The only thing I've had before of similar face-scrunching sourness is the lime pickle you get with poppadums in Indian restaurants. Not unpleasant, but I think I'd make smaller portions next time!



Of course, this was all served up with extra wasabi, shoyu, and pickled ginger condiments, and a small salad of cucmber and spring onion.



Yummy sushi - My favourite.