Early winter is the ideal time to eat Halibut – a delicate white fish popular for sushi and prized for sashimi in Japan.
The tender flesh is very soft and chewy and a delicate pale pink. It is often served with a squeeze of lemon or lime or a light soy sauce to compliment the flavour which is more distinctive than other whitefish like cod. It is a great alternative to salmon for nigri and sashimi and is often served raw on Japanese menus, sliced thinly with a super sharp sashimi knife.
This recipe is simple but brings out the best of the halibut flavours and is served with another seasonal best, broccoli though the beauty of tempura is you can use a wide variety of vegetables to fry up in the light, delicious batter.
First steam your fish in a bamboo steamer. This will not only preserve the unique flavour of the fish but Halibut can go dry if overcooked so it will keep it moist and soft. Squeeze a generous squirt of fresh lemon over your cooked fish and leave it to cool.
Then it’s time to make your sushi rice. You can do this on the hob following the instructions on the rice packet or you can use a rice cooker. When the rice is cooked, transfer it to a hangiri or wide, flat bottomed dish and leave it to cool before mixing in a rice dressing (ready made or home made) using a wooden spoon or flat paddle.
You are now ready to roll. Put a sheet of nori on a bamboo or silicone rolling mat or rolling machine such as the Sushi Magic. Spread on layer of cooled rice leaving a 1cm margin along the top and bottom edge. Flake up the soft, lemony fish and spread it out in a line across the middle along with thin strips of avocado. Roll up, slice and you are ready to go.
For the tempura, it’s best to use a ready made batter mix like Yutaka tempura mix. The instructions are fairly simple but it is important to remember to use iced water and keep your standing bowl of batter as cold as possible as this is what gives the tempura it’s distinctive light, crispy texture. Tempura batter should only be mixed with water very lightly so don’t worry if there are a few lumps in your mixture.
In a heavy bottomed frying pan, heat about 6cm of vegetable oil. To test the temperature, drip a tiny bit of batter in and, if it sizzles and floats to the top then it’s ready.
Cut your broccoli into florets and dip them into the tempura batter before dropping them into the hot oil and cook in batches until golden. Fish them out with a slotted spoon and drain the briefly on kitchen towel before serving.
Serve your rolls and tempura with wasabi, pickles and soy sauce with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and enjoy a delicious fresh taste of February.
Kids love to cook and the easiest way to get your child to try new foods is to involve them in making interesting things to eat.
The joy of making sushi with kids is that it’s really hands on – there’s cooking, chopping, mixing, stuffing, rolling and a range of fun foody skills involved with healthy and delicious results. If you are new to cooking sushi, there are sushi making kits available with everything you need to make step-by-step superb sushi but here are a few of the main elements.
Rice
Fluffy, sticky rice is the basis for all sushi rolls and nigiri. Whether you are using a rice cooker or making it on the hob, make sure you buy proper sushi rice and follow the instructions on the packet. It usually takes about 20-30 minutes to cook.
Once the rice is done, transfer it to a wooden bowl known as a hangiri (though any wide and flat bottomed bowl, pan or dish will do) and spread it out to cool with a wooden spoon or paddle.
Sushi rice is dressed with good quality rice vinegar or rice seasoning to give it a sweet and tangy flavour. Use the paddle to mix this in with a slicing motion and then cover the rice with a damp cloth to keep it moist until you are ready to roll.
Filling
Some people are put off giving sushi to kids because they associate it with raw fish. Sashimi is a small and specialist part of sushi cuisine and there are endless tasty fillings and flavours for your maki rolls.
Here are a few ideas:
- Cook and shred some chicken breast and mix it with a tangy Japanese mayonnaise
- Marinade some beef or salmon in a teriyaki marinade for 30 minutes, cook and chop into small pieces
- Use tinned fish such as tuna, salmon or mackerel
- Cook a plain omelette and slice it up
- Chop thin slices of avocado, carrots, cucumber, peppers or spring onions and use them on their own or with any combination of the fish and meat above.
Depending on the age of your child, you may have to do the chopping yourself but choosing the fillings and combinations can be just as fun. When you have decided what kind of maki rolls you want to make, lay all your prepared ingredients out on a chopping board so you can pick and choose as you roll up your sushi.
Rolling
This is the fun bit whether you use a bamboo or silicone rolling mat or a sushi rolling machine. Lay out a sheet of nori seaweed and a thin layer of rice on top and lay out your filling in a strip across the middle. Then you are ready to roll up your sushi. There are lots of ways to make rolls including with the rice on the outside of the seaweed and it is easy to get the hang of it.
Once the rolls are done they will need to be sliced to an inch or so thick using a sharp knife to make sure they hold their form, which may not be a job for the little ones.
Enjoy!
Sushi is not only fun to make with kids, it is fun to eat too. Dipping each delicious sushi roll into little dishes of tasty soy sauce or sesame sprinkles, adding a bit of pickled ginger (maybe not wasabi unless you have a particularly brave child) and pushing the sticky, tasty parcels of rice, seaweed and vegetables into your mouth is the real treat of all that preparation and cooking.
Everyone has different tastes and favourite foods but learning to enjoy cooking and trying new things at a young age is the ideal way to open your child’s mind to a range of exciting culinary experiences later in life. Itadakimasu – Happy Eating!
Valentine’s Day is almost here and, like many of our Western traditions, it has found a place in Japanese culture though they do things a little differently.
On February 14th it is the ladies who have to buy a gift for the special men in their life and that includes husbands, boyfriends, family members and even your boss.
The gifts are usually chocolate or cookies (the cynical history of Valentine’s Day in Japan is it was introduced by the chocolate manufacturers) and can be bought or handmade, depending on how strong your feelings are for the person you are giving it to.
Special chocolate gifts are called honmei-choco and men do think it’s a big deal if they are lucky enough to get given them and are suitably gutted if they don’t get anything. What makes it worse for those unlucky in love men is that ladies also dish out gifts to men they are not in love with but they consider important in their lives such as co-workers and male friends, known as giri-choco.
Valentines Day is so popular that it accounts for more than half of the annual sales of chocolate in Japan. And, if you all think it sounds a bit one sided and unfair, White Day was invented to redress the balance – on March 14th it’s the ladies’ turn to be pampered and spoiled by the men in their life.
This diversion from our western traditions may not go down so well with wives and girlfriends who will still be expecting the five-star treatment this weekend. A happy compromise could be a Japanese take on the romantic dinner for two.
A lot of Japanese food comes in bitesize portions such as sushi rolls and tempura, or can be made small like teriyaki meat kebabs or mini fish cakes. Sharing food by candle light is always a romantic hit and is even more impressive if you have made it yourself, especially as Japanese food is visually so appetising. Cooking a bitesize Japanese menu and sharing it with chopsticks is a unique and special way to show you care rather than supermarket flowers and a box of chocolates.
Valentine’s Day always divides the cynics and romantics but it is a great excuse to make a bit of effort in the kitchen and impress with your culinary skills. And, guys, if you do dare to forget there’s always White Day to fall back on.
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“Green Tea may offer some protection against Lung Cancer” So say Taiwanese Cancer experts who study the disease at a Univercity in Taiwan.
Rates of Cancer are much lower in Asia than other parts of the world and green tea or sencha, some people think is one factor. Among smokers, those who didn’t drink green tea at all were 12 times more likely to develop lung cancer than those who drunk at least one cup of green tea a day.
For More info see the full article on the bbc site here
New Sencha Japanese green tea today!
It’s by YamaMotoYama and it’s just £1.99 for a box.
That’s got to be worth a try!!
