Natto maki

I watched this large-scale Korean drama called "IRIS" lately. It's amazingly well made like a full scale movie filmed in Korea, North Korea, Japan and Hungary. It's a drama about people who try to destroy the organization called "IRIS" that wants to control the whole of Korea with force. Basically the conflict between 'North' and 'South' is not the matter in this drama as the organization involves both of them.

The average audience rating of the whole 20 stories in Korea was more than 30% and the most rating moment was 50.2%! (wikipedia) The drama is a fiction but the fact of it's being so popular makes me understand that the relationship between North and South Korea is much more complicated than what the media says in the western society and including Japan.

Ingredients:

cooked rice

natto

cucumber

nori

vinegar

sugar

salt

1- Mix vinegar, sugar (2:1 depending on the amount of rice) and a bit of salt.

2- When the rice cooked, put 1 in and stir softly. Try to make the air go through between every rice.

3- Cut the natto finely.

4- Put a bamboo sheet, nori, rice, cucumber and natto in order (see the picture of makizushi). And roll it up.

Enjoy with soy sauce and wasabi!

Itadakimasu.

Makizushi

Today I'm making makizushi (→go to the sushi introduction) which is usually made for a celebration/picnic or a party. Basically you can roll anything, even a single thing which is called hosomaki. But if you roll a few items (futomaki), it's nice to choose colorful things. This time I decided to roll a Japanese omelet, cucumber and fish cake (salmon) which are easy to source outside Japan.

Ingredients:

nori

rice (1cup)

  -vinegar (1tbsp)

  -sugar (1tsp)

  -salt

egg

cucumber

fish cake (or salmon)

1- Make a fried egg and cut like a thin strip. Cut the cucumber and fish cake (salmon) to the same size.

2- Mix vinegar, sugar and a bit of salt and stir it well with the cooked hot rice.

3- Put a nori on the makisu (bamboo sheet), then the egg, fish cake and cucumber on top of the rice that is spread on the nori.

4- Roll all together with makisu, holding it tight. Cut the edge and cut in about 2cm pieces.

Itadakimasu!

Inarizushi, sushi without fish

Some people believe that Japanese people eat sushi all the time? Usually, I eat sushi only one or two times per year. Also I think most foreigners imagine makizushi (rolled sushi) and nigirizushi (hand-shaped sushi) as 'sushi', but actually there are many types existing, such as oshizushi (pushed sushi), chirashizushi (topping sushi), temakizushi (hand-wrapped sushi) and Inarizushi. 

Especially nigirizushi (hand-shaped sushi) which is very common at sushi trains is hard to make at home. It looks simple but it's said that you need 10 years of experience to make a proper nigirizushi. It doesn't taste good just by grabbing the rice and putting some raw fish on it. The combination of the seasoning in the rice and the balance of hardness to hold the rice and the fish together is very difficult.  So if the nigirizushi is good and the balance is found the combination will melt away in your mouth. That's why we don't make it at home.

Strangely, I had never made sushi by myself until I went to Germany when I was 22. Because everyone asked me to make sushi once they knew I was Japanese, I had to make makizushi (rolled sushi) many times for my European friends, remembering how my mum did... Even my mother makes rolled sushi once every few years though.

Today I am introducing Inarizushi that doesn't have raw fish, but uses "age" (fried tofu). You can find age next to tofu at any supermarket in Japan and it's cheap. Maybe you can also find at Asian/Japanese shops in other countries.

The combination of the age cooked with a sweet sauce and the sour rice is very nice and gentle.

Ingredients for 6 inarizushis:
-age-

age (fried tofu, 3)

soy sauce (2tbsps)

sugar (2tbsps)

water (150ml)

-rice-

rice (1cup)

vinegar (1/5cup)

salt (1/2tsp)

1- Put the age into some boiled water for a few minutes to get rid of the oil. Cut it in half.

2- Boil water, sugar, soy sauce and put 1 in it. Cover with a drop lid and boil till no water.

3- Mix vinegar and salt, put it in the just cooked rice and stir well.

4- Open the age gently and put 3 into it.

Itadakimasu.