Shushi shtory..
11:44 AMRemember I told you in last post I wanted to learn to make sushi, as soon as I can?
Well, I learnt and made one last nite ! Thanks to u-tiubbbb..
It came out of nowhere. Err not exactly nowhere of course since I've been meaning to learn how to make one since forever. Tak terbuat jek, tataw kenapa. Maybe coz I'm never a fan of sushi myself eh, so menda kite tak minat tu motivasi de kurang skit la.. hahaha..
U see, I've posted about sushi Lina, my kind-hearted neighbor gave us a nite before and unfortunately, En Muddy only had the opportunity to taste it through the pic I snapped. The sushi however doesn't survive till next day since Alis and Erin finished it up. So there you go, En Muddy left frustrated and broken hearted and he determined to make me learn to make one.
After Iftar, I asked En Muddy if we can go to Sultan Centre to get some barang basah as I got nothing left in my fridge and he said ok. After we done with our catches at wet market section, I remember I need lemon so we headed to dry section. This is where sushi story begun...
We were at this spices section as I was looking for cumin and cardamom. Next to this spices section was sushi bar and mini food court. Normally this is where you can find my husband and Alis spent most of their time. However, KD 3 for 5 piece of sushi was way too expensive for our tight budget, hence they just passed by sambil jeling2 emo. While passing by the place, the soy sauce rack stopped me. Recently, En Muddy told me about issue of Unagi @ Sushi King was questioned for it's halal-ness as they're some concerned on soy sauce used for dipping which believed to contained small percentage of alcohol produced in the brewing process. It worried me like big time since I also owned same type and same brand of soy sauce sushi king was using. I also remembered reading about QBB Ghee oil announced as non halal product which costed me one big tin of ghee oil into my dustbin. This halal, non halal issue really alarmed me much. So there I was, belek belek the sauce rack and trying to see if any "non-suspicious" soy sauce I can use at my home among the wide selection of soy sauce there when En Muddy said.. Ehh ni tpt jual brg brg sushi la Wa. We started to korek2 the stuff there and tell u what, I found nori, bamboo mat and wasabi paste too. Since I already hold the starter kit, En Muddy came out with one brilliant idea..
" Jom buat sushi malam ni nak? "
I said yes obviously, so we spread to get other ingredients. As expected, 1st place he went to visit is caviar bar. Picked 1 small can of red caviar which cost around KD 3 and then salmon. I couldn't find any sushi rice on the rack so I phoned Lina to ask what type of rice she used. She mentioned she used Sunwhite rice, which somehow not available at sultan centre. Then En Muddy recalled that we still have 1/2 pack of Thai rice he wrongly bought few months back. Since the rice is too sticky for our daily meal, I kept it aside for other purpose later. I guess the day has come. The sticky rice finally serve it's purpose. We had uncertainty though since it's not really japanese rice which is best for sushi but there's no harm trying. In total, we manage to get crab meat, salmon, caviar and prawns for the sushi and we both agree it would be more than enough for 1st time. Owh Lina did mentioned that we need to stir the rice with japanese vinegar, which also no where to be found. We settled with apple cider vinegar instead since I'm quite skeptical about Japanese vinegar's halal status. Need to do some research on that later.
Reached home at 1100 pm and without further due we start with our sushi mission. First and foremost, I cooked the rice 1st, and while waiting for the rice to ready, I prepare the prawns and unpack our groceries. En Muddy on another hand, preparing salmon. We both had u-tiub video on how to make sushi and various web offering tips for beginner like us on our laptop. So in between doing things, we took turned to watch the video and read the webpage. Benefits of living in millenium years !
Long winded story cut short... our sushi done at 12.00 midnite sharp. Crazy or what hahahah.. You're about to witness the most comot sushi, if not the ugliest sushi ever posted in a blog. Luckily the sushi made out alive and live to tell it's story.. ( Ayat mmg jarang nak kalah !)
{ Nigiri sushi -salmon and shrimp,crabmeat roll sushi}
{ View lain lak}
{ Since we have 3 different types of soy sauce at home, they decided to experiment with all 3. The green stuff yg macam ubat gigi was wasabi ek, not one of daun on my plate design}
Before all of you start asking and commenting ( ehh ade ke yg nak tanyer hahaa), let me voluntarily describe vices of my sushi. Of course there's a lot of room to improve.
Why my salmon colour was peachy instead of red-orangy ?
Being Grey's Anatomy die hard-fan, I was haunted alright with episode where Allison's brother suffering from worm-in-brain-due-to-habit-of-eating-sushi-disease, so yeah, I had things with raw stuff so I kinda hesitate to let my husband and girls eat raw salmon from my barehand. When husband raised out why this salmon have strong fishy smell compared to the one he usually ate prepared by Sushi Chef, I quickly recommended to squeeze lemon juice to kill the fishy smell and he agreed. Wrong gesture apparently as ur salmon will be "cooked" by the lemon juice and giving you end-result like above picture.
Why there's only 1 prawn nigiri sushi in the picture?
Because instead of celur in hot water, I boiled them hahahhaa causing the shrimp to curve more than needed and make it impossible to place it on top of the rice ball because of it's harden texture. * It can actually, by tying it with nori. Something I learned after that in our little post mortem session*
Why our salmon nigiri sushi look weird and abnormally gigantic?
Because the rice ball was supposed to be smaller than the salmon slice so the salmon will cover the rice ball totally. That's the point anyway. If the rice bigger than the salmon, it will overshadow the salmon taste and makes you full faster. That's what happen to hubby after eat our sushi. After 3 chubby gigantic piece, he surrendered. Kah kah kah.. Being generous are a very good value one should have, however you are allowed to be kedekut in moulding your rice ball :)
Why our rolls look like it was made by some cheap-skate seller? Thick layer of rice with only small piece of filling in the center? U know like some karipap u bought in pasar ramadhan. The skin was as big as you palm but you had to use microscope to find the inti.
It is because, normally expert sushi maker use 1/2 piece of Nori sheet to make one roll. So the rice will be this thin layer and the filling will be conquering the rolls. Me instead, I use the whole sheet causing me to having to put more rice to cover all the big surface, which eventually causing more rice than filling.
Why is that one of my rolls ( the one with rice as the outer) looks undone?
It is undone since it's suppose to be coated with fish egg. However, caviar we bought was not suitable for that kind of sushi. We need to get the tiny-er size of fish eggs to be able to coat our sushi. :( . With caviar that we purchased, it's hair pulling situation to make it stick to the rice, I failed miserably so I gave up. I think our caviar was more suitable for dipping purposes. U know the kind u eat with nachos or biscuit.
So, that's all folks. It may nothing to people out there, but it's a stepping stone for me. My very 1st sushi. I did watched a lot of clips after that and kinda understand now the trick. Till my next sushi post. Hopefully I can come out with more prettier and tastier sushi.
Wish me luck !
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