Sushi maki-roll recipe

Delicious, stylish and good for you! Homemade sushi looks great and is easier to make than you'd think - simpler dishes such as maki-rolls can be made at home quite easily.

Ingredients

Ingredients:

• 500g medium grain rice
• 6tsp rice vinegar
• 4tsp caster sugar
• 1tsp salt
• Nori seaweed or soybean paper (1 piece)
• Wasabi (Japanese horseradish)
• Gari (pickled, thinly sliced ginger)
• Fish (tuna, salmon or mackerel)
• Seafood (prawn, crab or squid)
• And/or vegetables (cucumber, avocado or spinach)
• Soy sauce

Method

1. To make roughly 30 pieces of maki roll, place sushi rice and 600ml water in a large, heavy bottomed pan. Place over a high heat and bring to the boil. Cover, lower the temperature and cook for 15 mins. Turn off the heat, keep the lid on and leave for a further 15 mins.
2. Meanwhile, make the seasoning by placing the sugar, rice vinegar and salt in a small pan over a low heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then leave to cool in a bowl.
3. Place the cooked rice in a large, shallow dish, sprinkle over half the seasoning and, using a wooden spoon or spatula, fold in the seasoning, being careful not to stir the rice (this breaks down the grain and changes the consistency). This will give the rice a shiny appearance. Continue to add the seasoning, adding just enough to flavour the rice without making it soggy. When the rice reaches room temperature, cover with a damp cloth until ready to use.
4. Place a piece of seaweed on your rolling mat, wet your hands and then cover the seaweed with a 1cm layer of rice (wet your hands before handling sushi rice to avoid sticking), making sure to leave a 3cm border at one end. Moisten this border with water or vinegar seasoning.
5. Using a chopstick, make a channel in the rice a third of the way up. Use your fingertip to spread a tiny dab of wasabi in the channel. Then, put your chosen filling; thinly sliced seafood, vegetables etc over the wasabi, holding it in place with your fingertips.
6. Roll the nori and mat away from you with your fingers to make a tight roll. Re-roll if it is too loose. Apply pressure to the moist border to seal the roll.
7. Wipe a knife with a wet cloth and slice the roll. Wipe before each slice to achieve a clean cut.