Your Sushi Chef's Blog ~ Sushi professionals give you their insights on the world of Sushi… You will no longer be confused if you remember this: “Rice Vinegar + Salt + Sugar = Sushi Vinegar” It is Sushi vinegar that you want to use to flavour the cooked sushi rice. If you use just rice vinegar, the flavour would be very flat as it lacks the vital seasoning of salt and sugar. When you are shopping with the intention of buying the “pre-mixed sushi seasoning”, then what you need to look for is “Sushi Vinegar”. As you say, likes of Mizkan sell both “Rice Vinegar” and “Sushi Vinegar” so you just need to pay attention to what it says on the label. If you can’t find off-the shelf Sushi vinegar, you can always make one yourself! My Sushi vinegar recipe, which comes from another Sushi chef, is: Rice Vinegar (60ml or 60g) + Sugar (60g) + Salt (10g). This quantity would be enough to season about 300g of raw rice. So the ratio of Rice Vinegar:Sugar:Salt is 6:6:1.

Of course, you can change the ratio to your taste! You just need to combine them together in a pan and heat it up so that the sugar and salt dissolves. (If you are preparing this well ahead, you don’t need to heat it up: just leave everything in a large jar, leave it in a cupboard and let the sugar and salt dissolve naturally.) Some chefs add other extra items, such as a piece of Konbu (kelp) and Mirin (sweet Sake) for more depth of flavour. You don’t have to! The amount of Sushi vinegar you need to flavour the cooked rice is approximately 20mls (of grams) of Sushi vinegar for originally 100g of raw rice. So you need 20% of Sushi vinegar in weight of the raw rice. If you cook 500g of raw rice, then you need roughly 100mls or grams of Sushi vinegar to flavour it. It’s important that you pour the Sushi vinegar and mix it with the cooked rice whilst it is still piping hot. Then when you taste the just mixed rice, you might think “Oh, it’s a bit sharp!”, but do remember that the flavour, or the vinegariness, will mellow down as the

rice temperature goes down. So you want to have the flavour on the stronger side to start with.Behold: the poke bowl, in all its mysterious glory. It's a culinary conundrum that few on the continental U.S. can pronounce. (It's POH-keh, by the way.) These treasures have long been a staple in the Hawaiian islands for centuries, yet only now are they sweeping the nation as a must-have food trend. Poke is cooked and raw, hot and cold -- all at the same time. It resembles a beautifully crafted Chipotle burrito bowl, but with a sushi twist; it's both a comfort food and a healthy meal. And if we haven't convinced you to try one yet, this might: So, just how does one craft their very own tasty bowl of raw, chewy, sometimes crunchy goodness? To find that out, we went to the land from which it came (Hawaii) and asked the experts: Al Cobb-Adams, owner of Da Poke Shack, currently number one on Yelp's Top 100, and chef Andres Bravo, a former sushi chef-turned-private chef for Hale Aina, who was trained at the famed 2-Michelin star Mugaritz and has privately cooked for a lineup of A-list celebs

, including Rihanna, Jessica Simpson and Alanis Morissette. Turns out, it's both surprisingly easy and challenging -- and we wouldn't expect anything less. First, we begin with the basics: As the first layer of the bowl, rice counterbalances the fishy taste of the raw poke (which means "to cut into pieces" in Hawaiian). Chef Bravo recommends using white rice, seasoned with rice vinegar and chopped kombu or seaweed. "Coming from a sushi background, I've learned that rice is very important when served with raw fish," Bravo said. where can i buy sushi containers"You want to have a good quality rice." food delivery london sushiFor the highest quality bowl, he suggests using short grain Japanese sushi rice, but regular white rice is also sufficient and can be swapped with brown rice if desired.how to eat sushi joke

Both chef Bravo and Cobb-Adams agree: Fresh fish is the most important ingredient in a poke bowl. The fresher, the better. Ahi tuna, or yellowfin tuna, is the most common choice used in the islands, but Cobb-Adams suggests bluefin tuna, commonly found on the East Coast, as the best option. When choosing a fish, consider these three things: smell ("Fresh fish should have a very light fish smell -- almost no smell," he says), color (fresh tuna should be a bright crimson red) and texture (firm to the touch).menu sushi club cesson Cobb-Adams has also tried using marlin and salmon, and says other fish varieties can be tested. sushi cat 3 online game"The fattier the fish, the better it will taste," he says. where to buy sushi mat

He also strongly advises against using anything that is farm-raised or frozen. "Fish is one of the last free range meats you can buy," he says, adding that farmed fish are fed man-made foods -- "unnatural stuff" -- which turns the fish meat into "something else." Bravo first cuts his fish into filets, "like the ones you see in the window at the sushi bar," he says. From there, he cuts them into cubes. Cobb-Adams says its best to cut "with the grain, not against it," to avoid perforated edges. how to make low calorie sushiAfter it's cut into cubes, salt the fish to taste using Hawaiian or sea salt. The size of the cube depends on personal taste. "A lot of local people and Hawaiians love the taste of fish," Cobb-Adams says, "so having a big piece to chew on is no problem." People who don't like the fishy taste can opt for smaller cubes to better taste the bowl's dressings. 4. The Poke Sauce And Garnishes

This is where Bravo and Cobb-Adams disagree. Bravo believes that poke should remain simple, like its original Hawaiian form. "It is what it is," he says. "Use super fresh shoyu (soy sauce) and a few other ingredients, preferably locally-sourced, but you don't want to stray too far from there." Cobb-Adams is more daring in his approach. "You can almost do anything with poke," he says. "You can walk down the aisles of your supermarket and if you think it tastes good, throw it into your poke and toss it. Honestly, whatever tastes good to you." The Basics: sliced brown onion, chopped green onion, slices of avocado, lightly drizzled soy sauce, roe, cherry tomatoes and sesame seeds. For Spicy Poke: blend chili peppers with Hawaiian sea salt and a light drizzle of olive oil until it turns into a paste; mix in with mayonnaise and unagi (eel) sauce to taste. (Recipe by Al Cobb-Adams, Da Poke Shack) "Everything I do is by taste and sight," Cobb-Adams says. "You can have a prime cut of ahi, but if you don't make it look presentable, people will look at it and say, 'That's gross!

I won't eat it.' He says that contrast and color is an important part of a beautifully crafted poke bowl. For his clients, he sometimes adds fried wontons to the bowl to give it a nice crisp texture; sometimes he adds shredded carrot to brighten up the dish. He also warns against serving the poke flat. "You want to give your dish some height," he says -- thus, a bowl is used. "If you take a spoonful of poke and simply dump it in the bowl," he adds, "it won't look appetizing." To remedy this, form a mound of poke over the rice so that it has a point at the top, like a pyramid. 6. Pulling It All Together 1. Put the freshly cut cubes of ahi into a large bowl, sprinkle sea salt to taste. 2. Add and toss soy sauce or desired sauce to taste, just enough to coat the cubes. 3. Put a scoop of rice in a single serve bowl. 4. Pour the seasoned poke over the rice, creating a mound. 5. Add final touches and garnishing. 6. Sprinkle the bowl with furikake seasoning.