Sushi frenzy

It's amazing how a bit of homemade effort can transform rice, vinegar and a couple of fillings into sushi works-of-art.



We started with a stockpile of Japanese ingredients, mixed in some Australian enthusiasm, added a dash of culinary ingenuity and rolled, moulded and shaped away...

Of course sushi-making is hard work and chefs should always maintain their intake of fluids. Not only are fruits high in water content, but they also contain valuable vitamins. Here we have watermelon and ginger martinis. Ginger is also very good for you!



Sushi is not hard to make. A reasonable amount of prep work is required but the varieties of sushi are only limited by your imagination. We tried out all the funky sushi moulds I picked up on my recent trip to Japan. These moulds make everything dead easy. Lightly pack the mould with sushi rice, place the lid on top to compress lightly, remove lid and flip out the instant shapes by pushing the tabs on the bottom.

Quelle horreur! So any reputable sushi chef would probably perform harakiri before touching one of these, but we love 'em. So quick, so easy, and everyone always wants to have a go. I picked up my sushi moulds from the fabulous 100Yen shops in Tokyo, which are fairly similar to these.

We ended up making makizushi (rolled sushi) with

• smoked salmon
• teriyaki chicken
• peeled King prawns

and a varied combination of the following: avocado, julienned carrot, cucumber, red capsicum and blanched green beans. Watercress, lettuce, omelette shreds, snow pea sprouts, asparagus, Chinese mushrooms and pickled ginger also work equally well. If you're happy to eat it, throw it in!

We also made inarizushi by filling abura-age (deep fried tofu bags) with plain sushi rice or a colourful concoction of sushi rice mixed with finely chopped pickled ginger, pickled radish and mixed through with furikake rice seasoning.

We shaped rice into pillows and topped them with salmon, whole prawns and teriyaki chicken pieces, sometimes securing them with a nori "belt". We shaped our pickle combo rice into cylinders and wrapped them with belts. We made star shapes and triangles and rolled them in seaweed seasoning.

So many sushi options.

Too few stomachs.

We served and ate our sushi off platters I picked up in Tokyo. Don't forget plenty of pickled radish, pickled ginger, soy dipping sauce and sinus-clearing wasabi.

Our digestive tracts were treated to closure signals with Asian-themed ice creams. We picked up some gorgeous ice creams from Serendipity Ice Cream, the one on the left is black sesame; the one on the right is ginger.

Both were utterly delectable. I've always been a fan of black sesame which is rich, nutty and almost treacly in sweetness. Eating this brings back memories of slurping down tummy-warming thick soupy ji ma vu or black sesame gruel.

The ginger ice cream was refreshing and palate-cleansing but also mildly warming with medicinal heat. We alternated scoops of ice cream with joyous mouthfuls of juicy ripe mango. Bring on the height of the Aussie mango season!

For a brief sushi how-to guide, click here.

Itadakimasu!

Serendipity Ice Cream
333 Enmore Road, Marrickville
Tel: 02 9557 8986