Sushi

I'm a big fan of sushi, and Japanese food in general. Of all of the world's highly regarded cuisines  Japanese appears perhaps the simplest. However, that is mere deception. Japanese cooking is about presenting the highest quality ingredient possible in a way that epitomizes that ingredient with minimal manipulation.  On the surface, something like sushi seems incredible simple. Its just fish over some rice, with perhaps a couple of other things thrown in. But really, there is a lot that goes into preparing sushi or any other Japanese dish. I highly recommend that everyone watch last year's documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi. Just make sure you know the closest sushi bar for right after the movie. You will have  a craving.

Continuing to take advantage of the high quality tuna I was given, I decided to try my hand at preparing sushi at home, something I'd been intending to for a while.

First, start with the rice. I used this as a primer, but also consulted a couple of others. For making sushi rice, you can't use just any rice. Properly, a Japanese short grain rice should be used.

Pour the rice into a bowl.

Rinse the rice several times. This is done by covering the rice in water, sloshing the rice around, and then pouring off the water. Following the first couple of rinses the water will be very cloudy, but it will start to gain clarity.

After several rinses, again cover with water and allow the grains to soak for about half an hour. Drain one final time. The rice will be noticeably whiter then when you started.

Place the rice into a rice cooker with a 1:1 rice to water ratio and cook.

Next, prepare the su (vinegar mixture which gives the rice its flavoring). This is a combination of rice vinegar, mirin, sugar, and salt.

Place ingredients into a small sauce pan and heat (don't boil) until mixed.

Remove from heat and bring to room temperature. If the su is too hot when added to the rice, the rice will continue to cook beyond what is desirable. When the rice is cooked, place it into a large mixing bowl and add the su.

Let the rice cool.

To go with the sushi, I also prepared a salad of daikon, apple slices, and fresh orange juice. 

Naturally gari (pickled ginger) and wasabi are required. 

For the fish, I used a piece of yellowtail (hamachi) belly, seen in the foreground, and a cut of blue fin tuna, both wild caught from Mexico. The tuna included both maguro (on top) and toro. Maguro is the dark red meat that doesn't involve much fat. Toro is the lighter colored meat and has a higher fat content. The maguro has a deeper flavor, but the toro is more tender and butterier. I believe the toro on this particular cut would be classified as chu-toro (medium fatty) rather than o-toro (most fatty).

Next the fun part. First we prepared nigiri. Cut the fish into thin slices with a sharp knife.

Sushi rice is very sticky, so you will need to wet your hands before handling the rice. Take a small portion of rice and shape it into a block.

Add a dash of wasabi.

And top with a cut of fish. Here, I used a piece of maguro.

Here are all three cuts of fish together. I admit I do not have the world's greatest knife skills.

Hamachi, Toro, Maguro

 The fish was wonderfully fresh with no fishiness and the rice tasted like what I'd expect to find in a decent sushi bar. I didn't particularly favor one cut of fish over the others; they all had their positive qualities. The hamachi was very clean tasting, the maguro had a deep, dark flavor, and the toro was smooth and buttery.

We also prepared some rolls using sheets of nori (seaweed), daikon, and cucumber.

As an experiment, I used a kitchen torch on a piece of toro nigiri.

I didn't think the little bit of char added much to the nigiri. I also wrapped a piece in a bit of nori:

To drink with our sushi, we had a bottle of Kigen Sake Junmai. I'm not a sake expert, but really liked it. It had a clear, floral taste that went very well with the sushi. There were also some notes of pear and grape.

Overall, we were very happy with the results of our sushi experiment. I will have to do it again using a few more elements. Producing something good and basic isn't too difficult. Mostly its a matter of finding high quality ingredients and not manipulating them too much.