Sushi

[Jock Strap]

Bored in Tesco on Saturday, I found myself browsing the 'ethnic' food shelves and came across some ingredients for sushi. I persuaded Mrs Jock Strap to buy some sushi rice, seaweed sheets, rice vinegar, wasabi and a bamboo rolling mat.

Any hints/tips on homemade sushi? Whats the best fish / veg to use?

[Paulle]

Above all else fish must be FRESH!

[staceyb]

Find yourself a very very good fishmonger.

Salmon, tuna, eel are my favourites.

Find yourself a good sushi place and try everything there and find your particular favorites.

Also try the tepanyaki for a fun night out.

And don't drink too much saki.

[Gorvid]

Mackerel makes good Sashimi.

Although I have only tried it when 'dead for under a minute' fresh..

[juice]

Just getting into Sushi now and I can't believe I never tried it before, given the access we have here to fresh, just off the boat fish....What I've found so far is

Tempura Spider crab is awesome.
Any sort of skin (Eel, Cod etc) is VERY fishy.
Sashimi or Maki rolls - if the fish is not totally fresh, best avoided as the flavour gets lost when the fish is frozen/thawed.

Squid is an acquired taste, very oily/greasy - sticks to the roof of your mouth as a maki roll

Octopus Sashimi/Maki is VERY chewy, baby octopus is not.

Wahoo Sashimi in ginger/horseradish sauce is sublime.

[escargot]

As others have mentioned, the quality & freshness of the fish is absolutely key to good sushi. Buying a cheap salmon fillet from Tesco just won't cut it. You need to find a good fish monger.

Also, a sharp nice is a must for raw fish if you don't want it to end up looking like a murder victim.

[marctwo]

Frankfurters and lots of wasabi

[Wadeski]

"best avoided as the flavour gets lost when the fish is frozen/thawed."

if you're using frozen fish for sushi your in a world of trouble to start with, fella! Captain Birdseye need not apply!

[Noger]

Wadeski said:

if you're using frozen fish for sushi your in a world of trouble to start with, fella! Captain Birdseye need not apply!

Disagree. The Japanese freeze a fair proportion of their tuna minutes after catch.

And are still deep frozen torpedoes when they arrive at the market. They they pour warm water on the tail, so the buyers can carve a bit off to check the quality.

It isn't the "best" quality tuna, bear in mind the japanese care whether that bit of fish came from the side of the beast that hit the deck (and was thus bruised a little) or the upper bit. But it isn't turned into fishpaste !

[Wadeski]

ive seen em at Tsukiji, but lets be honest thats not quite the same as a tesco frozen cod fillet, is it?

[Colonial]

The standards (salmon and tuna) with a bit of cucumber is always a nice one.

Kingifsh is excellent

Basically most fish is good in one way or another. Big fan. Have it at least once a week for lunch at the office.

[bint]

I saw this and thought of you guys...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/72425...

[dbroughton]

If you are a bit worried about the raw stuff being fresh then a bit of smoked salmom is fun to experiment with and comes sliced the perfect thickness for rolling. I suspect crabsticks are used for the same reason. Not really sushi but looks the part!

[escargot]

Butterflied king prawns are also good

[Podie]

escargot said:

Butterflied ...

Welly good!

[immigrant]

For the experts, what is the consensus on 'lacing' your soy sauce with wasabi? Ignoring the view on whether it kills the flavour of the fish or not, I'm interested from an etiquette point of view.

[Wadeski]

its not really the done thing in japan, but its really nice, so what the hell.

and etiquette snobs, especially sushi etiquette snobs, are awful people

[staceyb]

immigrant said:

For the experts, what is the consensus on 'lacing' your soy sauce with wasabi? Ignoring the view on whether it kills the flavour of the fish or not, I'm interested from an etiquette point of view.

Unless you're dining with the king/emperor/president of Japan does it really matter? If you like it do it and if you don't don't.

[Noger]

Lacing your soy with wasabi is OK. Then dipping the rice side your Nigiri instead of the fish into it is a bit frowned upon.