The Sacred Art of Eating

A fantastic party atmosphere as the Hares muck in and learn to do sushi!

• Gravlax Sashimi

Now, let’s be honest. There is probably nothing authentic or legit about curing salmon, gravlax style, (albeit with sake and wasabi,) and using it in sushi. This did not mean we did not enjoy making it or eating it. Sometimes there’s a lot to be said for ignorance!

The curing mix consisted of sugar, salt, wasabi paste and sake. This was then smeared on the skinned (by me) salmon, and the whole lot sealed in cling film and weighted down in the fridge for a few days. I’ll admit, it did take a little trust (for all that I’m a chemist in many ways) to accept that this would come out of the fridge ‘cooked’ rather than stinking and rotten.

However, apart from some interesting markings, it came out of the fridge beautifully!

We made a party of this meal by ‘doing’ sushi properly (ish!). Firstly, we ate some of the salmon as straight up sashimi, with just pickled ginger, wasabi and soy. This was delicious and the best way to appreciate the full flavours of the salmon. The closest description I can come up with for it was smoke-less smoked salmon, which makes sense when you think about it.  When we repeat this we’ll probably use more Wasabi in the curing mix, as this was a bit lost in the end product.

To go with the sashimi, and in case anyone got raw-fish overload (although as I said, it was so much like smoked salmon in texture that I needn’t have worried) we decided to have a full participation Maki Party. With a bit of research on VideoJug we found out how to make sushi rice and swotted up on Maki Rolling, something we’d done only once at Keri’s birthday, over a year ago. We prepared the rice in advance and served up slivers of red and yellow pepper and avocado. I demonstrated first, and then we each took it in turns to make maki for the whole table. There was a healthy degree of competition in choosing one’s filling and in the trimming and presentation of maki and a grand wee time was had by all. Even better, I have introduced my parents to the joy of sushi!

A great wee meal to do with friends and family, and honestly, far easier than you might expect. None of us, apart from maybe me, I can’t remember, had ever rolled maki before but our results looked and tasted great. What a party!

Honestly, have a go at doing sushi some time. The kit is easy enough to pick up if you have a large supermarket or asian foodstore nearby, and the two videos I’ve linked to above show you everything you need to know. Avocado, cucumber and peppers make lovely fillings so you don’t need to go down the sashimi (raw fish) route at all. With some wasabi and soy for dipping and some pickled ginger you’ve got a really different starter. Please try it.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS