Watch: Sushi Nigiri with salmon and bluefin tuna
Nigiri means 'two fingers' and it features a thinly sliced drapery of fish over rice
Ingredients:
500 gms short grain sushi rice
250 gms bluefin tuna
250 gms salmon
125 ml rice vinegar (recipe below)
4 tbsp monk fruit sweetner - a healthy replacement for white sugar
2 tbsp kosher or sea salt
1 piece dashi konbu or Japanese soup stock
10 gms wasabi paste
1 sushi seaweed sheet
2 tbsp gari or pickled sushi ginger
How to cook sushi rice:
1. Use a rice cooker. Using this will ensure that each rice grain is perfectly cooked and separate.
2. Rinse rice under cold running water to remove any extra starch. Wash until the water is clear.
3. Soak the rice in water for 15 minutes, follow water to rice ratio. Soaking it ahead makes sure that the rice does not turn mushy.
4. Cook the rice for 50 to 60 minutes in a rice cooker.
In the meantime, prepare the sushi rice vinegar or sharizu.
5. Add vinegar, salt and monk fruit sugar and one piece of dashi konbu in a pan and cook for 3 to 4 minutes.
6. Once the rice is cooked, remove it, upturn in a bowl and scrape the botton layer of the rice and discard.
7. Break the rice to begin adding sharizu and mix it well.
8. Moisten the spatula so that rice does not stick to it and keep mixing.
9. Spread the rice so that any extra heat is released. Cover with a damp cloth to keep the rice moist
10. Serve at lukewarm temperature.
To make the wasabi paste:
11. Grate fresh wasabi on a Oroshigane, a fine grater that is typcially made using sharkskin but for hygiene reasosn Chef Iwata prefers a metal one.
12. Slice the bluefin tuna and salmon, slice into 3/4th inches each.
14. Take a pinch of wasabi and stick it on the inside of the tuna.
15. Moisten your hands so that rice does not stick. Gently take a small portion, about 15 gms of the sticky rice into your hands and begin rolling it.
16. Place the rice on the tuna. Press it gently using your index and middle finger for a couple of seconds so that rice, wasabi and tuna stick together.
15. Repeat this to make remaining sushi nigiri.
16. To plate - place the rice side of the nigiri onto the plate, some gari and wasabi paste on the side and serve. Sushi nigiri is best enjoyed fresh.
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