Karavala Terrine Maki Rolls; Home Made |
Sushi isn’t about
raw fish; it is really about vinegar infused rice, which is then combined with
fish, vegetables and a number of other ingredients. This can be done by placing
the raw fish over a small cake of sushi rice, or wrapping the rice with a sheet
of nori, seaweed beaten into a sheet, with the fish or vegetables or other
goodies in the center. This is called maki sushi, and the California roll,
invented by a Japanese cook in that sunny state, early in the 20th
century, when he was faced with a clientele who didn’t like raw fish, is one of
its famous and distinctive variations.
So what kinds of sushi rolls can you make
at home? Tuna is tempting, but I wouldn’t recommend it, since you just cannot
get the flavorful, fatty belly tuna you need for that burst-in-your-mouth
taste. Of raw fish, inexpensive shark works well, but then that’s not everyone’s
favorite. So my recommendations are crab sticks (a processed, flavored fish
product) you buy off the shelf at Food City, smoked salmon, expensive but
buttery and amazing, like cold, semi cooked fish bacon, and my own little innovation
home made karavala terrine sushi rolls.
Crab Stick Maki Rolls; Home Made |
But before we get to the good stuff, you’ll need to do
some ground work to get your sushi roll preparation kit together. The only
special things you need are a bamboo sushi rolling mat, and pressed seaweed
(nori) sheets, both available from Brana’s (3rd floor, Kollupitiya
Super Market, Dharmapala Mawatha, Colombo 3, 011-242-1675). The mat is Rs.
375/= and 10 sheets of nori are Rs. 800 or so. Japanese sushi vinegar, and
Mirin, a sweetish wine is also available and inexpensive, but not essential;
I’ve managed to produce great tasting sushi with substitutes.
Next, you need to cook your rice and flavor
it. There is a special kind of ‘sushi rice,’ but I’ve not found it yet in
Colombo; no doubt its available, but I think any long grained rice will do.
I’ve made all my sushi rolls with regular Basmathi, so that would be fine for a
beginner.
Sushi Rice: Ingredients
2 cups (that’s a 250 ml measure) | uncooked rice | 4.5 cups water | 4 tablespoons (60 ml rice vinegar) | 3 tablespoons sugar | 2 tablespoons Mirin | (or any other sweet wine, optional) | 2 teaspoons salt
Sushi Rice: Method
Cook the rice the usual way, until it’s
soft. The little extra water will make it a little mushy, which is good. Mix
the other ingredients and add it to the rice. Let it cool, mixing well, with a
fork.
You are ready to roll your sushi. For the simplest
first attempt, lay out your bamboo mat, place a sheet of plastic wrap on it, or
encase it in a large ziploc bag, then place a sheet of Nori on it and smoothen
a layer of rice over the nori sheet, leaving half an inch free at the far end.
Two pre-made crabsticks will work great for the filling or smoked salmon, with
finger cucumbers sliced length ways. Rolling your sushi is a bit of an art, but
it’s not hard: I managed fine at my second attempt and I’ve got paws! You’ve
got to press in the first edge carefully, make sure it sits well, and roll the
whole thing, and flip it. Check out this clip on youtube (http://youtu.be/swGJ2dIu9XE) first; there are
many uploads there which are very helpful. Now, all this is very regular, and
it’s great – but while I was doing this, I had an idea that took me further, helping
me to adapt sushi rolls to Sri Lankan food habits. It seems to me that a sushi
roll is rice sandwich, or put another way, it is a bath gulliya. A
kneaded mouthful of rice, which for a rice eating Sri Lankan, is as old as
solid food, that first meal a baby eats after s/he is weaned. Karavala, I
thought, is an inexpensive, yet intensely flavored substitute for the
artificially flavored, expensive crabstick; with a little home processing it
works amazingly well with lunu miris (chillie onion sambol) added as an
optional extra. TasteFusion!
To process the Karavala for your sushi
rolls, you need to make it into a terrine. No, again, this is not hard, but does
require a little bit of work – and an overnight wait.
Karavala Terrine: Ingredients | 100 g Karavala (your favorite kind) | 100 g Coconut milk powder | 100 g unsalted butter | 1 table spoon chillie pieces (optional)
Karavala Terrine: Method
Karavala Terrine (Cut Strips) |
Add two teaspoons of dissolved gelatin into this and pour it into a small, square plastic storage box and refrigerate for four hours, in a cold fridge. Yes, you should be done.
Cut long strips out with
a small, sharp knife, and lay it on your sushi rice, which you should remake
without salt, with a little line of lunu miris. Roll. Cut, and plate it
with little clumps of lunu miris.