Leith's Warm Sushi Salad

I lost my sushi virginity at the relatively ancient age of 23.  I was going through a difficult time and a good friend phoned me and told me he'd take me out for a swanky dinner in London to cheer me up.  I was cheered merely by his call because I had a little crush on him and the thought of dinner together made they dark day suddenly seem rosy.  He asked where I'd like to go and being completely indecisive and not knowing London very well, I said I'd leave it up to him.

He met me from the tube and walked me past many fabulous restuarants around Long Acre and Covent Garden before arriving at the doorway to a Japanese restaurant.  He asked if this was okay and not wanting to seem fussy/difficult/demanding I nodded a hesitant consent and stepped inside.

I'm not *that* old but I swear a decade ago, you couldn't buy Sushi in the local Tesco Express (did they even exist then??) so the concept was still novel to someone as green and naive as I was then.  He's a very traditional, slightly posh chap so I left the ordering up to him.  A nine course taster meal at £40 a head.  A lot of money in those days when you've not long left uni, have a huge student loan to pay off and can't actually afford to buy yourself a winter coat, let alone go Dutch on a meal (plus the drinks) like that.

I did at least know that I'd be expected to eat raw fish, but nothing prepared me for the arrival of caviar the size of Maltesers and something that looked remarkably like fish eyes.  I did manage to enjoy some bits like the gorgeous tempura prawns and the vegetarian sushi.  But it was spoiled by him betting me that I could eat the rather odd ball of pea-green paste on the side of one dish without my eyes watering.  The deal was that if I won, he'd pay for us both.  And if he won I'd settle up.

Of course, I lost (I just about held onto my dignity before I had to dash off to the ladies to fix my mascara) and whilst I was gone, he proceeded to order a rather expensive bottle of wine to toast my first foray into the world of Japanese food.

Needless to say, the bill hurt more than the wasabi and maxed my previously just-shy-of-the-limit credit card right out.  I spent the rest of the winter without a coat.

Luckily, it didn't put me totally off sushi and I'd love to have that meal over again so that I could appreciate it.  And in case you were wondering, we are still friends.  We don't speak often and see each other even less, but I count him as one of those people you can call on in a time of crisis or happiness.  Life and work just gets in the way far too often.  Last time I saw him I accidentally locked him outside of a meeting room in the snow.  It wasn't revenge, honestly!

Sharing that tale makes me wish I could go back in time and give that me a hug and tell her that things got better and a lot different and that she'll become a survivor.  What doesn't kill us only makes us stronger!

Anyway enough of the deep stuff!  The Nori, sushi rice and the wasabi I used when I made my own sushi back in January has been clogging up my store cupboard and so this recipe seemed like the perfect alternative to all the faff of trying to make perfect sushi shapes.

When I made it, it didn't look like much but it was really filling.  It's probably double the amount of sushi you'd get in one of those pre-packaged lunch boxes.  And I bet if you found it in a restaurant it would be called something trite like 'Deconstructed Sushi' and come with an astronomical price tag.

Serves 4 - Adapted from Leith's Simple Cookery

• 225g/8oz sushi rice
• 4 tbsp sushi rice seasoning (I used Clearspring)
• Wasabi paste
• 1/2 cucumber, peeled and diced
• 225g/8oz smoked salmon, sliced (I used Waitrose Smoked Salmon Trimmings)
• 1 avocado pear, diced
• 2 sheets Nori - shredded
• Japanese Pickled Ginger to serve (I didn't have any of this so decorated with bits of salmon)

1. Cook the rice according to the package instructions.
2. Mix the sushi seasoning with enough Wasabi paste for your taste and mix with the rice.
3. Stir through the cucumber, avocado, smoked salmon and most of the shredded Nori.
4. Divide between serving plates and garnish with the shredded Nori and ginger

Teriyaki Chicken

Bad things that happened today.

1) Things at work.  Must not blog about them.  Not that bad.  Don't want to get into trouble.  Not one of the best days I've had in the office (and not the worst either).  Compounded by my still present head cold and the feeling that my brain might just explode at any given point.  I kept smiling.  I hope nobody noticed.

2) I took the opportunity on getting home to attempt to gain some spare time later in the evening by cooking a batch of granola for the husband.  I didn't let Miss A help.  She exacted revenge by sneaking into the kitchen and whacking the oven temperature up from 130c to 220c.  I was only alerted to this as Tom in the Onion Van arrived with my weekly shop, thus giving me the option of leaving Miss A on the doorstep with a stranger to save the house from burning down or just smiling at Tom and pretending that I was meant to be burning things in my oven.

3) The husband took the little dog for a walk.  He opened the front door.  She slipped her lead and shot off.  The husband closed the front door, looked at me and announced 'The dog's escaped...'  After a frantic few minutes of dispatching the husband with instructions on places to look for a black sausage dog - who can outrun greyhounds and had a 30 second head start - in the pitch black, I wrestled the child into her coat and wellies, donned the closest pair of shoes to hand, shot out the door and stood on the street like a fishwife yelling 'Rolo' (this is the name of the dog, incidentally).  Our neighbour's front door opened and he informed me that the husband had located the dog five minutes previously and had taken her for a walk.  I smiled sweetly and thanked him.

4)  Making tea.  Brand new, 1kg packet of basmati rice.  Split.  Everywhere.  The smile started to waver.

And so here I am, hoping that in the next 29 or so minutes, nothing else will go wrong (I'm hoping to head to bed at 9.30pm).  It's 9.01pm as I type.

Sticky teriyaki chicken and rice

Obviously none of these are very big things.  Far worse things happen to people every day.  These are just a few of the little trivialities that are sent to try us.  What doesn't kill us is supposed to make us stronger.  We shouldn't sweat the small stuff.  And yet those things are the things that are likely to send me ever so slightly potty.  I can deal with big crises like a swan on a pond.  Little disasters, and I tend to inwardly melt down - sometimes with a few exterior cracks showing all is not well inside.

But the premise of this blog is what's keeping me ticking along.  The anchoring feeling that before midnight, every day without fail, I will both cook something I've never cooked before (or at least try a new version of a recipe) and have sat and written about it.  Somewhere between bad thing #2 and #4 I had another moment when I thought 'I can't be bothered to do this.  It's trivial.  What's the point?  Nobody would really care if I gave up this blog'.  But over 150 posts in, I would care if I didn't make it to post 366 (or 369 based on the days I've double-blogged).

The husband asked me what I'll do once I've gotten to September 26th, 2012 and I've finished this self-imposed mission.  I hadn't thought about that.  Suddenly I'll have time on my hands again.  The energy will have to be channelled elsewhere because this blog is really a coping mechanism to get me from one day to the next some times.  So if anyone has any bright ideas, please feel free to make suggestions.  I've got another 211 days to think up something else.

In the meantime, back to food and today's recipe.  A quick chicken dish from the lovely Lorraine Pascale's Home Cooking Made Easy.  Beginning to love this book.  I don't have quite the same affection for it as I do for Short and Sweet and Mexican Cooking Made Easy.  Those two I love for their indulgence.  This I love for it's simplicity.  It's kind of like a Marguerite Patten for the modern age. Every home should have a copy.

Both the husband and I had chicken and rice tonight.  His was the usual baked chicken with Uncle Ben's rice.  Mine was sticky, salty-sweet and tangy with ginger and garlic; against a huge pile of soft white rice.  And even though his was 'convenience' food, mine cooked from scratch was still far quicker.

Definitely a make again for me.


Serves 4

• 65g Soy Sauce (why weigh this and then measure the Mirin in ml????)
• 80ml Mirin 
• 50g soft light brown sugar 
• 3 or 4 skinless chicken breasts, cut into large cubes 
• 1 x 2cm piece of fresh ginger grated (I used lazy ginger)
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• A small bunch of Spring Onions, trimmed and finely chopped
• A handful of Sesame Seeds, dry toasted in a frying pan for 2-3 minutes

1. Put the brown sugar, mirin and soy sauce into a bowl and mix. Put to one side.
2. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and fry in hot oil for two minutes. 
3. Add the ginger and garlic to the chicken and cook for another minute.
4. Add the sugar / mirin / soy sauce mixture and simmer for 5 or 6 minutes.
5. Add the spring onions and cook for two minutes.
6. Remove from heat, add the sesame seeds and serve with rice and a green salad

Rachel Allen's Sushi

Today has been one of 'those' days.  Nothing terrible happened, just a day full of those petty frustrations such as a child who thinks sleep is for wimps and it's okay to watch the CBeebies Christmas Pantomime for the fifteen-hundredth time at 3am; a work laptop that only works when it feels like it; and "women's troubles"  

It's also the husband's birthday today.  If it was me, I'd love to go out to dinner or have someone cook me something really special.  But the husband's tea of choice is a Chinese takeaway and a bottle of Merlot so the recipe had to be a lunch thing.  Luckily, I work from home on Thursdays giving me thirty minutes to concoct something for lunch.

I actually started this morning's recipe early on.  As it's takeaway for tea and I'm still in January-diet-hell, I figured something fresh and healthy would be good so plumped for Sushi, Rachel Allen style.  This meant I could make the sushi rice and pop it in the fridge before I started work at 7am and then just had to do a bit of chopping and rolling come lunch time.

Now, in a post-sushi making haze, I understand why sushi chefs take seven years to train.  I figured it was because of all the different and often dangerous fillings and styles that they use.  But even the simplest California roll is a challenge to the novice.

Ready to roll!

Firstly, the rice is sticky.  So you take a handful out of the bowl and 'gently smooth it over the Nori'.  Except that most of it stayed stuck to my hands.  A lightbulb moment dawned and I figured that damp hands would be better.  Except this caused the rice to lose it's tackiness and then I couldn't shape it into little blocks for Nigri.

And when you read up on the subject and it says 'you need a sharp knife', they're not lying.  It's not just to cut perfect pieces of fish - it's to cut through the Nori, which I ended up taking a pair of scissors to when I was trying to cut through the very last bit of my California rolls.

Twenty minutes later, I had roughly the same amount as you'd get in a £4 box from M&S except they were all the same flavour.  Did they taste better and fresher?  It wasn't really noticeable as I only had smoked salmon and avocado.  I'd love to do fresh salmon and tuna ones, but when I was looking up how to buy sashimi grade fish, it all sounds quite scary if you don't buy quite the right stuff and horribly expensive when you do!

Would I make it again?  Maybe if I wanted to show off for a get together and had hours to make it.  But just for me?  Nah, I'll stick to the shop-bought stuff.  It may not be as good as the meal I once had at Nobu in another life, but I'm not that rich or pretentious to care.

Smoked salmon nigri, cucumber maki,
salmon and avocado California rolls

As for Allen's instructions?  I don't think it can even be dignified with the term 'recipe' and lunch time is over so I don't have time to type up her waffle for now.  She implies that she and her husband 'figured out how to make it between themselves'.  So they read the instructions on the back of the sushi packet, looked at how the box they'd bought from Marksies was put together and then became experts?  

She doesn't even describe the Nigri properly - referring to them as patties, which in my book means round and flat when in fact the picture in the book quite clearly shows them to be block shaped (as they should be).  I'm sure there are far better instructions for sushi shaping on YouTube.  This is the first recipe I've tried from Food for Friends.  I'm not sold on it so will have to make something else from her shortly.  

I bought the book based on the glossy TV series and imagined myself wandering around barefoot on a flagstoned kitchen floor in a big old country kitchen, cooking delumptious things for friends and family a few years from the date of purchase.  Instead I'm stuck on the edge of the 'burbs in a newish-build semi with a slight tang of disappointment from the book I thought would change my life.  Oh well, it only cost a tenner.

And on the health front, the small amount of sushi I made actually contained more calories than my usual working from home lunch of two slices of wholemeal toast with peanut butter.  I know which I'd prefer next time!