Homemade sushi

Teriyaki chicken filling with Wasabi mayonnaise

You can make the marinade ahead so the flavours get enough time to develop. This can easily be done a day ahead, especially when you're pressed for time.

Teriyaki chicken:
- 1 chicken fillet (150-200g)
- 1/2 cup soy sauce (half sweet and half salted soy sauce)
- 1 good sip of dry sherry
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 2cm piece of ginger, finely grated
- 1 tsp just chili (chili paste)
- 1 smidgen Asian 5-spice powder

Preparation:
Mix all the ingredients except the chicken in a bowl. Slice the chicken in fine long strips and add to the marinade. Mix so that every piece of chicken is evenly coated with the marinade. Cover the bowl with cling film and place in the fridge.

Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a frying pan and (stir) fry the chicken until cooked through. Try not to overcook the chicken as it will become rubbery. Let the chicken cool completely before adding it as a filling to your sushi.

Wasabi mayonnaise:
- 2 Tbsp mayonnaise
- 1 tsp wasabi paste

Preparation:
Mix the two ingredients together and taste before adding it to the sushi. You can make the mayonnaise as spicy as you like or even omit the mayonnaise.
Start by placing the rice on a nori sheet. Cover the rice completely with mayonnaise (like you would put butter or margarine on your sandwich) and place chicken strips in a small line. I like to add avocado as well, but that's entirely up to you. Roll the nori sheet and continue as with the salmon filling.

Tip: Instead of Teriyaki chicken you can also use smoked chicken (straight from the super market). Again use the wasabi mayonnaise with some avocado.

Home made Pasta (Basic dough)

There's nothing better than home made pasta, much much better than the synthetic processed ones from the super market.
Serves 2.

Ingredients:
- 200g High Grade flour or Tipo 00 if you can get your hands on it
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 generous Tbsp olive oil
- sea salt

Preparation:
Sift the flour on your bench top. make a well in the center. Sprinkle salt to taste in the middle, add the eggs and olive oil in the center and start mixing the eggs clockwise by corporating a little flour from the sides at a time. When most of the liquid is incorporated start kneading for about 10 minutes until a silky smooth dough forms. You know it's ready when the dough bounces back when pressing with a finger. If the mixture feels too dry, wet your hands a little bit and continue kneading. Too wet? Add a little flour at a time.

Wrap the dough in clingfilm and let it rest in the fridge for at least half an hour (preferably 1 hour). When ready to use, lightly dust the dough with plain flour and cut in half. Start rolling it through a pasta machine on the widest setting. (If you haven't got a pasta machine, you have to work yourself into a sweat and start rolling the dough with a rolling pin. This takes time though...)

After rolling it once, fold both sides inwards and feed it through the pasta machine again. Repeat the folding and rolling two more times.

Then continue feeding the pasta on a smaller setting, feed it 3-4 times on the same setting before changing the setting, By doing this the gluten in the dough will get the chance to stretch evenly.

When the dough is thin enough for your liking (on my pasta machine this is number 3 of 7 settings) you can do with it whatever you want. Cut it into (big) ribbons, leave it in one piece for lasagna sheets, ravioli or cannelloni or if you have an addition to your pasta machine you can make spaghetti or fettuccine. Always make sure after cutting the pasta to flour it so it won't stick. You can leave the pasta to dry or when using a filling dust with plain flour, cover with cling film and place in the fridge.

Be careful when cooking fresh pasta as it needs half the time of store-bought pasta. Taste during cooking to see if the pasta is al dente and/or to your liking.

Mango Peach Smoothie

When I cooked a couple of hot Indian dishes, we we're in the need of something soothing so I had a look in the pantry and came up with this kind of smoothie. The original plan was to create a Lassi, an Indian yoghurt-based drink, but I forgot how to do it. Oh well this'll do just fine...

Ingredients:
- 1 fresh mango, peeled and sliced
- 1 can peaches, drained and sliced
- yoghurt (or feel free to use ice cream)
- crushed ice (optional)
- 1 Tbsp dessicated coconut
- 1 Tbsp water

Preparation:
Put the mango and peaches in a blender and blend until smooth. Add yoghurt and crushed ice and blend until a smooth creamy consistency. Dip 2 champagne flutes in the water and press lightly in the coconut. Pour the smoothie in the glasses and serve.

Hot Smoked Salmon

Ever wondered how to hot smoke salmon yourself? It is dead easy and you can do it without all the sophisticated equipment!


This recipe serves 2.



Ingredients:
- 2 salmon fillets, skin on (+/- 200g)
- Sea salt
- Olive oil
- Lemon juice (optional)
- 2 hand fulls of wood chips (I use Manuka, a native to New Zealand. Make sure the chips are hard wood, Maple or apple wood are also good)
- Tin foil
- Wok with lid
- Rack that will fit inside the wok or feel free to use some chicken wire. (It'll do the same job just fine)

Preparation:
Line the inside of the wok with tin foil (saves you time cleaning up afterwards) and place two handfuls of the wood chips in the base of the wok.

Grease the rack with olive oil and place inside the wok. Make sure the rack doesn't touch the base or the wood chips! Rub the salmon fillets with sea salt and olive oil and place them skin side down on the rack.

Put the lid on top and turn the stove on. Smoke the fillets over a medium heat for about 8-10 minutes. Do not open the lid in the meantime just to have a look. I know it;s tempting, but you'll loose all the heat, smoke and flavour!!! Plus the house will smell smokey for the rest of the week.

You will notice that after a couple of minutes the smoke will develop. Open a window to get a bit of fresh air circulation. After the cooking time, turn the heat off and let it sit for another 3 minutes before taking the lid off. This enables the smoke to penetrate the fish a bit more and enhances the smokey flavour. When finished, I suggest you take the lid off outside to prevent all the smoke from staying inside the house. Carefully transfer the fillets on a plate and if preferred season with sea salt and black pepper and drizzle with some lemon juice. I like to serve them with some steamed broccoli and garlic mashed potatoes.

Tip: Try adding a sprig of fresh rosemary and some sprigs of fresh sage to your wood chips to give the salmon a distinct flavour. Or go wild and use tea leaves. (Haven't tried that myself though)

Next time I will try to smoke chicken! To be continued...

Muesli rolls

These rolls are very healthy and freeze really well. Just 5 minutes in a warm oven (160ºC) and they taste as freshly baked rolls. Also pretty handy when you're on the go and in the need of a healthy but yummy treat. You can vary with the seeds, nuts and fruits to your liking.

Try eating them plain, with a little bit of butter, butter and sugar or several slices of cheese.

Makes 12.

Ingredients:
- 400g wholemeal
- 280ml milk, lukewarm
- 32g fresh yeast or 1 sachet (7g active dried yeast)
- 2.5 Tbsp caster sugar
- 30g butter, softened
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 eggs
- zest of 1 lemon (optional)
- 60g oats or muesli
- 3 Tbsp walnuts, roughly chopped
- 40g hazelnuts, halved
- 3 Tbsp sunflower seeds
- 3 Tbsp almonds, roughly chopped
- 200g raisins or currants
- 6-8 dried apricots, chopped
- Plain flour

Preparation:
Put the wholemeal flour in a big mixing bowl and make a well in the middle. Combine the milk, yeast and sugar together in a small bowl and stir until the sugar and yeast have dissolved completely. (If using instant dried yeast, follow the same steps, but give the yeast time to activate. So let the milk sit for about 5 minutes before adding it to the flour.) Pour the milk in the well. Mix together until a elastic silky dough forms (about 7-10 minutes). You can also use an electric mixer with dough hooks if you're not in the mood for kneading. Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and let it rest at room temperature for 15 minutes.
Rinse the raisins with warm water and place in a pot with very hot water (not boiling) for 7 minutes. Drain.

Knead 1 egg, salt, lemon zest and butter through the dough. It might take a while for the dough to absorb these ingredients. Continue kneading, and here comes the fun part, beat and drop the dough until a smooth silky consistency takes form. This might take a while and just when you think it will never become smooth and silky, then the dough starts to change. Hang in there, don't give up!
Cover the bowl again and let it rest for another 15 minutes.

Add the raisins, oats, nuts, seeds and apricots and knead again until fully incorporated and mixed well. Divide the dough in 12 pieces and roll small balls. If the dough is really sticky, roll it through some plain flour. Be careful not to use too much as your rolls will become dry. Grease 2 baking trays and dust lightly with plain flour. Divide the balls onto the trays, leaving some space between each roll as they will expand during the final rise. Cover with a tea towel and let the rolls rise for another 30 minutes if you can't wait any longer. (I let them rise between 1-2 hours, because wholemeal is quite heavy and needs time to rise completely.)

Preheat the oven to 200ºC (Fan-forced 190ºC) and beat the second egg in a cup. Glaze the rolls with the egg wash and place in the oven. Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Check if they're done by sticking a skewer inside the thickest part. If the skewer comes out clean then they're done. Cool on a wire rack and they're ready to enjoy!

Homemade Sushi

Salmon Sushi

I must admit sometimes I buy sushi, but it's so easy to make at home. I always make more, which is relatively easy and won't cost the earth. I like to use cold smoked salmon and smoked chicken fillet or I marinade the chicken in a teriyaki style spice mix. When using chicken, I add wasabi mayonnaise which complements the chicken.

This recipe is for a lot of sushi, but you can easily halve the ingredients.

Ingredients:
- 4 cups sushi rice
- 6 cups water
- 1/2 cup rice vinegar
- 4 Tbsp caster sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 packet of Nori dried seaweed sheet (10 sheets)
- Wasabi paste
- 200g (cold) smoked salmon
- 2 Avocados
- Kikkoman (table) soy sauce
- Sushi mat


Preparation:
Start by washing the rice with cold water. This can take a while, especially if you use 4 cups. If the water turns clear you've washed the rice enough. Cook the rice. I must confess I use a rice cooker which makes my life a lot easier. But if you haven't got one, please follow the instructions on the back of the pack...
A soon as the rice has cooked, let it cool for 10 minutes with the lid on top and transfer it to a big mixing bowl. Mix the rice vinegar, caster sugar and salt in a small bowl and sprinkle over the rice. Start mixing the vinegar mixture through the rice with a wooden spoon until the rice has cooled completely. If you want to do it Japanese-style, try mixing with one hand and use a Japanese hand fan in the other, fanning and mixing at the same time. This can be really tricky, well at least for me it is really tricky as my coordination is not exactly as it should be. And for some reason I end up with spooning all the rice out of the bowl instead of keeping it all in the bowl.

Sushi rice stays really sticky, which is ideal when it comes to rolling but can make life hell when spooning it onto a nori sheet. Therefore, I like to use disposable kitchen gloves. I also use a big wooden chopping block to prepare the sushi as for some reason this works better than my bench top. But have a go yourself and see what works for you.

Start with your sushi mat on a flat surface. Place a sheet of Nori on the mat. Spoon rice on the nori and flatten it out with your fingers. Make sure about 2/3 of the nori sheet is covered with rice. If you cover only half of the sheet you'll end up with your filling on the side like I did the first time...

Place some smoked salmon and avocado on top of the rice and start rolling. Take the mat with both hands and gently roll the nori sheet away from you. Don't squeeze too hard otherwise all the filling will come out.

 



The shape of the mat makes sure you'll end up with a nice round sushi instead of a square morsel.

And voila, a delicious piece of sushi all by yourself!

Place the rolls seam side down on a platter or serving tray, cover with cling film and put in the fridge if you're not consuming them immediately. Cut in small bite size portions and place on a serving platter. Serve with a good quality soy sauce, some wasabi paste and pickled ginger to taste.


Tip: Vary the salmon with shrimps or tuna. Or for a vegetarian option use finely sliced (julienne) cucumber, carrot and avocado.