Maki Sushi



A delectable plate of home-made maki sushi! Yum!



From a long holiday, to a big move, new job, some dramatic experiences suffered during a natural disaster and finally having a new kitchenette, I finally had a chance to cook again recently. As you can imagine given the long absence, I am now so excited to be trying out new recipes and blogging once again.

I learnt how to make sushi over the internet about a year ago after discovering that there were very few Japanese restaurants in Townsville. Being a great fan of Japanese food, I decided not to let this stop me from trying my hand at it, so I took the DIY route and made my own “personal” brand of sushi. I soon found that the art of making good sushi rice required a well balanced solution of salt, sugar and rice wine vinegar. This has to be mixed in well with the cooked sushi rice while the latter is still warm. The rice mixture also has to be kept moist so that it will not be too dry or wet when rolled with the nori sheets. It is the vinegar solution that gives the sushi rice the aromatic flavour as well as the beautiful glaze.



Cooking sushi rice in a rice cooker.



Mixing the cooked sushi rice with the vinegar solution.

                                                                              

Personally, I think sushi is healthy food. You do not require any fat to cook it and you can choose your own choice of fillings depending on your palate and dietary needs. It is also particularly suitable for vegetarians or health-conscious people who prefer a sushi roll wrapped with fresh carrot sticks or a mixed salad filling. The fillings that I used in my maki sushi were seafood sticks, avocado and home-made tamagoyaki (slightly sweetened egg omelette). Another easy-to-prepare filling that I used was tuna mayonnaise (canned tuna with mayonnaise, salad sauce and seasoned with pepper and salt). All of this is fairly simple once you get the hang of making your own sushi. There was no fuss caused by tedious food preparation, deep-frying, stir-frying or long stewing time and so on. With a rice cooker, one could easily prepare their own sushi rolls.



Some of the fillings used for the maki sushi are tamagoyaki, seafood sticks, avocado and tuna mayonnaise.

 I used the sushi making moulds in my first few attempts of making sushi. However, I found cleaning the moulds quite troublesome, and was not all that much simpler to use than if I had made the sushi using the traditional sushi bamboo mats. No surprise – I now use the bamboo mats instead of the moulds. They are easily available at most supermarkets (the Asian/ Japanese section) and are relatively affordable.

If you want to explore and make your own sushi, do try it. It is certainly very fun, cheaper than buying them from a sushi bar, and tastes almost as good as the ones sold in the shops.

Placing the nori sheet, sushi rice and fillings neatly on the bamboo mat.

 


Maki sushi filled with tamagoyaki, seafood sticks and avocado.

  

Maki sushi filled with tuna mayonnaise and avocado.



Home-made slices of tamagoyaki garnished with pickled ginger.