Summer’s finally here and sushi is the perfect food for a roasting hot day as it is great for barbecues, picnics and summer buffets and will fill you up without weighing you down.
This delicious seasonal recipe is very flexible – you can use tinned tuna steaks or tender chunks of raw tuna meat and add the spicy kick with either a sprinkle of chilli powder or a dash of hot or sweet chilli sauce.
Temaki hand rolls are the perfect food for a summer garden party or eating al fresco with friends as you all build your own. Just stuff the cones of nori full of sticky rice and tasty topping and eat immediately. If you are planning a picnic, then get out your rolling mat or sushi magic rolling machine and try making this recipe as fiery maki rolls instead. That’s the beauty of sushi – lots of ways to make it and lots of ways to eat it.
As always, the first step is to make your sticky and delicious sushi rice; you can make it from scratch on the hob or pop it in a rice cooker.
Once it’s cooked, put it in a hangiri or large bowl and mix in some rice seasoning. You can buy ready made rice seasoning but I like to use a dressing made of of 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar, 1 tablespoon of mirin, 2 teaspoons of castor sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt.
While your rice cools you can make the spicy tuna filling and for this version I am going to use raw tuna and chilli powder.
Chop the raw tuna steak into small chunks and mix with 1.5 teaspoons of Japanese mayonnaise and half a teaspoon of chilli powder. You may want to vary the amount and strength of the chilli powder depending on your taste. Make sure the tuna is completely coated in the spicy mayonnaise mixture and you are ready to roll.
Take a sheet of nori seaweed and slice it in half. Put a piece in the palm of your hand with the rough side up. First take a dollop of rice and spread it in a diagonal line across of the nori sheet, then spoon some of the tuna mix on top.
Roll the seaweed up into a cone shape and you have a nice, spicy tuna temaki that’s ready to eat and is great with slices of pickled gari ginger and a crispy green salad.
This recipe also works well with salmon, just make sure you get a nice fresh piece of sashimi-grade fish to get the full flavour of you are going to eat it raw.
Flights in the UK have been grounded on and off by the massive volcanic eruptions in Iceland and the effects of the Eyjafjallajökull ash cloud can be felt even further afield.
The grounded flights have cause chaos for fish traders and sushi restaurants in Japan as it has affected imports of prized Norwegian salmon; a delicacy to the Japanese sushi lover.
Seafood traders on markets like Tokyo’s Tsukiji Fish Market have been forced to turn to places as far flung as New Zealand to source stocks of Pacific salmon even though many clients prefer the Atlantic salmon’s delicate texture and mild taste.
Usually, 90 per cent of Japan’s Atlantic salmon comes from Norway by air. Fresh salmon is far more popular and valuable than frozen produce which is why air travel is essential. As many flights have been unable to get through because of the volcanic ash cloud, salmon stocks are low which has cost implications for the wholesale traders.
Norwegian salmon is served raw for sushi and sashimi in some of the country’s top restaurants and the roe is used for a variety of sushi such as gunkanmaki and temaki rolls and it is also a regular topping on delicious nigiri. It is also sometimes grilled in steaks and served as a standalone main dish.
In February, Japan imported 1,400 tonnes of Atlantic salmon from Norway compared with 150 tonnes from the rest of the world which shows how popular it is. This amount of imported salmon is worth one billion yen or more than £700,000. One major importer in Tokyo told American journalists that, when the volcano first erupted, his company lost 30 million yen (roughly £220,000), in days which is a third of its monthly turnover.
Japan has had to look to New Zealand, Australia and Chile to meet demand with Pacific salmon, even though this is far less popular with consumers and the top sushi chefs. Luckily, here in the UK we have easy access to this fish which is so prized in Japan and the same goes in Iceland itself which is famed for its seafood and has recently seen a surge in the number of sushi restaurants. Iceland has finally caught on to what the Japanese has known for years about the quality of Northern European fish and sushi is now one of the most popular foreign cuisines in the capital Reykjavik.
So it is not just the UK and Europe that continues to be frustrated by the Icelandic volcano as Japanese sushi lovers are also having to compromise. While we are lucky to have the freshest Atlantic salmon on our doorstep and are struggling to leave the country by plane, it may be the ideal time to call up some friends and serve up some delicious sushi and sashimi while we wait for nature to take its course.
The Japanese diet is known for being one of the healthiest in the world but along with the low fat, mineral rich sushi, they still have room for some sweet treats.
There are lots of weird and wonderful Japanese sweets for people with a weakness for confectionary, in lots of different flavours. Chocolate, sweets and biscuits are a culinary market that has grown significantly since the end of the Second World War, helped along by the adoption of popular Western festivals like Valentine’s Day and Christmas.
Pocky is one of the most commonly found sweets and has been a staple of Japanese shop shelves since the 1960s. It consists of pretzel sticks, coated with a variety of different toppings. The original flavour was milk chocolate but now it comes dipped in everything from strawberry or banana to honey and green tea. There is even a mysteriously titled Men’s Pocky which is the dark chocolate version. A similar product called Mikado has recently been released on European markets though purists will tell you that Pocky is the best.
Green tea may not be the first thing that springs to mind when thinking of confectionary but it is a very popular flavour in Japan for deserts, ice cream and sweet treats. It is delicious but has a very distinctive, tangy taste that takes the edge off very sugary dishes. Ginger is often used to the same effect as a desert flavouring with a bit of an edge.
Combining chocolate with biscuit is very common and appeals to the nation’s love of adding texture to its food. With many confectionaries, it also enables them to indulge the popularity of quirky and cute characters. In Japan, home of Manga, cartoon characters are not just loved by children but adults of all ages as well. There are a number of popular character-shaped confectionaries such as Lotte Koala - bite-sized biscuits filled with milk chocolate in the shape of a koala bear with a picture of the cartoon creature printed on the shell.
Other ‘cute’ sweets include fish-shaped Meiji Pucca Chocolate which has a slightly salty, crunchy shell that compliments the smooth chocolate inside and, also made by Meiji, Choco Baby which are small milk chocolate treats printed with stars and smiley faces.
Lots of Japanese confectionaries are ideal for snacking and sharing and combine texture and unusual flavours with classic sweetness. There is an emphasis on unique characters and combinations that may just change your mind about the Western dominance of the sweet food market.
Japanese food is an explosion of flavours colours and textures and pickled fruit and vegetables are an essential part of the culinary experience.
Tsukemono (pickled things) are a far cry from onions or red cabbage and include vegetables, fruits and condiments that are served as an accompaniment, a garnish and even a dish in their own right in Japanese homes and restaurants. The tradition dates back to the days before refrigeration when pickling was an important way to preserve food.
Unlike western pickles, the Japanese don’t often use vinegar as the main preservative, preferring salt or brine which gives the pickles a unique taste and maintains a crunchy texture. There are hundreds of different varieties and combinations of tsukemono, each with a unique flavour which is enhanced by using other popular ingredients in the pickling process such as mirin, sake, soy sauce or miso paste. Most pickles are very flexible in terms of how they can be eaten and what with and add an interesting flavour and texture dimension to different dishes, from sushi to noodles to Japanese curry.
Delicate slices of pickled gari ginger are an essential accompaniment to sushi. They are eaten with the sushi rolls as a garnish or between sushi with different fillings or courses of a meal as a tangy palate cleanser. Ginger is also pickled in thin, red strips known as Beni Shoga which is served as a garnish on hot dishes such as meat dishes and yakisoba (fried noodles).
Daikon radish, known as Takuan is another popular pickled vegetable with a bright yellow colour and sweet, crunchy taste that is very versatile. It is served grated with pork steaks covered in panko breadcrumbs or finely sliced with mixed leaves in salads. It can also be finely sliced and added to sushi or used to flavour stews or hot dishes and is often served at the end of a meal as it is believed to aid digestion.
In Japan, fruit is also pickled and served with savoury dishes. Umeboshi is made from Ume fruits which are described as plums but are more similar in colour and texture to apricots. They have a sour taste and are often stuffed inside onigiri rice balls for a quick breakfast or a lunchtime snack and believed to have numerous health benefits including beating fatigue.
One of the best ways to sample Japanese pickles is to try a mixed selection which are ready available and offer a range of flavours. Fukujinzuke is a selection of seven different vegetables which can be served as a snack or side dish, used to fill onigiri rice balls or to garnish maki sushi. Another great pickle for sushi lovers is Shiba Zuke which is a mix of aubergine, cucumber and ginger.
The great thing about Japanese pickles is you can eat them with almost everything – stews, rice, sushi or even as a quick snack. Whatever your taste there will be a flavour and a texture out there you are bound to love which is a great reason to try something new and unique with your food.
Sushi is not only delicious but now scientists have found that it can change our genes to alter the way we digest food.
Some French marine biologists have found a substance in marine bacteria that breaks seaweed down into digestible pieces. By eating sushi wrapped in nori seaweed, it seems the Japanese and all other sushi lovers have also ingested these bacteria and the gene coding for that digestive enzyme.
The team from Universite Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC) in Paris, made the discovery by chance while studying red algae known as Porphyra of which nori seaweed is a type. They discovered the new enzyme, porphyranase, from bacteria living on the seaweed that break down the algae. They looked through hundreds of gene databases to search for where this unique enzyme might occur and linked it to the gut bacteria of a group of Japanese people.
This means the Japanese digestive system has probably adapted to include this marine bacteria as a result of a sushi rich diet, especially since nori seaweed is dried but eaten raw. It is an amazing discovery as it proves that what we eat and how we prepare it can influence the biological processes for how we consume food.
So, eating sushi wrapped in seawed – maki, gunkanmaki, temaki cones - can change the way our bodies respond to what we eat. It is another great reason for investing a sushi making kit and eating a Japanese diet which is also healthy, low fat and full of vitamins and minerals.
This point was reiterated by American microbiologist, Professor Justin Sonnenburg who wrote an article to accompany the team’s Nature paper. He said: ”Global travel and trade are providing unmatched access to new types of food and perhaps new microbes harbouring novel genes. So the next time you take a bite of an unfamiliar food, think about the microbial inhabitants you may also be ingesting, add the possibility that you will be providing one of your ten trillion closest friends with a new set of [digestive] utensils.”
If you want to sample the finest food in the world then you need to get on a plane to Tokyo – officially the world’s gastronomic capital for 2010.
In late 2009, the meticulous inspectors of fine food from Michelin visited the Japanese capital and gave it an awesome 261 stars, bumping the guide’s home city of Paris into second place for the first time ever. Tokyo restaurants now hold the most number of Michelin stars – 261 in 197 of the cities eateries – and the city also boasts 11 with the prestigious three Michelin star rating.
The Michelin inspectors praised three main elements of Japanese cuisine, the quality of the food, the enthusiasm of Japanese diners to try new things and the vast choice of cuisine available. The Japanese do love to eat out and the Japanese dining experience is all about fresh food, stunning presentation and fantastic hospitality. Food is available everywhere and even most bars provide tasty nibbles or snacks of some kind and not just peanuts and crisps. Tokyo has thousands of cafes and restaurants, many of which are on the high floors of tall buildings with excellent views as well as delicious food.
Some of Tokyo’s three-star restaurants may seem unremarkable but have been praised for the skills of the chef and the freshness of ingredients such as Sushi Mizutani, tucked away in the basement of an office building in the Ginza business district but offering sushi sliced and rolled in front of you and sashimi fresh from the world famous Tsukiji fish market a few streets away. According to Michelin, this unassuming counter is officially the world’s best sushi.
As well as sushi are a range of contemporary Japanese restaurants proving that it is not the country’s only signature dish such as Esaki that serves mackerel marinated in the uniquely Japanese flavour of Miso. The praise is no surprise as Japan has become world renowned for the quality of its ingredients like Wagyu beef from the town of Kobe where the cows are treated like royalty to produce meat of mouth-watering tenderness and flavour.
Attention to detail is at the heart of Japanese cuisine, from sourcing and using the finest ingredients to stunning presentation that celebrates the art of food both with the careful use of colour and dramatic tableware. Japanese diners are treated to a visual feast before they have put anything into their mouth so it’s no wonder that eating out is such a popular pastime.
“Tokyo remains by far the world capital of gastronomy and also has the most three-star restaurants,” said Jean-Luc Naret, director of the Michelin food guide.
The European version of the guide came out in February, cementing Tokyo’s place at the top of the world culinary map, though France still has the edge as a country, just.
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.
Lay out your chosen ingredients as described in the sushi magic
handbook. Grab the sushi roller handles
and bring the roller bar over the ingredients.
2> Roll your sushi!
The special bar holds the fillings in place.
Then when you turn the handles the sushi magic sushi roll maker evenly rolls up the rice
around the ingredients.
3> Shape your sushi roll
Professionally designed moulding allows perfect and
even pressure to compact and accurately shape
the sushi roll Just like only a skilled sushi chef can.
4> Unroll the sushi makers mat
Un-roll the non-stick silicone mat. Using a
table knife, spread tobiko or sesame seed topping on your maki sushi roll.
5> One perfect sushi roll
Makes a perfect compacted sushi roll. Here we’ve
made an inside-out California roll but the sushi magic sushi making kit makes all kinds of sushi rolls, just use your imagination!
6> Slice and Serve!
Slice and serve with freshly mixed wasabi paste. gari ginger and kikkoman soy sauce for the perfect sushi dish. The sushi magic sushi roll maker is now really easy
to clean due to its construction from hygienic materials. it’s so easy!
Quickly and easily produces up to 8 pieces of Nigiri at once
Reproduces the skills of the experienced sushi chef (itame)
No rice mess due to non-stick materials
A great money saver
great for parties
Get authentic sushi easily in your home
Both the maki roller AND the nigiri mould included in the kit!
Free part colour recipe book
The new Sushi Magic – Sushi Making Kit. Makes perfect nigiri and sushi rolls every time. The sushi kit costs just £24.99 and can be bought in the sushi store Click on the image below to watch the sushi lesson video
If you like wasabi, or any other sauce for that matter you can apply it using the
tip of a table knife now.
3> Add the top mould sushi rice
Add the top mould layer and simply spoon on
the rice, compact with the press tool. With Sushi Magic there’s no need to touch the sticky rice with your hands amiking it much cleaner than normal ways of making nigiri.
4> Remove to mould
Remove the top mould to reveal 8 perfectly shaped
rice balls, seafood and wasabi moulded together.
5> Tip out the nigiri sushi
The completed sushi is easily turned out of the mould.
The sushi magic nigiri maker
makes perfect nigiri sushi every time. The sushi magic nigiri maker will also make
separate rice balls for sushi specials like uni
cups and spicy scallop cups.
6> Perfect nigiri!
Look perfect nigiri sushi! just like an expert sushi chef made it.
Sushi Magic nigiri maker is the only mould available with this ability and easy to clean hygienic design.
Next time you tuck into tasty tuna sushi or sashimi, spare a minute to think where it has come from.
The Bluefin Tuna, a mighty fish indigenous to the Atlantic Ocean, has seen an 80% decline in population since the 1970s and sushi has paid a big part in this. The Bluefin can live for 30 years but very few specimens now grow to a mature age and lots of young fish are being caught and fattened up before they have a chance to breed.
The Japanese love Bluefin Tuna; they import 90% of the European stocks; now farm the species in the Pacific Ocean and a single giant tuna once sold for $100,000 on Tokyo’s Tsukiji Fish Market. The fish is a delicacy in Japan and provides most of the tuna used in Sushi due to its tender, dark red flesh that looks similar to raw beef.
Tuna is one of the principle fishes in Japanese cooking. It is used for a range of sushi dishes, cooked and raw – from the wide variety of maki rolls to delicately sliced strips of soft tuna for nigiri and sashimi.
The good news is that there’s no need to give up eating tuna completely, there are other species of the fish that are under less threat from over-fishing and are not critically endangered.
And, there are plenty of other delicious options if you are concerned about the welfare of this majestic fish. The great thing about sushi is the vast choice of fillings – fish, meat or vegetables – which means you can avoid eating the more unusual or endangered delicacies from Japanese cuisine.
More good news for the Bluefin is that the European Commission is backing a campaign to save it by listing it as an endangered species which will ban all international trade in the fish while more research is carried out on its decline, a move that has been welcomed by environmental campaigners.
In the meantime, read the labels or ask your fishmonger where your fish is coming from. It may just mean you can carry on eating your favourite seafood sushi for many more years to come.
