Flavours of home is a series of recipes from around the world cooked by people at home in Otago. This week, Toki Tsuno, from Japan, shows us how to make sushi roll.
Toki Tsuno and his Italian wife, Erica Baffelli, came to Dunedin from Tokyo three years ago.
She took up a position at the University of Otago lecturing in Japanese religious studies, while he spent a year learning English, then continued his profession as a chef.
Sushi is popular here, but in Japan it's a special-occasion treat, he says.
Fish needs to be very fresh to make sushi, so you have to select it carefully, he says.
In Japan, there are more than 100 types of short-grain rice to choose from but here you might find four or five types, he notes.
For sushi, you need short-grain, because it tends to be sticky.
Ingredients such as nori (dried seaweed sheets), Japanese rice vinegar and soy sauce, and wasabi, as well as sushi mats for rolling, are available in Asian grocery stores or the international sections of good supermarkets.
Thanks to Afife Harris.
Salmon and cucumber sushi
2 cups uncooked short-grain rice
4 sheets of nori (dried seaweed)
about 75ml of sushi seasoning vinegar, (or use 3-4 Tbsp Japanese rice vinegar mixed with 1 1/2 tsp salt and 1 Tbsp sugar)
100g salmon
1/4 telegraph cucumber
To serve:
2 Tbsp Japanese soy sauce
squeeze of wasabi
Cook the rice in a rice cooker or saucepan.
It should be sticky.
Cut the cucumber lengthways into four and slice out the centre which contains the seeds.
Cut each quarter lengthways again so you have eight thin sticks.
Remove pin bones from the salmon with tweezers.
Remove the skin.
Cut the salmon into slices then into batons about cm square.
Put the cooked rice into a bowl and mix in the seasoned vinegar little by little, fanning the rice to cool it.
The rice needs to be hot when the vinegar is mixed in, but must be cool to make the sushi or it will affect the nori.
Check the taste.
Lay a piece of nori, dull side up, on a bamboo sushi mat - this helps with rolling.
Spread a layer of sticky rice about cm thick over the nori, leaving a border about 2cm wide along the far edge.
Lay a row of cucumber and salmon along the middle of the rice, then use the mat to help roll up the sushi.
Squeeze it tightly so it holds together.
Repeat with the other pieces of nori.
With a sharp knife, slice the untidy ends off the rolls, and cut into slices about 1.5cm thick.
Serve with a little bowl of Japanese soy sauce for dipping, and a squeeze of wasabi paste.
Sushi is best eaten as soon as possible after it is made.
However, it will keep a few hours covered with a damp cloth or plastic to prevent it drying out.
