Simple Sushi
Hey guys! Oh my god, this was the hardest recipe I've ever done at home but it was so fun to see the finished result so I had to include it. Here is my first Asian inspired dish and it was a real challenge to create.
Asian food is such an odd thing to try and explain because of the insane diversity of the different cultures. Ten years ago, I first visited Japan and I was really amazed at how Japanese people saw Western cuisines, because they kind of recreate their own version of a lot of European foods. The best part was on Christmas day, after being away from home doing my lil modelling shit, having the owner of the Ryoken we were staying at invite us to her sons restaurant. I was a teenager, so if you can visualise skinny alien me, literally exploring this country I thought was such a fantasy land and this confirmed it.
The high street we had spent hours walking up and down was a facade to a mall below the ground, and out of what seemed to be like a secret door, the lady showed us the way to an Italian restaurant where they had prepared a combination of Christmas food with spaghetti. It was so bizarre but done with absolute kindness. It was also extremely surreal to see the backs of the private homes lift up garage like doors to have minibars, all the way along the river in the centre of Takadanobaba. Just an amazing place to be.
Sushi is a go-to for any vegan, but it's a hard one so I tried my best!
Ingredients
Sushi Rice
Paper Seaweed
Mirin
Rice Vinegar
Salt
Avocado
Tofu
Cucumber
Sesame Seeds
Cress
Soy Sauce (for dipping)
Chilli Sauce
Vegan Mayo (cream of your choice)
Miso Paste (vegan)
So let's start off with the Sushi rice. You have to wash this shit for literally like five minutes and the proportion of water to rice, needs to be 330ml water, to 500g rice. Now do you guys know the sushi rice you see at Yo Sushi? It's in like a washing machine that keeps it moving? You have to really keep it moving and boil it, keep it simmering for ten minutes. Then once the ten minutes is over, stick the lid on the pan of your pot and leave it for 35 minutes off the hob to steam. If you have too little water it will have chewy parts to the rice, so keep an eye on it and if it needs more cooking, try it again. Then add two tsp of rice vinegar, one of mirin and a dash of salt.
Then prepare the ingredients. I wanted to try an 'Inside Out' roll with tofu, cucumber and avocado. I also lined vegan mayonnaise and a dash of chilli for flavour. Use way less rice than you think, make sure it's super tight and get the sharpest knife you have to cut it. I soaked the seaweed for a little second before adding to a bamboo roll and squished it all up.
Be prepared to get in a mess, it's not gonna look perfect and just have fun. They taste so great and are simple, so I served with some miso soup which I mixed with some scallions and seaweed. I also thought the living cress looked super cute on the plate. I sprinkled some more chilli, soy and some sesame seeds over and it came together perfectly!
Let me know if you try these out at home!
