Sushi

Yesterday we tried making sushi, although apparently how we do it is not what "real" sushi is according my Japanese friend. So maybe I should call it sushi for foreigners?

Anyway, we made the rice according to the packet instructions. This didn't go so well as it didn't stick well enough for the nigiri sushi (the ones with the prawns on top of the rice). The filling for the rolls, was a pick 'n' mix of the following:

• tuna
• salmon
• tamagoyaki - Japanese omelet, cut into strips, the recipe for which we found here
• cucumber cut into strips
• avocado cut into strips
• sushi rice - as thin a layer as possible otherwise you end up with gigantic sushi rolls which can't be eaten in a single mouthful!

The rolls and nigiri were accompanied by wasabi paste, Japanese soy sauce with roasted sesame seeds and sliced sushi ginger to cleanse the palette (or so that is what it is for as I understand it). For us sushi takes about 1.5 hrs to prepare with all the slicing and omelette and rice making. We always have it on a Friday since that is the last time the fish is delivered fresh before the weekend, and it is too cumbersome to make during the week. You should always use the freshest fish possible. Never frozen. If fish smells fishy then you know it isn't fresh. I won't give you exact recipes and how to guide since we normally just get our info from the net or the side of the sushi packet.

King prawn green thai curry - fail

I attempted to make a King Prawn Green Thai curry from this book...

I have had this book for a couple of years and every so often I attempt to make something from it. However, I usually remember by the eating stage why I haven't made anything from it for a while. It's a bit potluck as to first whether the quantities are correct and second as to whether the food tastes any good. The pictures never resemble the finished product and I really don't think this down to me (all the time...) since I am an good-ish cook. I have made a couple of good things from it, but I am now considering throwing it away since I just cannot trust the recipes and I am fed up of wasting money on good ingredients. Either that or I'll see what I fancy and compare with other online recipes.

First failure was, I used cooked king prawns, partly through laziness and partly because my local shop isn't big enough to stock even frozen king prawns. So even though I reduced cooking time they still ended up overcooked and rubbery. Yuck. I will never ever do that again.

Second failure was that we had picked up light coconut milk (5-7% fat) by accident. When I added this to my curry paste and prawns it was grey and watery. I looked at the ingredients only to find out that "light" literally means they have added water to normal coconut. In an attempt to salvage things we drained off the watery muck, found some normal coconut milk, added a bit more curry paste and cooked for a couple more minutes.

Unfortunately that didn't salvage things, the sauce was still as runny as hell and even if I had used uncooked prawns, following the cooking instructions still wouldn't have yielded a thicker sauce. Cooking it longer would have meant very elasticy rubbery prawns anyway.

If I were to try this again, I would use coconut cream, and raw king prawns and I would probably start cooking the sauce and get that almost cooked, before adding the prawns which need very little time to cook. I would also use only about half the fish sauce recommended and a dash of lime. If I dare try it again, I'll post the improved recipe up!

I managed to salvage the evenings food with some lovely chocolate fondants, but I'll save that for another day...