SUSHI!

So, today I made sushi! Yay! I got the idea to make my own sushi while at Waitrose, shopping for cleaning supplies. I went down the 'ethnic foods' aisle to get some more soy sauce, I saw a box of sushi rice and thought to myself 'I should make sushi!'

A quick visit to Chinatown to stock up on more sushi supplies found me spending 20 quid on the following:

• 2 packs of seaweed sheets (10 per pack)
  
• 1 box of sushi rice (will need to buy more, cheaper at the asian grocery store)
  
• 1 cucumber
  
• 1 avocado
  
• 1 bunch of spring onions
  
• 1 pack of crab-sticks
  
• 1 pack of salmon trimmings
  
• 1 pack of pre-cooked shrimp
  
• 1 huge bottle of soy sauce
  
• 1 pack of chopsticks (can't eat sushi with a fork!)
  
• 2 mini plates
  
• 1 tiny bowl for soy sauce
  
• 1 wooden paddle
  
• 1 bottle of rice vinegar
  
• 1 wooden bamboo rolling mat
  
• 1 bag of sesame seeds
  
• 1 packaged of unagi (seasoned eel)
  

I used the mini-table in our little kitchen and laid out all my supplies for the sushi making:

So far we've got a knife, a towel, cutting board, tub of water, sushinori, sesame seeds, soy sauce, avocado, sushi rice, rice vinegar, plates and chopsticks, a damp cloth, my bamboo spoon thing and my rolling mat. Yay! You'd best take a look while it's nice and clean, since it doesn't stay like this for long...

Oooh yes, look at that arrangement.
First off, I started by rinsing out 1 cup of sushi rice. Yes, I wrote down instructions off the internet and you can see those to the left.
I put 1 cup of sushi in the pot with 1 and 1/4 c of water. I will add less water next time, because the rice was slightly too wet. Left that to boil, the covered and let it simmer for another 6 minutes.
I then sliced up my slimy avocado (gross!), as well as the cucumber and some spring onions for good measure.
For fish I have some smoked salmon trimings (will buy whole salmon next time, the trimming were a bit too small), some pre-cooked shrimp and some fake crab logs.
So, after the rice cooled, I added 1/6 c of rice vinegar, 2/3 tbsp of sugar and 2 tsp of salt - miced it all together and got ready to go! I was making inside-out rolls (I like those better!), so I coated the outside of the rice with sesame seeds. I would've liked to use a bit of roe, too - but didn't see it at the store and I'm not sure I'd use enough roe to make it worth my while.
After that I flipped the sheet over, added the crab, avocado and cucumber and rolled it all together! The only hitch in my plan was that the knife we have in the house is horribly dull! Like, so dull I probably couldn't even break my own skin. Boo! So I may have massacred the sushi a bit trying to cut it, which was too bad since it looked so pretty as a log!

Either way I did manage to cut it, and made another roll of salmon and cucumber, which was also inside-out. I also made a couple little hand rolls of shrimp and a ball of rice, since I didn't think I could eat three whole rolls on my own. That's 6-8 peices per roll!
But, despite the auful cutting, they turned out rather good! The crab ones were my favorite, since the salmon bits were a bit odd. The shrimp were also quite tasty.
Don't mind the mess. Sushi-making is a complicated procedure, after-all. heh. Cleanup wasn't nearly as much fun as the making-of.
But all in all it was a very sucessful (and TASTY!) adventure. Next time I made sushi I will break out the eel, although I will definitely need a new knife. I'm sure I can get a cheap one at Sainsbury's, and then I can save it just for those events where I need a super-sharp knife.

Mmmmm unagi.

Anyways, I think this definitely beats eating out - price wise, although I can't do fancy things like dragon rolls or tempura - but for those everyday cravings I think I'll be making more sushi at home.

In fact, I'm craving some again. Maybe tomorrow...