Tag: sushi
Tomato and mange tout scattered sushi recipe
Scattered sushi is a nice summer dish for the bento as the vinegared rice helps it to stay fresher for longer. But, you can eat it any time of the year! Here the rice is covered with chopped, deseeded cherry tomatoes from the vine, chopped, blanched mange tout, and toasted sesame seeds. In the top part of the bento is teriyaki chicken, salted edamame beans and soy sauce eggs (with some vinegar and sugar added to the mixture to preserve and to cut through the strong soy sauce taste).
There are some great scattered sushi recipes (including this one) in the book Sushi: Taste and Technique by Kimiko Barber.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup of raw Japanese rice
- Konbu
- Splash of sake
- 4-6 tbsp sushi seasoning or rice vinegar
- Packet mange tout
- Packet cherry tomatoes
- 1 tbsp white sesame seeds, toasted
METHOD
- Place the raw rice in your rice cooker as usual, and add the konbu and sake, along with the required amount of water. This should make enough rice for two bento boxes.
- When the rice is done, allow it to steam for 10 minutes, then remove and place it in a dampened, flat container. Sprinkle over the sushi vinegar, then fold and fan the rice (using a wet spatula) until no more steam rises from it. Cover with a damp towel and leave to sit until cool.
- Blanch the mange tout and slice thinly on the diagonal. Deseed the cherry tomatoes and chop them into wedges.
- Spread a mixture of the mange tout and tomatoes over the top of the rice, then sprinkle on the sesame seeds.
Scattered summer sushi
Late to the party again… here I am with scattered summer sushi in October. To be fair, I did come up with this recipe in May, but also, you can eat this any time of year, whether the weather’s sunny, or not. It’s the kind of dish that works better when it’s hot, but it’s still pretty nice around here even in autumn…
And yes, I did get carried away with decorating this, but it was worth it. So pretty! And not too much hassle to prepare, in the grand scheme of things.
INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups Japanese rice (around 430g)
- 6 tbsp sushi rice vinegar (or check label)
- 1 tbsp sake (optional)
- 1 piece dried konbu (optional)
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tsp cornflour
- Large pinch salt
- Pinch sugar
- Vegetable oil
- 1 Cucumber
- 1 Carrot
- Handful mange tout (cooked)
- 4 tofu pouches (optional)
- 16 large prawns (shrimp)
- 1/2 cup edamame beans (cooked)
METHOD
- Make your sushi rice – I recommend you buy a rice cooker, as it takes all of the guesswork and stress out of cooking rice. Mine cost me about £10 three years ago and is still working fine. Firstly, wash the rice thoroughly and leave it to soak for half an hour. Then, drain and add your sushi rice to the same quantity of water in your rice cooker. Add the sake and konbu if using, then switch on and leave to cook. Once it has finished, leave it to rest for 15 minutes.
- Turn the rice out into a damp, flat container (like a Pyrex oven dish) and add the sushi rice vinegar. Using a damp wooden spoon, turn the rice gently to coat it in the seasoning. At the same time, fan the rice to cool it and help it to absorb the dressing. Continue until no visible steam rises from the rice, and place it under a damp kitchen towel.
- Make thin Japanese omelettes by combining the eggs, egg yolk, salt and sugar in a bowl. Add the cornflour dissolved in 4 tsp water. Heat the oil in a frying pan, and add enough oil to coat the base. Thinly cover the pan with the egg, and heat until almost set. Then, turn the omelette over to finish it off. Do not allow it to colour. Continue until all the egg has been cooked, then roll the omelettes up and shred them finely.
- Prepare the carrot by peeling it and cutting it into thin discs. Then, using a flower-shaped cutter, cut the discs into flower shapes.
- Use your cucumber to make a pretty garnish. A simple method is to cut the cucumber thinly on a diagonal, cut through it to the middle, and then twirl the ends in opposite directions (see picture).
- If you’re using them, drain the tofu pouches and shred finely. Cut the mange tout at sharp diagonals.
- Divide the sushi rice into four bowls. Scatter over the shredded tofu, omelette and edamame beans. Finally, arrange the carrots, cucumber and prawns.
Inari Sushi bento
This pretty little bento is one of my favourites – it’s elegant and healthy… completely unlike me! Inside is sesame vinegar aubergine and spicy soy sauce cucumber, as well as soy sauce and balsamic vinegar chicken.
Recipe for inari sushi
INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups hot, cooked Japanese rice
- 3 tbsp liquid sushi seasoning
- 1 tbsp black sesame seeds
- 6 inari skins
METHOD
- Pour the sushi seasoning over the rice, then turn and fan until cooled and no longer steaming. Leave to get completely cold before stirring in your black sesame seeds.
- Open your packet of inari skins, and slit open along the longer side, carefully pulling the edges apart to make a pocket. Fill with the rice and place in the bento rice side up.
Notes
You might want to trim the inari skins down so that they fit in your bento, as some can be taller than your bento is deep. Generally, cutting them in half will make them the right size. Or, you can simply lay a full size piece on its side.
This recipe originally appeared in 501 Bento Box Lunches, published by Graffito Books.
British bacon and asparagus sushi
Even though nobody cares but me, every so often I sort of get myself into this little crusade to link together British and Japanese cooking. Don’t laugh, it’s actually not completely far fetched. Did you know that some very essential Japanese sauces, like okonomiyaki and tonkatsu sauce, are based on Worcestershire sauce? Did you also know that curry rice came to Japan from India by way of British companies? Come on, you can’t tell me you thought that brown gloop came from anywhere but the UK…
So, every so often I come up with something that’s sort of Japanese, but using British ingredients, and it’s never worked so well as it did with this scattered sushi recipe. It’s really simple, and it’s really good – and it’s great for hot summer days, too. Probably one of the main reasons this works is because the vinegar in the sushi rice dressing mimics the acidity of tomato ketchup. Hey, whatever it is, it tastes lovely.
INGREDIENTS
-
2 cups Japanese rice (around 430g)
-
6tbsp sushi rice vinegar (or check label)
-
1 tbsp sake (optional)
-
1 piece dried konbu (optional)
-
2 eggs
-
1 egg yolk
-
2 tsp cornflour
-
Large pinch salt
-
Pinch sugar
-
Vegetable oil
-
Packet streaky bacon (smoked or unsmoked – your choice!)
-
500g asparagus tips
METHOD
-
Make your sushi rice – I recommend you buy a rice cooker, as it takes all of the guesswork and stress out of cooking rice.
-
Firstly, wash the rice thoroughly and leave it to soak for half an hour. Then, drain and add your sushi rice to the same quantity of water in your rice cooker. Add the sake and konbu if using, then switch on and leave to cook. Once it has finished, leave it to rest for 15 minutes.
-
Turn the rice out into a damp, flat container (like a pyrex oven dish) and add the sushi rice vinegar. Using a damp wooden spoon, turn the rice gently to coat it in the seasoning. At the same time, fan the rice to cool it and help it to absorb the dressing. Continue until no visible steam rises from the rice, and place it under a damp kitchen towel.
-
Make thin Japanese omelettes by combining the eggs, egg yolk, salt and sugar in a bowl. Add the cornflour dissolved in 4 tsp water. Heat the oil in a frying pan, and add enough oil to coat the base. Thinly cover the pan with the egg, and heat until almost set. Then, turn the omelette over to finish it off. Do not allow it to colour. Continue until all the egg has been cooked, then roll the omelettes up and shred them finely.
-
Fry the bacon until very crispy. Snip into small pieces.
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Steam the asparagus, and when cooked, remove the tips and slice the stems into small coins.
-
Divide the rice into four bowls, and top with the bacon, asparagus and omelette.
There you go, a summery fry-up. Well, sort of.
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