Simple Sushi

I really love sushi and have done ever since my parents introduced me to it from a young age. After being at university, I remember thing how amazing it would be to have a go at making it myself, but at the time thought how crazy expensive it would be and so gave it a miss. A couple of months later, I returned home and a friend of mine's boyfriend (at the time) made my family and myself some and showed us how simple it was - the actual problem being that it was quite time consuming.

So, a few months later I had a go. The first time, I admit, was a bit of a disaster not least because I don't actually like completely raw fish (blergh) but later on I tried an angelcised version of the sushi and, using a recipe book I found at my mum's house as a base, I made the following sushi adapting the recipe as follows:

Sushi Rice
400ml Sushi rice
3 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 tbsp sea salt

Wash the rice thoroughly, changing the water several times. If you're short of time, soak the rice in cold water for 15 minutes and rinse in a sieve and leave to drain for 15 minutes.

Once drained, place in a deep bottomed saucepan and fill with 500ml water. Cover, bring to the boil and leave for 5 minutes without removing the lid. Turn the temperature down and leave to simmer, covered for about 10 minutes. Don't lift the lid, then remove from heat and leave, still covered, for about 10 minutes.

Transfer the cooked rice to a large, shallow dish and sprinkle with the vinegar dressing. Using a large wooden or plastic spoon, fold and cool the rice as quickly as possible (I put mine in a dish, under a plate to cool and it worked a treat).

Once the rice has reduced to room temperature, get your nori and pass over a hot plate/hob or if neither of those things don't worry about it! Get a bowl of room temperature water and dip your finger tips in, then grab a couple of tablespoons and flatten 1/3rd on the nori. Once flattened place the fillings - cucumber/carrot/pepper/spring onion/avacado etc - and fill, then roll, tightly, running a wet finger along the crease of the nori to ensure the seal is made.

I have made a variety of sushi using the same method but with different ingredients in the middle, so I promise anyone who reads this, it is so easy and satisfying. Do it!!!

Finished product.

Loves x X x

I do love The Rolling Stones, and they helped me through.

I Miss You - Rolling Stones

Beast of Burden - Rolling Stones

Astonishingly Appetising Apple and Almond Tarts

It's been a long time since writing on my blog, and I'm sad to say it's because I have hardly done any cooking. I have been completely snowed under with work for my masters and feel that there just aren't enough hours in the day to get anything done.

Today, I procrastinated and spend a couple of hours in the kitchen whipping up these amazing little tarts, and I have to say for an experiment they were completely delicious, so simple, and I would absolutely recommend to anybody reading this.

I love using ground almonds in cooking because they add such a lovely texture and flavour and make a sponge mix beautifully moist. I had lots of almonds in my cupboard, and had lots of apples to use up as they were getting on a bit, so decided to mix it up and add the two flavours together to see what happened - I was so happy with the result and will definitely be making these again.

I used a Mary Berry recipe for the pastry (of course - who else?) and then made some stewed apple and then an almond sponge mix, or a bakewell mixture, to top it off. This recipe made 14 tarts as I rolled out my pastry very thin.

Apple and Almond Tarts 

For the pastry - this is my favourite sweet pastry, and I find that it doesn't crack when rolled even very thin, a problem I have had with nearly all other pastry recipes I've used in the past.
200g plain flour
125g butter, chilled and cubed
1 tbsp caster sugar (I use golden, but white is fine)
1 egg yolk beaten with 2 tbsp very cold water

I used a food processor to make my pastry as it is so much quicker.
Place the flour, sugar, and butter in the food processor and blitz until a breadcrumb texture. With the processor still going, pour in the egg and water mixture and continue to pulse until it comes together. If it doesn't quite come together after adding this, add another 1/2 or whole tablespoon of water just to make it bind together. Once it has formed a ball, tip onto a lightly floured surface and shape into a ball, making sure that it is not handled too much. Wrap in clingfilm and place in the fridge for 15-20 minutes. It is then ready to use.

For the apple
3 apples - I used eating apples as I think they're sweeter and I like stewed apple to have some firm bits of apple in, but cooking apples would do absolutely fine. It depends who's eating them!
1 heaped tbsp granulated sugar
juice of 1/2 a lemon

Peel and chop the apple into quite small cubes (0.5cm ish). Then place in a saucepan with the sugar and apple and a tsp of water and simmer for 10 - 15 minutes, until you have a consistency that you like. As I said earlier, I like a bit of bite to mine, but if you like it smooth simmer for longer and then press on the bits of apple with the back of the spoon to soften them.
Leave this to cool in the saucepan until you need it.

For the almond sponge
100g butter
100g caster sugar
85g ground almonds
25g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
2 eggs
A few drops of almond essence

For this, the easiest thing was to do an all in one method, so, if using a free standing mixer as I did, all you need to do is put everything in the mixing bowl and then beat together until everything is incorporated and there are no lumps. Use a hand mixer and mix everything together in a bowl if no free standing mixer, or beat together with a wooden spoon if you fancy a bit of a work out.

To assemble, I used 2 muffin tins (as it made 14....) and made sure they were well greased.
Lightly flour the side and roll the pastry out and cut out 14 circles. If you like your pastry a bit thicker it will probably make 12. I don't have proper cutters so I used a little bowl with a diameter of 11.5cm which cut the perfect size to fit into the tins. Once cut, press the pastry into the tins making sure that they're up the sides to the top of the tin. As you will see from the picture down the page, mine were not very neat so I wouldn't bother crimping or anything like that, but if you've got the skills then go ahead.

Once all the pastry has lined the tins, place a teaspoon of apple in each one. I didn't use all the apple, but again depends on how much you like. I found a teaspoon was a good amount.
Dollop the almond mixture on top of the apple and press down with the back of the spoon to make the sponge cover the apple and ensuring it touches the pastry round the outside.

Bake in a preheated oven fan 170C for 25 minutes until golden brown on the top.

Remove from the oven and leave in the tins for 5 minutes to cool a little bit. Then, using a pallet knife, go round the edge of all the tarts to loosen them and place on a cooling rack.

Waiting for them to cool!

Serve as they are or drizzle with some double cream or custard. Yum!

Still warm - they were so delicious!

As always, I have a lovely playlist going on in the background as I can't seem to cook without it. Today it was some Emeli Sande. A perfect accompaniment to this bake.