I never thought it was something I would attempt myself, but, thanks to a recent sushi workshop, I discovered that making your own sushi is in fact fun and simple to do.
Summer is the perfect time to indulge in this hugely popular delicacy from Japan. Natural, often raw ingredients such as fish, shrimp, eggs and vegetables combine with seaweed and sticky rice to make a light, healthy and incredibly tasty dish.
In my circle of expat friends, sushi has an almost addictive quality; it is something we regularly crave and seek out. But, as we live in Flanders, where sushi restaurants have a reputation for being a bit pricey, we don’t get to satiate our sushi longings all that often.
That was until a friend introduced us to Sumo Sushi, a creative workshop by a young Flemish woman named Charlotte Van Schuylenbergh, or Madame Sushi as we call her. You can register for a group workshop at her home in Aalst or ask her to come to you.
And so we found ourselves gathered around a long dining room table one Friday night with friends in Ghent. Charlotte was already present, place setting, chopping and smiling all the while. She set the relaxed tone for the evening so that it really felt more like a friendly dinner party to which the dull word “workshop” does no justice.
Still, I had little confidence in my ability to create the perfect sushi roll. But after watching Charlotte demonstrate, I dipped my hand in the lemon water, grabbed a handful of sticky rice and diligently started pressing it onto the thin sheet of seaweed before me.
We started with the classic maki roll: seaweed on the outside, ingredients inside. The table was filled with platters of colourful filling options, from cucumber, spring onion and yellow radish spears to slices of raw tuna, salmon, crab and tamagoyaki, or sweet Japanese omelette.
A bit of strategically placed crab and cucumber went into my purposefully simple first attempt. With my thumbs under the little bamboo placemat, I began rolling the seaweed over the rest. Seconds later, I removed the mat like a magician’s silk to find that I had done it correctly. There it was, one long, tight and flawless sushi roll, ready to slice into about eight pieces.
The best part about the workshop is its eat-as-you-go policy. Every time you make a roll, you get to reap the rewards straight away. Take a piece between your chopsticks, dip it in the wasabi-infused soy sauce and enjoy. And did we ever; the sushi was fresh and savoury. In between bites, we cleaned our palates with spicy-sweet pickled ginger and a glass of cold sake, Japanese rice wine.
The next challenge was to make temaki, a cone-shaped roll with its contents popping out the open end. This also went very easily and was my favourite, probably because you eat it with your hands, which allows you to take satisfyingly large bites as you would with a pita or fajita.
Whoever said sushi is not filling never followed one of Charlotte’s workshops. We went on to make uramake, inside-out rolls dipped in roasted sesame seeds. With the rice on the outside and the seaweed and ingredients curled up on the inside, you might think this one would be more difficult to make. But it’s not, as long as you know how to do a small manoeuvre with a piece of cling film.
After this, we made nigiri, an egg-shaped mound of rice with a chunk of fish or egg resting on top. We made these look like pretty little packages by wrapping a thin strip of seaweed around each one. In the end, we had an entertaining, educational and delicious experience for €48 apiece. And to top it off, every one of us took home a box filled with leftover sushi to enjoy for lunch the next day.
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