Rolled Sushi with Mixed Filling

Ingredients

For the filling

  • dried shiitake mushroom - 4, large
  • carrot - 1, small, quartered lengthways
  • chikuwa fish cake - 1, or crab sticks - 4, cut into strips as for the carrot
  • cucumber - ½, quartered lengthways, seeds removed
  • yaki-nori seaweed - 4 sheets, for rolling
  • soy sauce and gari (ginger pickles), to serve

For the seasoning

  • soy sauce - 37.5ml/7½ tsp
  • mirin, sake or dry wine and sugar - 15ml/1 tbsp each

For the Rolled Omelette

  • eggs - 2, size 1
  • sugar - 10ml/2 tsp
  • pinch of salt

For the rice

  • Japanese rice - 320g/11½ oz/1½ cups, cooked, using Mixed Vinegar (below)

For the Mixed Vinegar

  • rice vinegar - 40ml/8tsp
  • sugar - 22.5ml/4½ tsp
  • salt - 3ml/⁄ tsp

Method

  • Soak the shiitake in 200ml/7fl oz/scant 1 cup water for 30 minutes; drain, reserving the stock, and remove their stem. Pour the stock into a saucepan, add the seasoning ingredients and simmer the carrots, mushrooms and chikuwa or crab sticks.
  • Simmer the shiitake until all the liquid has evaporated, then thinly slice them. Make the Rolled Omelette.
  • Place a bamboo mat (makisu) on a chopping board. Lay a sheet of nori, shiny side down, lengthways.
  • Spread a quarter of the prepared, dressed rice over the nori using your fingers, leaving a 1 cm/½ in space at the top and bottom.
  • Place a quarter of each of the filling ingredients across the middle of the layer of rice
  • Carefully hold the nearest edge of the nori and the mat, then roll up the nori using the mat as a guide to make a neat tube of rice with the filling ingredients in the middle.
  • Roll the rice tightly to ensure that the grains stick together and to keep the filling in the place. Roll the sushi off the mat and make three more rolls in the same way.
  • Using a wet knife, cut each roll into eight piece and stand them upright on a platter. Serve soy sauce and gari with the sushi.

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