The Adventures of Sushi Stu

The Japanese diet is well known for being one of the healthiest in the world – it is low in fat, high in carbohydrates and rich with fresh fruit and vegetables and lots of seafood.

national seefood fortnight

September 4-20^th is National Seafood Week (yes this is the title even though it’s a fortnight) which aims to encourage people to eat more of any edible entity that comes from the sea including fish, shellfish and seaweed.

Sushi is well known for being low- fat, healthy and filling for a number of reasons but mostly because of the delicious fresh seafood. Fish and shellfish are low fat and full of good stuff like vitamins, minerals, omega-3 fatty acids and essential protein. Dieticians recommend we eat fish twice a week and I plan to get my fill with sushi.

Sushi is as much a visual feast as a culinary one and fish is a big part of this. Imagine rows of nigiri on an elegant, white serving plate, topped with plump king prawns or thick slices of juicy salmon.

Maki rolls are filled with everything from fresh tuna, salmon, fish roe, crayfish, prawns, squid and eel (unagi) which is a popular delicacy. Seafood in sushi rolls is served cooked or raw (sashimi) but offers the same health benefits either way.

Seaweed is harder to slip into a western diet as we don’t traditionally know how to cook it or eat it so sushi is an ideal way to enjoy it. You can use sheets of nori seaweed for all types of sushi or you can buy packets of dried wakame seaweed which you can add to soups and stocks and even use for an oriental-style salad.

National Seafood week is an excellent opportunity to eat more of your favourite Japanese food and introduce it to friends and family. If you are stuck for inspiration, just get a sushi recipe and check out all the different fish-based dishes you can try.

The Japanese enjoy the longest lifespan on the planet and have much lower rates of heart disease, osteoporosis, breast and prostate cancer than many other countries. Is it any wonder when their food is healthy, tastes great and is a visual treat to behold.

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You may have noticed that I have a slight obsession with perfect sushi rice but it is so important to get it right.

Perfect fluffy and sticky rice is the main ingredient to delicious sushi- get it right and you can shape it into a million different sushi rolls or nigiri; get it wrong and you might be picking it out of your teeth for weeks or watching your sushi disintegrate in your hands.

sushi oke, hangiri bowl

A couple of weeks ago I was singing the praises of a rice cooker which is the favoured cooking method of the Japanese (and they know their rice). However, for all you purists out there it will come as no surprise to learn that you need a few more tools to get the job right.

First things first, pop your rice and water in your rice cooker as per the instructions and leave it for 10-15 minutes to fluff up perfectly. Once it is done, the next step is cooling which is just as important as cooking. The Japanese use a Hangiri Bowl which is a traditional wooden bowl. It has a flat bottom and is usually about 30cm wide, though ones used in restaurants can be as big as a metre wide.

Once your rice is in the Hangiri you need to mix in the dressing. I have given you a recipe for this before but can be as simple as sushi vinegar and rice seasoning which comes in lots of varieties. How the dressing is mixed in is also important. Rather than stirring, the correct method is to slice through the rice using cutting motions with a flat bamboo paddle known as a shamoji.

Finally cover the rice with a a cloth (fukin as it’s known in Japanese or teatowel as it’s known in my kitchen) and leave it to cool right down. Now you can shape it into any type of sushi you want – gunkanmaki (warship sushi), maki rolls, nigiri – all you need now is some nori seaweed, wasabi, pickles and the topping of your choice.

Follow these simple steps and your rice will be perfect everytime and you can roll, ball, stick and mould in minutes.

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