Post maiden Sushi Making report

Thought I should pen down my experience making sushi the first time. Thanks to the Internet, its always easy to pick up a new recipe and make something out of it. Here is a nice website to start any Sushi making adventure,

http://www.hub-uk.com/cooking/tipssushi.htm

At less I was able to make Home-made Sushi today even if it could not even match the quality of those you can get from the Super Markets "Edo Sushi" counter. It does take a long time to prepare and season all the ingredient, not to forget that the preparation of the Japanese rice required special attention too. The most time consuming part of making sushi is rolling it. After spending all the effort and time to prepare the rice, the filling and a well arrange table, the last thing on my mind is messing up when rolling the Sushi.


THE FILLING

First thing I did was to cut and de-seed the cucumbers and cook them for a short while in Olive oil. I am totally clueless what the Olive oil is gonna do to the taste of the cucumber but its something I learn from my Korean friend back during my Canada Holiday. Next, the crab sticks were cut into thinner slice and mixed with mayonnaise just to make it sweeter.Make some fried Tamago (japanese style fried egg) following the recipe found on the Internet. 4 Eggs, 2 table spoon of sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt. Fried them in thin layers one at a time like making crepes.Even for a first timer, I still like to experiment with my cooking. Took out some pork hambuger platter, fried it and cut them into slices to be use as filling too.



Just the "filling" preparation took me almost 30mins.

THE RICE

I am sure the most important part about making Sushi is the rice preparation. The rice either makes the Sushi great or totally screw up the entire taste. Its the first thing you get to taste when you bit into the Sushi, like a first impression, it got to have the right taste and feel in the mouth. Usually I don't give much thoughts when cooking rice. Just wash it once or twice, fill it with the correct amount of water and dump the whole stuff into the rice cooker. For the Sushi making, I followed the instruction strictly and have to wash the rice till the water was clear and soak it in water for 30mins. Now the most amazing thing (or maybe its just that I never soaked a rice before) was the crackling sound coming from the rice when it is been soaked. Still a mystery to me...Are those the sound of the rice grain drinking water?

After 30mins of soaking. The rice is drained and fresh water is pour into it untill its about 5mm above the rice (it got to be leveled). Off it goes to the rice cooker for a 15 mins.

THE COCKUP

The rice was very well cooked. I took the rice pot out and added Sushi Seasoning to it while stirring the rice. Learn that I was suppose to keep fanning it while stiring the rice to cool it down quickly. However I hope I got three hands, 1 to hold the pot, 1 to stir and 1 to fan. Have to resort to using my mouth for the "Blow Job" instead, careful with every breath and puff not to add anything extra into the rice.




I was wondering why the rice was so wet even when it have cool down and there was a strong vinegar smell. Than it dawn to me that instead of adding 2 table spoon of Sushi Seasoning, I added 2 cup (thats like 20 table spoon). Almost an hour of effort from cooking to stirring and not to mention my breath and my stamina all wasted. Have to throw every grain away and start all over again. Thank god I already brought my own car cause I have use up all 3 cup of rice Pei Pei have given to me yesterday. Speed down to a Vietnam Super Market nearby to get a fresh packet of Japanese rice to start all over again.


Rolling Rolling Rolling On

Rice?, Check.....Fillings?, Check.... Nori Seaweed?, Check... Clean Sharp Knife?, Check... Clean hands?, Check....

A well prepared table means a good "Rolling" Start...

Thought I am going to encounter difficulty rolling the Sushi but was surprise that is not as hard as it seems thanks to the well illustrated instruction from the following website,

http://www.mediterrasian.com/cuisine_of_month_sushi.htm

Else I will still be figuring out how to roll using the bamboo mat without getting it stuck inbetween the rice and seaweeds. Althought the rolling was a no-brainer, getting a consistent, equal diameter Sushi each time is not easy. I spend almost 1 hours today rolling 12 rolls of uncut Sushi while listening to music, good enough for 2 days of lunch and dinner.

TASTE TEST

I don't think my Sushi taste bad at all but it does not taste excellent and world class will be a miracle. Its just taste like a normal Sushi. I manage to invite an independent taster to my home awhile ago to tried it out and the verdict was it taste pretty good especially the Sushi that I have put some pickles in it. I think the rice was well prepared but the fillings got to be improve. The pickles played an important role to enhance the the taste of the Sushi. It give them sharp taste to an otherwise ordinary, mild tasting Sushi.

The other stuff I did not put in my Sushi before rolling it was a bit of Wasabi. I'm sure, just a bit of it will bring out the taste of the Crab meat, eggs or cucumber in the Sushi since one is hot while the rest is mild. This is the natural Yin and Yang balance that should make a food taste better.

Just look at the rabbit beaming smile! It must taste good...