I say sushi, you think raw fish. This, perhaps, is the reason why the Japanese delicacy, unlike the noodle or the stir-fry, has not become a staple of British home cooking. But all that is about to change – at least if Yuki Gomi, 37, a Japanese sushi chef living in London, has anything to do with it. “In Japan, going to a sushi restaurant costs hundreds of pounds and is a real treat,” she says when we meet at her flat in Crystal Palace, south-east London. “But Japanese people make it at home all the time, usually without raw fish.” When a Japanese family goes for a picnic, sushi will always make an appearance – but smoked fish will also be used, which is less likely to spoil (salmon and mackerel are favourites). Children take sushi to school in their lunch boxes, made with tinned tuna. There are vegetarian options, including tamagoyaki, grilled egg sushi. “If you want to go the whole way and use raw fish,” says Gomi, “there are safe ways of doing it. If you have the confidence, you can make friends with a local fishmonger and get him to promise you that the fish can be eaten raw.

But the easiest way is to buy sushi-grade fish on the internet.” She recommends Kazari, which will deliver guaranteed sushi-grade fish to your door. Sushi is easy to make, extremely healthy and highly portable. It is also flexible; there are, Gomi says, “no rules”, and new combinations of fish or vegetables are waiting to be discovered. And when it is home-made, sushi can also be an impressive addition to a party. “It is simple, so long as you are precise,” she says. “Architects and surgeons make the best sushi.” Yuki Gomi encourages home cooks to find sushi-grade fish online (HEATHCLIFF O'MALLEY) Before thinking about the fish, however, it is important to get the rice right. It must be Japanese – which refers to the species rather than the country of origin – because it is high in starch, which makes it stickier than other varieties. Techniques for cooking perfect rice are closely guarded secrets for many Japanese chefs. Gomi, however, being “of a younger generation”, is happy to share her method, which she learnt from the masters (see right).

When the rice is ready, the creative part begins. First, Gomi demonstrates how to make temari. “When you go to a restaurant, you’ll probably have nigiri, rectangular slabs of rice with salmon or tuna on top,” she says. “Shaping the rice like that takes years of practice. Temari is the traditional home-made version, which is a lot easier.” Cutting a fillet of raw salmon is an art in itself (she points out that smoked salmon, mackerel or kipper can be substituted). Gomi uses a traditional yanagi-ba sushi knife, which is flat on one side and very thin; The trick, she says, is to hold your breath and make the cut in one movement, as if you are playing a violin. When the fish is sliced, she covers her left hand with cling film – an improvement on the traditional muslin – and lies a sliver of fish in the centre. A bolus of rice is placed on top, then the cling film is closed around it and twisted to make a tight sphere. When this is unwrapped, a ball-shaped piece of sushi is revealed, which can be garnished with sesame seeds, a sprig of parsley, or fish roe (tobiko).

Next, she makes the “inside-out roll”, also known as the “California roll”. For centuries, Japanese sushi roll had the nori (seaweed paper) on the outside. When it was introduced to California, however, the local chefs preferred to roll the sushi inside out so that the rice was on the outside. sumo sushi online menu dubaiThis was later exported back to Japan. los angeles marian keyes ler onlineShe places a sheet of nori – she recommends the type produced by Clearspring (clearspring.co.uk) – on a board and covers it with a layer of rice. genki sushi menu kaneoheThe rice is sprinkled with roe or sesame seeds, turned upside down onto a bamboo mat (available from Tesco, £1.99) and covered with cling film, before arranging the salmon and avocado, rolling, and slicing with a light sawing motion. sushi grade fish slc

Lastly, Gomi introduces the temaki sushi, which she says is a great informal party option. In a large bowl, she mixes scallops, flying fish roe, mayonnaise and avocado. This, together with a bowl of sushi rice and another of sliced vegetables, is placed on the table with a stack of nori. sumo sushi menu honoluluGuests add the filling to the nori and roll it into a cone for instant, do-it-yourself sushi. yo sushi menu leicester“When I was a child and my mother said we were going to have sushi, I was always filled with excitement,” says Gomi. “I want to bring some of that excitement to Britain.” ’Sushi at Home’, by Yuki Gomi, is out now (Fig Tree; £18.99)Sushi is no longer the sole preserve of the adventurous diner. These days, grabbing a pack for lunch is almost as common as picking up a cheese and pickle sandwich.

The Japanese dish can be bought from every major supermarket (where sales have risen a staggering 88 per cent in the past two years). Indeed, the British sushi industry — of which Tesco has a 60 per cent market share — is worth more than £56 million annually. Packed with fat: A sushi lunch totals up to 1,050 calories, and it's easy to see how we're conning ourselves that we're enjoying a low-calorie, healthy lunch The main reason for its surge in popularity is its reputation as a healthy meal. Japanese women are among the healthiest in the world, while slender celebrities such as Victoria Beckham, Cheryl Cole and Keira Knightley are all fans of the raw fish dish.But do sushi’s nutrition credentials — especially the Western version — stack up? Not always, according to dietitian Rachel Beller. In her book Eat To Lose, Eat To Win, she says a ‘light lunch’ of sushi may mean you overdose on calories and carbohydrates. ‘A typical sushi roll contains 290 to 350 calories and has the carbohydrate equivalent of two-and-a-half to four slices of bread,’ says Ms Beller.

‘So a California roll (round rolled sushi, containing a small piece of fish and avocado plus fatty mayonnaise) equals two sandwiches filled with crab sticks (processed fish that is flavoured and coloured to look and taste like crab), a sliver of avocado and a tiny bit of veg.’ Bear in mind a sushi lunch contains two or three of these rolls, a total of up to 1,050 calories, and it’s easy to see how we’re conning ourselves that we’re enjoying a low-calorie, healthy lunch. Here we show you why you should put the chopsticks away . . . Not so healthy: A typical sushi roll contains 290 to 350 calories and has the carbohydrate equivalent of two-and-a-half to four slices of bread Many of us believe eating sushi is a good way to get the Government’s recommended two portions of fish each week, but here’s the problem: most sushi contains very little protein, despite its expense. Health experts say a portion of fish should weigh 140g, but on average, the fish in a California roll or piece of nigiri (rice with fish balanced on the top) weighs just 5g.

You’d need to eat 28 pieces of sushi to reach your 140g portion — or more, if you choose a mixed sushi box containing vegetarian varieties.Boots Shapers Japanese Style Sushi Sampler (80g, £1.50) contains just 5g of fish — less than one king prawn. Even ‘fish’ sushi boxes don’t contain much. Marks & Spencer Fish Sushi Selection (191g, £4.68) has just 36g of fish, meaning you would have to eat four boxes and consume 1,184 calories to get one of your recommended fish portions.  Sashimi — slices of raw or seared tuna or salmon — is a better option if you’re keen on boosting protein, omega-3 fats, vitamins and minerals. This form of Japanese food is low in processed carbohydrates. Government guidelines recommend pregnant and breastfeeding women (or those who want to get pregnant) eat no more than two portions of oil-rich fish (salmon, mackerel, trout or fresh tuna) each week as it can contain pollutants that can affect a baby’s development. All other adults should have no more than four portions a week.

Tuna can also contain mercury, a toxin that can affect the kidneys and nervous system. While it’s fine to eat shop or restaurant sushi when you’re pregnant (by law it must be frozen to kill parasitic worms that can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and stomach pain), the Department of Health advises pregnant or breastfeeding women to avoid shellfish, such as shrimps, prawns, crab or scallops, which can contain viruses and bacteria. Stodgy white rice is the main ingredient in sushi — sometimes making up as much as 75 per cent of the dish. Like long-grain white rice, it is heavily processed, causing it to lose vitamins, minerals and fibre, the last of which is important for maintaining a healthy digestive system — and filling us up. Sushi rice isn’t just boiled in water, it also has considerable amounts of sugar, plus sugary rice vinegar added to it as flavouring. Famous fans: Slender celebrities such as Victoria Beckham and Keira Knightley are fans of the raw fish dish, but how healthy are they really being?

This means your ‘healthy’ sushi lunch may contain little more than mouthfuls of processed, sugary carbohydrates. Itsu’s Best Of Itsu Sushi Box (£7.49), which contains 13 small pieces of assorted sushi, has 53g of carbohydrate — the equivalent of three slices of white bread. Your sushi might be wrapped in a flimsy sheet of seaweed (packed with fibre, iron, calcium and potassium), but this small amount contributes little nutritionally to your recommended five-a-day. Eat six California rolls and you’ll get just 1g of seaweed wrapping — that doesn’t even come close to providing 1 per cent of a woman’s daily iron or calcium. Meanwhile, the tiny cube of cucumber, avocado or pepper you get has minimal nutritional value, too. You’d need to eat a lot of sushi to get the 80g to count as one of your five-a-day. Even vegetarian varieties don’t come close. Taiko’s Vegetable Sushi (127g, £2.70) contains less than 13g of veg. Not so nutritious: Eat six California rolls and you'll get just 1g of seaweed wrapping- that doesn't even come close to providing 1 per cent of a woman's daily iron or calcium

So, you’d need to eat six packs to get one of your five-a-day — and that would provide 948 calories, 13 teaspoons of sugar and a massive 10.5g of salt (which is almost two days’ worth).Sushi is also stuffed with salt. Pret A Manger’s Deluxe Bento Box contains four-and-a-half grams of salt — three-quarters of the daily maximum of 6g. Part of the reason is that the rice is cooked with salt and sometimes soy sauce. Smoked fish such as salmon or mackerel, and pickled vegetables and ginger are also loaded with salt. Just one piece of Yo Sushi’s salmon, tuna or prawn sushi contains a quarter of a gram of salt, while one California roll has almost half a gram. Munch on four California rolls and four pieces of nigiri and that’s almost half of your daily salt intake. And that’s before you add the soy sauce — just one tablespoon can contain almost 3g of salt, or almost half the total amount you should have in a day. Regularly eating too much salt increases the risk of high blood pressure — a condition that affects a third of British women — and increases the risk of heart disease and stroke.IT CAN MAKE YOU FAT Skip the soy sauce: it’s like dipping your sushi into liquid salt.

If you eat sushi at your desk, keep a bottle of reduced-salt soy sauce in your drawer (and measure it out with a spoon rather than pouring liberally). Finish your meal with fresh fruit, so you can be sure you’ll get at least one of your five-a-day.Don’t have miso soup with your sushi. With around 3g of salt per serving, you’re better off with a cup of green tea. Sushi has been touted as a great choice for dieters — and it can be. But not all sushi boxes are low in calories and fat. Yo Sushi’s Mixed Sushi Box has a whopping 755 calories — more than a McDonald’s Big Mac and small fries.Those with big appetites may not find the small sushi servings filling enough to see them through the day. Much sushi lacks filling fibre and satiety-inducing protein. Tesco’s Sushi Fish Selection Pack (257g, £4) contains a fifth less protein and half the fibre of a Wiltshire cured ham and pickle sandwich from Pret (as well as having 64 calories, 23g carbs and 1.6g salt more than the sandwich).