SUSHI making - Round One

A couple of months ago, my friends and I decided that we should host a sushi evening, for the following reasons:

1. It sounded like it could be quite romantic as we were two couples participating. * Cooking with a loved always holds a sense of romanticism* . 
2. It would work out a lot cheaper than eating out.
3. It would give us an opportunity to drink on the job.

After purchasing all the necessary equipment & ingredients (total cost amounting to R250), we ventured off to find a website that showed us exactly how to prep and roll the sushi (We used makemysushi.com).

Of the entire procedure, the rice making was the most difficult. The website hosts its own way of preparing the rice, however we found that we needed to boil the rice longer and add more than the recommended rice vinegar. This however resulted in a "too-sticky" rice which honestly tasted a little like sour-dough.

Nonetheless, we marched on. Here is a picture of our first ever Salmon California rolls.

You can see that the rice looks a little sticky, however apart from the "bum-end" piece on the top center, I think I managed to roll pretty decent California rolls :)

We decided to use Vodka in addition to Rum for our daiquiris.

 As you may notice, our ingredients were a little peculiar, majority of the table being taken over by the Drink ingredients than the sushi ingredients. Our friend, Martin made sure we were all taken care of by mixing rounds of Strawberry Daiquiris (with fresh strawberries only please!). If you are looking for a fantastic strawberry dacquiri recipe see: drinksmixer.com/drink2268.html - simply add a little more rum and fresh frozen strawberries and you are ready to go.

Show-Off

Back to the sushi: We decided to try our own variation of Tempura Prawn California rolls. My honest recommendation is to simply make sure that your prawn are 100% cooked - Fry them without the batter before you deep-fry them if you have to, just make sure that when you cut the prawn after it has been cooked, that the meat is WHITE and not luminous white or "see-through" in any way.

All-in-all, it was a wonderful experience. We ended up making tons of different varieties of sushi, each one unique. 

Of course fatty has already dished up her food :)

The expeirence would have to however only receive a 5/10. I realized that even though sushi may be expensive at restaurant, there is a reason for it (besides the fact that it has become a fashionable trend in South Africa in recent years), the process is not as easy as it looks.

I was unlucky enough to devour some of the uncooked prawns and the sticky rice too did not sit very well with me, so you can only imagine the nausea that followed. It is however a fun activity that should be tried by all sushi lovers, as long as you remember that the art of perfecting sushi takes around 8-10years in the traditional sense. Here in South Africa though, I do feel that the market has been over-flooded with the cuisine and because of it, the value and tradition of sushi has been lost. There are however amazing restaurants with very talented chefs and too-die-for sushi selections, so of course it is all relative.

My favourite sushi restaurant remains Willoughby's - a bit pricey, however you are GUARANTEED an amazing plate of sushi every time. Just make sure to ask them to cut the pieces into 10 and not 8, as those suckers can be a little hard for some to put into their mouths. Also, the more pieces you have, the longer the meal lasts :)

with love,

♥