Improvised sushi

Ingredients

Ingredients:

– nori algae
– “sticky rice”
– cucumber
– bell pepper
– carrot
– mayonnaise

Preparation:

Cook the rice with some rice vinegar and let it cool.
On a bamboo sushi roll mat, place one sheet of nori algae and one layer of rice. Cover the algae except 1 cm on one side.
Place the other ingredients along a line in the centre of your rice square.
Start rolling the entire mat and make sure the roll is sealed well.
Cut in smaller rolls and serve with soy sauce and wasabi paste 🙂

et volià!

This modified version was rather improvised. I had no crab meat or else, so the rolls are vegetarian. Also, I realised I had no mayonnaise, so I substituted it with a little cream cheese mixed with the tip of a spoon of chipotle paste: some Mexican smoky kick! Definitely not Japanese, but it turned out well 😉

A taste of Japan

Easy and tasty!

Chicken karaage
Ingredients for 2 people:

– 2 chicken thighs

-1 big garlic, grated

– 3 tablespoons of soy sauce

– 1 tablespoon of mirin (sweet sake) or sherry

– Potato flour or corn flour (Maizena)

– Corn or sunflower oil for deep frying

Preparation:
Mix the garlic with the soya sauce and mirin. Cut up the chicken thighs into bite-sized pieces and add it to the mix. Marinate for 30-40 minutes.
Heat the oil. Toss in enough flour into the marinated chicken so that each piece is completely coated. Fry the chicken pieces a few at a time until a deep golden brown.
Drain well, and eat with a squeeze of lemon juice.

Sunomono salad
Ingredients for 2 people:

– 1 cucumber

– 1 tablespoon of wakame seaweed

– 1/3 cup of rice vinegar

– 1 tablespoon of white sugar

– 1 tablespoon of mirin

– Salt

– 1/2 teaspoon of minced fresh ginger root

Preparation:

Cut cucumbers in very thin slices, mix with some salt and leave them for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, put the seaweed in water (they usually sell it dehydrated).
In a bowl mix vinegar, sugar, mirin and ginger. Mix well. Squezze the cucumber to eliminate extra liquid and place it in the bowl and stir so that cucumbers are coated with the mixture. Refrigerate the bowl for at least 30 minutes before serving.

(In the picture you can also notice some Yakisoba noodles. This time I used Maggi’s Yakisoba Classic, they’re really tasty) 😀

California roll / maki sushi

This takes a little while to prepare, so I usually do it on weekends. You cannot rush when it comes to Japanese food! 😀
Ingredients:

– 500 g of white rice (I use the short Spanish one, very similar to the Japanese -only cheaper-, but of course you can buy the Jap one too).

– Nori (Japanese algae)

– Rice vinegar

– Mirin

– 1 cucumber

– 1 carrot

– Surimi or smoked salmon

– Wasabi

– Soy sauce

– Ginger

– Mayonnaise

– Sugar

– Salt

– A sushi mat
There are different ways to boil the rice; I usually wash it before boiling it to get rid of the starch and I cook it for 15 minutes. We must drain it well and add the mixture that will make it perfect for the maki.
– Mix for the rice: 70 ml of rice vinegar, 5 ml of mirin, 50 g of sugar and 10 g of salt.

Add the mixture to the rice when it’s still warm and spread it on a flat surface so it cools down.

Meanwhile, prepare the maki filling, cutting the cucumber (part without seeds only), a carrot and crab (surimi) in thin sticks.
They are also very good with strips of smoked salmon and avocado.
Place the nori on a sushi mat (covered with transparent film). Spread the rice on a regular basis on the nori, leaving a margin of 1.5 cm per side.
Place on top a bit of mayonnaise, cucumber, carrot and surimi. Roll the mat, pressing and shaping it. The foil prevents the algae from sticking to the mat and also protect it if we leave the maki uncut in the refrigerator for a while.
Before serving, cut into slices of 1.5 cm with a sharp knife and slightly damp. It is served with soy sauce, wasabi and ginger.