September 25, 2015
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James Bond Risotto Primavera – Stirred not Shaken

I know it’s not the season for this dish but earlier this week, as the weather here in NY finally turned it’s face to the Fall, I found myself craving a taste of the long lost Spring of 2015.  An hour of shopping later, I had assembled the ingredients for a Risotto Primavera

Making Risotto is an art – its taken me some time to perfect a recipe that works. It is also (sorry!) a little time consuming. However, it’s worth it! There is simply nothing better than this Italian comfort food on a chilly Autumnal eve

Ingredients ready on the board

Ingredients ready on the board

Ingredients

  • 11 oz of washed Carnaroli or Arborio risotto rice (tip – if you can get it, carnaroli is best)
  • 1 pt warm vegetable stock
  • 1/2 oz dried porcini mushrooms
  • 1 cup of Vermouth
  • 1 medium red onion, or a couple of shallots and 3 sticks from a celery heart (tip – the white ones)
  • 1 large clove of garlic, 6-8 asparagus spears, 1 carrot, 6-8 chestnut mushrooms, 1 zucchini (courgette) and 1/2 cup of frozen peas
  • 1 cup of of chopped flat leaf parsley
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Butter
  • 1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
  • Salt & Pepper

Method

  • Place the porcini mushrooms in a bowl and pour around 2 cups of hot water over them, after 20 minutes strain out the mushrooms, roughly chop and set aside. Save the mushroom stock water

    Chopped and ready to go

    Chopped and ready to go

  • Finely dice the onion, celery and garlic
  • Roughly chop the asparagus, carrots, mushroom and zucchini into 1/4 inch (or smaller) pieces
  • Drop a generous knob of butter and a large lug of olive oil into a large thick bottomed saucepan and heat slowly
  • Add the onion and celery and gently fry these stirring until they soften
  • Stir in the garlic and porcini mushrooms until combined
  • Add the rice and stir in until the grains go translucent (tip – if required extra oil can be added to prevent the rice sticking)
  • Pour in the Vermouth and stir until it evaporates
  • Add the remaining vegetables to the pan and stir in slowly

    Stock N' Stirring

    Stock N’ Stirring

  • Then, while constantly stirring, add the stock one ladle at a time to the pot until all the stock is exhausted (alternating vegetable with mushroom stock)
  • After around 20-30 minutes the stock should be absorbed
  • At this point, stir in most of the Parmesan cheese, parsley and seasoning

Serve immediately dusting each bowl with the remaining Parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil. Fall (and Spring) rice perfection

Buon appetito!

September 20, 2015
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My Favorite Sushi Maki Rolls – Spicy Tuna Inside Out

Having written at great length about the tools of the trade for home sushi makers, it seems a crime not to share a favorite recipe for you to try at home. This post explains exactly how I make Spicy Tuna Rolls

Ingredients

Ingredients for Spicy Tuna Mix

Ingredients for Spicy Tuna Mix

  • 5 oz Ground or Minced Tuna (or you can finely chop the same amount of fresh sushi grade tuna)
  • 1 to 1 1/2 tbsp of Kewpie Japanese Mayonnaise
  • 1/2 to 1 tsp of Asian Chili sauce (I use a Thai Sriracha but Chili Oil will work too – you can adjust amount depending on taste)
  • 2-3 Green / Spring Onions (finely chopped)
  • Cooked and seasoned Sushi rice (see my ‘Thank Sushi It’s not Friday’ post)
  • Nori (Seaweed Sheets)

Method

  • To make the tuna filling for the Maki Rolls, add the chopped green / spring onions, the Mayo and Chili sauce to the tuna and hand mix together
  • Cut the Nori sheet to 2/3 size
    Clockwise from left: (1) Nori sheet (2) Cutting the Nori (3) Rice on Nori (4) Tuna Mix on back of Nori (5) Nori ready to roll

    Clockwise from left:
    (1) Nori sheet
    (2) Cutting the Nori
    (3) Rice on Nori
    (4) Tuna Mix on back of Nori
    (5) Nori ready to roll

    its length

  • Place a thin layer of the rice all over the lined dull side of a Nori sheet
  • Dust the rice with a layer of either black or white toasted sesame seeds
  • Flip the rice coated Nori so the seaweed side faces up
  • Then, lay a 1 inch thick track of the tuna mix horizontally slightly off-center along the rice backed Nori
  • Roll and wrap with a Bamboo sushi rolling sheet (see my post ‘Home Made Sushi Revisited’) using pressure to form the sushi roll
  • Take out the sushi roll from the rolling sheet and place join side down on a chopping board
  • Using a Yanagiba knife, slice the Sushi roll into 6 pieces, place artistically on a plate and serve
Sliced Spicy Tuna Maki

Sliced Spicy Tuna Maki

Marvelous Spicy Tuna Maki!!!!

September 19, 2015
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Home Made Sushi Revisited – Some Hints & Tips

When we started out on this blog, one of my first posts, ‘Thank Sushi It’s Friday’ showed our readers that beautiful tasty sushi could be made at home and one could save a small fortune (on Sushi Meals in Japanese restaurants) in the process

Various Nigiri Sushi ready to eat

Various Nigiri Sushi ready to eat

Yesterday, when preparing Sushi for my family’s evening meal,I found myself looking back at that post and I realized that although I’d showed how to make Maki (rolls) and Nigiri (hand formed sushi), I had omitted a few important hints and tips about the tools of the trade, that would really help a budding home sushi chef produce this mainstay of Japanese fishy cuisine.

There are 3 items that I think make life easy for anyone who wants to create sushi at home. Further, given the whole idea home sushi is about saving the hundreds of dollars one often sees on one’s bill at the end of a sushi meal in a restaurant, you don’t need to bust the budget!

The Yanagiba / Yanagi Knife

Yoshihiro Shiroko High Carbon Steel Kasumi Yanagi Sushi Chef Knife 10.5inch

Yoshihiro Shiroko High Carbon Steel Kasumi Yanagi Sushi Chef Knife 10.5inch

This is a special very sharp single-edged 8.5″ to 10.5″+ Japanese knife which is exclusively designed for cutting fish. I started out with a cheap one for $30 / £20 (from H-Mart Asian Store). Since then, I’ve acquired a more expensive one hand crafted by Yoshihiro Shiroko of Japan which is made of carbon steel. This has a razor-sharp

Maki sliced using a Yanagiba Knife

Maki sliced using a Yanagiba Knife

blade that cuts both fish and sushi rolls like a hot knife goes through butter but beware! It can also seriously damage your fingers

Using the right knife speeds up sushi making significantly and enables one to cut even the trickiest, thinnest pieces of fish for Nigiri

A programmable Rice Cooker with fuzzy logic

This will simply cook sushi rice perfectly every time. These counter top machines can be acquired for as little as $30 / £20, such as those made by Aroma which is exactly what I used when I began to make sushi just 5 years ago.

Zojirushi Rice Cooker

Zojirushi Rice Cooker

I now use one made by Zojirushi of Japan.  FYI, Cuckoo manufactures the Rolls Royce of rice cookers if you have $500 / £300, or so, to spare!

You can buy these on Amazon or in H-Mart with ease. Once you have one, you’ll never look back! Rice is the key to Maki and Nigiri.

Over, or under cooked rice = sushi disaster

Bamboo Sushi Roll Mat

To enable one to roll and shape Maki (the sushi rolls) correctly you will need this simple item

Bamboo Rice Mat and wrapped in Saran

Bamboo Rice Mat and wrapped in Saran

These are available for as little as $5 from Amazon or in H-Mart. My tip is to wrap the mat in cellophane / Saran wrap before rolling. This prevents the rice sticking to the mat and makes it a lot easier to clean!

So check out: https://taste2taste.com/2015/06/12/thank-sushi-its-friday/ again, get your tools and make that Sushi. You won’t regret it!