vegetarian hosomaki sushi rolls
I had some vegetarian friends for dinner the other night who were new to sushi and I wanted to prove to them that Japanese food is not always dishes with fish or meat.
There is a wide choice of sushi for vegetarians and I won them over early on with my Red Pepper and Takuan Hosomaki.
I served them as canapés but Hosomaki are also ideal for a lunchtime snack as they are the smallest sushi rolls.
Hosomaki usually have the nori seaweed sheets on the outside. My friends liked them so much they took home my recipe for this delicious veggy roll so I thought I would share it with you.
First, make some Yutaka sushi rice, which takes about 30 minutes, and then transfer it to a large bowl and fold in some sushi rice seasoning.
For the seasoning, mix 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar, 1 tablespoon of mirin, 2 teaspoons of castor sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt.
Or, if you are in a rush, pop some Yutaka microwaveable rice in for 60 seconds and season to taste with 2 tablespoons of sushi vinegar
Sprinkle in some Black Sesame and Sea Salt Shake (gomashio) for extra flavour.
Cut a nori sheet in half and lay it on your sushi magic machine or hand rolling mat and put on a layer of rice, some sliced red pepper and some sliced Takuan radish.
Roll it up and cut into inch long rolls.
Finally, I like to spice up my Hosomaki by mixing wasabi and soy to make a dip and serving the finished rolls with some gari sushi ginger.
Tuck in and enjoy and look out for more recipes coming soon
How to make a sushi roll is one of those things you need to know. The way to make maki sushi is actually not as hard as you would think. After checking out sushisushi.co.uk you should have all the sushi info you need to know how to make sushi like as good as any London sushi bars and maybe even some sushi bars in Japan!To learn how to make maki sushi we must understand that there are three stages to make maki sushi. The first stage of making maki sushi is to prepare the sushi rice. The sushi rice should be done a few hours before you want to make sushi to allow the sushi rice to cool. Check our how to make sushi rice section for more info.
The next stage is to take to cooled, cooked sushi rice and spread it evenly on the nori seaweed sheets. The nori sheet should be on the sushi rolling mat while you do this so the sushi roll doesn’t stick to the work surface. Be sure to spread all the sushi rice evenly to the edges of the nori sheets, leaving a 2 cm gap from the edge facing away from you. The sushi rice should be around 10mm thick.
When you have prepared all the nori sheets with sushi rice, you need to prepare the ingredients to go in the maki sushi roll. Chop the ingredients and place them across the rice in a line from left to right on the sushi rice.
Finally you need to roll the sushi! This is the tricky bit. If you have the correct consistency of sushi rice and correct sushi rolling technique you should be fine. Start rolling the edge that’s closest to you towards the 2cm gap. Roll the sushi roll as tight as you can without squashing it. When you have done one full roll over, tightly squeeze the sushi rolling mat to form the sushi and help it bond together. Then lightly wet the nori sheet on the 2cm gap and finish rolling. This will allow the nori sheet to band and form a closed maki sushi roll.
Don’t worry; it’s going to take practice to make sushi rolls! You get better every time you make sushi rolls.
Now you’ve learnt how to make sushi rolls you’re going to have to chop them into bite size pieces. The key is a large very sharp sushi knife, though any sharp knife will do. Wet the knife so the length of the sushi knife is moist then with a decisive forward and backward motion chop the maki sushi roll into 15mm pieces.
Then comes the fun part – eat it.
If you don’t quite have the nimble fingers try using the sushi@home sushi machines maki sushi kit or the sushi magic – sushi kit for great results.
