| This is the first post in which I get to grips with the contents of my prize in the Menu For Hope raffle - a food parcel kindly donated by The Japan Centre in London and shipped out to me in Barcelona. Makizushi is essentially vinegared rice, plus any other ingredients, rolled inside nori (dried and pressed layer sheets of edible seaweed). So it will come as no surprise if I tell you that tofu makizushi is a makizushi made with tofu, or pressed bean curd. All the ingredients for this meal, which I made at home for dinner the other day, came from my prize parcel. |
| The art of making good glutinous rice is one that takes many many years of practice, and most Japanese sushi chefs would probably sooner let you fillet their mackerel than wash and cook their rice. I used to make sushi rice for makizushi every day when I worked at Comerç 24, so I guess the Western kitchen has allowed me to fast-track a few years. The way I was taught is as follows (no doubt there'll be a few of you out there shaking your heads at my shockingly improper method)... |
 | First wash the rice in a sieve under clean running cold water for two minutes, thoroughly stirring the grains around with one hand. Then put the rice into a solid-bottomed pan and point your index finger vertically downwards, just touching the surface of the rice. Now fill the pan with fresh cold water up to the level of the first knuckle on your index finger. This is the correct amount of water to cook the rice sufficiently so that the water will be fully absorbed, leaving none behind after cooking. Place the pan over a medium heat and bring the water to the boil. |
| As soon as the rice begins to bubble vigorously, remove to a minimum heat and cover. Leave for 12 minutes exactly. While my rice cooked, I cut the tofu into appropriately-sized batons and marinated them in some of my Hon Tsuyu bonito stock. Its sweet and smoky flavour really penetrates into the protein-rich tofu, which is otherwise relatively tasteless. After 10 minutes I removed the tofu and placed it on a tray with some of my pickled ginger, ready for action. |  |
 | These two ingredients would be the filling for my makizushi (see left). The rice having cooked for 12 minutes, I removed it from the heat and left it, still covered, for a further 2 minutes. By now the rice has become glutinous - it appears to have the texture of a dry risotto, the individual grains bound by a thick starchy liquid. This picture shows the perfectly cooked rice. I then added two tablespoons of my Mitsukan sushi vinegar for each cup of raw rice used. |
| The rice was then left to cool naturally, until it reached room temperature. In this picture I've laid out one sheet of nori on my bamboo rolling mat. Now I applied a thin but liberal layer of rice to the nori sheet, leaving a space of one inch at the far end which acted as an adhesive tab to seal the rolled maki. A few light smears of wasabi created little bursting surprises of spiciness throughout the finished product. |  |
 | You'll notice that I made this one without any wasabi, so as not to overload on the stuff. Now, one third of the way down the sheet (thinking front to back, not side to side), I laid out my filling ingredients of pickled ginger and marinated tofu in a horizontal line from one end to the other going right to the edges. As I was the only person at home at the time I made these, there was no one around to take photos of the rolling process. Tough luck I guess. |
| Needless to say it's exactly the same as rolling a "cigarette" - just on a much larger scale. I won't embarrass myself by attempting to pretend that it's something at which I'm completely inexperienced. But I'll let you be the judge of my rolling skills... If you remember from a previous post, I'm actually much more used to rolling maki that have layers of thinly sliced avocado on the outside in place of nori which, as you can imagine, is far more difficult. A neat slicing act with my 30cm sashimi knife and the job was complete. |  |
| Which reminds me of a very important piece of advice - when cutting traditional nori-rolled maki you need a really sharp knife and a very smooth and consistent slicing action in order to end up with clean, flat edges on your finished product. Of course if you're only making these for yourself then it doesn't really matter, but if you are attempting these for a dinner party then you should bear it in mind. So here they are, traditional tofu makizushi made at home by the expert hands of one young Englishman...  |
2007 and moved to Spain, where I trained in Barcelona at Carles Abellan's Comerç 24 (which won its first Michelin star) and Martín Beresategui's Lasarte (which won its second Michelin star) and was chef de partie and later Pastry Chef to Paco Morales at the amazing hotel restaurant Ferrero in the Valèncian mountains. This Spring I returned to London as part of the team of celebrated Portuguese chef Nuno Mendes, opening East End restaurant Viajante. I'm still working with food, but taking a break from fine dining. Passionately pursuing my life-long ambition to become a top-class chef and, one day, a world-famous restaurateur.
