Making Sushi..

I didn't know what it was before my senior told me in my first year. I was like "Ok..I will figure it out in due course". In my second year, I had the interest about knowing the global cuisines--Greek, German, Portuguese & Spanish, Japanese,Thai[my professor also insisted me on knowing Chinese, Mongolian, Korean too!!!]
"Sushi" & "Sashimi"--these are two terms often discussed in newspapers, magazines, journals, food columns etc. People would often confuse the difference between the two. Once, a person told me, "Sushi is all about raw fish"--he was verily wrong. Let's understand the concept of "Sushi" & "Sashimi".
"Sushi"--in simple terms is soured-rice[obviously, by the addition of vinegar]. Japanese short-grained, glutinous white rice is used & mixed with sake or rice vinegar once the rice is cooked. An array of toppings and fillings are used, often a portion of this rice is put on a sheet of seaweed, called "Nori"[this is edible].The toppings, fillings range from vegetarian to meats, seafood, omelette etc.
"Sashimi"--simply put, raw fish & garnishes, obviously with the traditional accompaniments, like pickled ginger, soy sauce & wasabi.

I didn't know that I will have to learn making sushi, until my boss insisted me on learning this Sushi, or I can put it in other words, "Learnt on compulsion".The colleague who used to make Sushi, was going on vacation,so who will make in his absence. The sushi chef, had issues in joining at that time, so I had to learn it. With an injured index finger[the one before the middle finger...], making sushi in the inital days was difficult[the index finger plays a bigrole for making sushi..if you are right handed ], but learning something new was fun. Overcooked rice, undercooked rice..n perfect rice. I was like playing with the rice most of the times...but as a Sushi master, one must know how to cook the rice perfectly. Washing the rice for about 10 times & soaking in water cooks the rice faster & also u need less water, whilst washing it for 10 times & then putting the rice in the rice cooker, will definitely take some time to cook, however, it has the capability to absorb a lot of cooked vinegar.
Making the california rolls[heavily influenced by Californians may be, an influence Japanese chefs could not resist...]were easier than making the Nigirisushi[pronounced as Nigirizushi], specially making the tuna nigiri[maguru, bluefin tuna], salmon nigiri[sake nigiri]& cooked prawns[ama ebi nigiri] & then eel[unagi] & japanese omelette[tamagu]...


Making wasabi...

Oneday I saw something green in colour & I asked my colleague, "Is that pesto cream cheese?" & he said,"Yes..". It was so green I was stunned by the colour of the pesto cream cheese & wanted to taste it....& the result was disastrous....It was wasabi....the kick, the sharpness...can't put it in words...

When the old stock of wasabi[i.e. the powdered wasabi hydrated] used to finish, I had the task of preparing the wasabi. Initially, I didn't know how to stop crying, sneezing whilst preparing wasabi, but gradually, I tried this trick...keeping my face away ......

Well...here goes one more attribute to my repertoire...I can make sushi... :)