Equipment & Ingredients

• Rolling Mat
• Sushi Rice
• Nori – the seaweed wrap
• Rice vinegar/seasoning
• Pickled, Sliced Ginger
• Soy Sauce
• Fillings – we started off tame & used cucumber, red pepper and spring onion (& a little green chilli in some)

Method

Cook rice as instructions on the packet, add rice vinegar & leave to cool for 30 minutes. Then…

1. Place Nori rough side up on rolling mat & place rice onto two thirds of it
2. Add filling of your choice then dampen the last third of the nori wih a little water
3. Carefully roll sushi using mat – keep a tight hold of the roll
4. Slice with a sharp knife ito slices about 1″ thick
5. Serve with soy sauce and ginger

Next time we need better fillings as these were a little bit bland. I have avocado and tuna in mind. Any more suggestions would be very welcome!

After the buns were cooked I started on preparing a three course dinner as we had invited my parents around. Inspiration for the dinner came courtesy of Delicious Magazine.

For starters we had roasted parsnip and parmesan soup:

Followed by pancetta-wrapped salmon with saffron and herb rice, served with crushed new potatoes and purple sprouting broccoli:

The salmon was surprisingly easy to make despite having to skin the whole side of a fish! & it looked rather impressive before and after cooking:

Those sticking to Good Friday traditions didn’t eat the pancetta & I substituted all chicken stocks for vegetable stock.

And we finished with Nigella’s molten chocolate baby cakes:

The paste (though it needed more chillies)

• 1 tsp each cumin & coriander seeds
• 5 Thai chillies (I used normal green ones, but only 2 – next time use 5!)
• 2 shallots (roughly chopped)
• 2 garlic cloves (roughly chopped)
• 4cm ginger, grated
• 2 lemongrass stalks, chopped
• Finely grated zest 1 lime
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp palm sugar (I used golden brown normal sugar as we couldn’t find any)
• splash vegetable oil

Dry fry the spices & then grind with pestle and mortar. Put in blender & add the other ingredients.

And the veg

• 400ml can coconut milk
• 3 courgettes, thickly slicedd
• 250g shelled broad beans
• 250g asparagus
• 10 fresh basil leaves

1. Warm some oil in a pan & add 40g paste and cook for 2 minutes.
2. Add coconut milk & simmer for 5 minutes
3. Toss courgette in oil & griddle for 2 minutes each side
4. Add courgette to the curry & simmer for 6 minutes
5. Add the asparagus & broad beans and cook for 3-4 minutes
6. Stir in the basil

Our dinner…