Norimaki (Seaweed Roll)

Culture: Japanese

Food: Sushi

Spice: Wasabi

Participant: Tomoko Ward, Lisa Koek and Japanese Community Women’s Group

Why did I choose this dish?

Sushi is a very popular Japanese traditional food and usually we eat sushi with wasabi. Wasabi is a sterilising agent and has a hot and strong but nice flavour. Since raw fish is often used for sushi, wasabi sterilises raw fish. Sushi and wasabi cannot be separated.

There are many types of sushi such as nigirizushi, chirashizushi, norimaki and inarizushi.

For this project we made norimaki (seaweed roll) which can be eaten by hand. Sushi is often eaten for celebrations and special occasions. My mother used to make a seaweed roll for picnic lunch and for sports days at school because we could eat them with our hands.

Sushi is now well-known all over the world. We are very proud of Japanese sushi.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 360g short grain rice
• 560 cc water
• 4 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1½ teaspoons salt
• 1 cucumber
• 1 avocado
• 1 piece of row salmon or tuna
• 4 sheets nori seaweed
• Soy sauce
• Wasabi

Directions (4 servings)

1. Wash rice and let it stand for at least 30 minutes before cooking it.
2. Stir together all sushi vinegar ingredients.
3. Transfer hot rice to a large bowl.
4. Pour sushi vinegar over and mix rice by cutting across it in a fast slashing motion, then cool it by fanning.
5. Cut cucumber, avocado and salmon into strips lengthwise.
6. Place a sheet of nori seaweed on a bamboo rolling mat, spread with rice, leaving 1½ inches wide space empty on the side away from you. Lay out cucumber, avocado and salmon, and roll up all the way, holding ingredients in place.
7. Cut each roll into 8 potions and arrange on serving plates.
8. Eat them dipping in soy sauce with wasabi.