Sushi

The term sushi is used for many kinds of bite-sized pieces of vinegared, most commonly topped with fish, or rolled in nori.
Sushi were invented in the early 19th century. Before fish was kept about one year in a marinade before being eaten, while the sushi, often topped with raw fish, has to be extremely fresh.

Ingredients:

For the rice:

• 2 cups of round-grain rice
• 2 ts vinegar
• 2 ts sugar
• 1/2 ts salt

For the filling/topping:

• sushi-nori (seaweed sheets), for the maki-sushi (sushi rolled in a seaweed sheet)
• raw filet from very fresh fishes (salmon, thuna, etc) [better use smoked salmon than not fresh enough raw fish...]
• shrimps
• lobster
• surimi
• crab meat
• ham (raw) or beef carpaccio
• vegetables (cumcumber, avocado, etc)
• japanese omelette in very thin slices [for 3 eggs: 1 ts vinegar, 1 ts sugar, 1 cs salt and 1 cs soy sauce]

For the decoration (optional):

• capers
• roasted sesame seeds
• lettuce
• raped carrot

For the dressing:

• Japanese soy sauce
• wasabi

How to prepare the rice:

1. Place it in 750 mL cold water
2. Leave it on a medium fire until it boils
3. Cover, reduce the fire and simmer for 20 minutes
4. Leave it in the cooking pot for 10 minutes without removing the cover
5. Add the vinegar sauce

Vinegar sauce: bring together the vinegar, sugar and soy sauce, and heat slowly for the sugar to melt

How to make nigiri-sushi (the well-known shape):

Don't forget first to wet your hands (keep a bowl of water close by, because your hands always need to be wet while confectioning sushi - as well as the knives that you may use to cut the fish)

1. Take some of the rice, make a bite-sized ball with it, put it in the palm of your hand and flatten it slightly
2. Mold it in the shape of a leaf
3. Top it with:

- a slice of raw fish (cut the fish in such a way that its size fits with the shape of the riceball)

- or some fish eggs

- or some of the minced japanese omelette

You can decorate it with capers, roasted sesame seeds, or small pieces of avocado

How to make maki-sushi (rolled in nori):

• Place the nori sheet on a makisu (bamboo mat)
• Cover the nori with a layer of rice, leaving at least 1 or 2 cm uncovered on the sides (if there is not enough rice on the extremities of the roll, it can be added later)
• On the center of the rice-line, arrange the filling ingredients on a rather narrow strip
• Roll the makisu, starting with the side where the rice is the closest to the edge. Keep a light but constant pressure while doing it
• Use a sharp knife to cut the roll in equal portions (each maki-sushi should be approximately 2,5 cm)
  

Ideas for variations:

• You can add some roasted sesame seeds to the rice before making the sushi
• For a spicier taste, you can smear a bit of wasabi on the surface of the rice layer of the maki
• You can put a thin japanese omelette on the surface of the nori before the rice
• It's possible to roll your maki-suhi inside out to obtain uramaki-sushi (the tip is: use a plastic film on your makisu, if you don't want the rice to stick on it !)
• You also can make a normal maki, and roll again in an external layer of rice (decorate the rice with seasam seeds)
• If you want to use the nori but find it hard to give a nice shape to your maki-sushi roll, you can replace it by temaki [literaly "hand"(te)-rolled(maki)": put the rice and the other ingredients on pieces of nori (the size of an individual sushi), but instead of rolling it, just give it the shape of a small cone