Shooshi

Hello girls!

Shooshi is Ethan's name for Sushi :)

When I started this blog I mentioned that I might post recipes but really the task of photographing my food has just been too huge. I am not a great photographer - still learning even some very basic tips but I thought I would give this recipe a go.

Sushi is a healthy food, really quite easy to make and so cheap! We often visit Sushi Train and can spend about $25 there as a family for lunch but these were so cheap to make at home that I don't know that we'll be back at the Sushi train for a while! I will include some costings so that you can see what I mean. It was also fun to make as a family. I prepared all the ingredients and then we all had a go at rolling our own sushi.

Lets start with a cute photo of my little chef:

Get your ingredients ready: (Everything I purchased from my local Coles so they're accessible ingredients. Check out the Asian food section.)

• 5 x Nori sheets ($2.89 pack of 10) $1.45
• 1 cup Sushi rice ($4.27 for 1kg) $1.07
• 2 tblsp Rice wine vinegar ($1.99 for 250ml) $0.25
• 1 1/2 tblsp sugar (pantry)
• Kewpie Mayo ($4.19 for 300g) $1.05
• Carrot, Cucumber (I used less than half one), Baby corn, Avocado and Tuna (half a large tin) for fillings.

Method:

1. Combine 1 cup rice with 1.5 cups water in a saucepan with a lid. Bring to the boil.
2. Reduce heat to low, make sure lid is on firmly and simmer for 20 minutes.
3. Whilst rice simmers combine Rice wine vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan. Stir over heat until sugar is disolved. Set aside off heat.
4. Turn heat off under rice after 20 minutes. Stir with a fork to fluff rice up. Pour vinegar mixture over hot rice and gently stir through.
5. Tip rice onto baking paper lined tray (I used a cookie sheet/tray) and spread out gently. Allow to cool.
6. When ready to assemble your sushi place one Nori sheet onto a bamboo sushi mat. The Nori is crispy at this point. The rice softens it. With moist fingers pick up the rice and spread over Nori sheet right to the edges except leave a 2cm space at the far end of the sheet.

7. Place your fillings onto the rice. Here I have used tuna, cucumber, carrot and kewpie mayo.

8. Using the bamboo mat gently roll the sushi up. Apply some pressure so that the sushi rolls compactly but not so much as to split the Nori sheet or ooze your filings out the ends. Moisten the end of the nori sheet with water and rub gently to seal.

9. Slice the Sushi into 1.5cm pieces (not pictured) or leave as hand rolls as below. Use a serrated knife for this

The other thing that I love about sushi is you can make it in the afternoon and refrigerate only to pull dinner out of the fridge a moment before serving. Great for a hot night when you can't face turning on the oven.

Other filling ideas are: cooked prawns, teriyaki chicken, smoked salmon, cream cheese, capsicum.... any other ideas out there?

Happy sushi rolling!

Love, Claire