DONE: No. 23 - Yo Sushi Sushi School - Learn How To Make An International Meal, Properly

Having spent a year subjecting myself and Stewart, Stewart in particular, to a challenge to make a meal from a different country each month with varying results I thought that perhaps I should seek professional help!!!  Could have been all sorts of professional help but, seeing how my Japanese meal of teriyaki salmon scored quite highly, thought I'd give sushi school ago.   After all, doesn't actually involve cooking, so it couldn't be that hard, could it.....

So yesterday, me and Stewart - he feels I need proper adult supervision if I'm going to be involved in food preparation AND be around sharp implements - headed to Cardiff's St David's Centre and Yo Sushi in particular.  Each Saturday morning, they hold a 'sushi school' to help folk get to grips with the basics of making sushi.

The class was two hours long, held under the expert supervision of Basia who had amazing 'tekkers' (technical skills for those who are not up with footballing lingo) and had six participants.  Couldn't see the couple at the end of the row but I know I was the worst of the four folk I could try and copy.  Firstly, me and Basia!

We were all sat in a wee row with our chopping board (pink! - was seriously tempted to half inch it, but didn't) and professional sushi 'rolling' mat which we got to keep at the end.  There was a tub of oil in front of us, and a tub of seasoning and sesame seeds.  And a huge tub of sticky rice and weighing scales.

We would make various different types of sushi through the morning and were also treated to a sushi masterclass where Basia demonstrated more technical rolling.  I couldn't even really cope with the beginner's rolling, in fact I probably belonged more in the 'mini ninja' kids class but apparently the younger you are the better you are making sushi so would have been bottom of the class there.  But, I was up for having a go and trying my best.  First up sushi dish, and the easiest, was cucumber maki where the nori sheet (the green seaweedy looking thing) would be on the outside with the rice and cucumber on the inside.  You first of all had to wear your gloves which you had to keep slathered in oil so the rice wouldn't stick to you.  Having weighed out the correct amount of rice you then spread it across the nori sheet.

With a thin slice of cucumber laid across the middle of the rice, you then roll all the while trying to keep the ingredients inside.  You are trying to achieve a square shape with this one but quite frankly if I could just keep everything inside I didn't care what shape I achieved.  I was actually quite happy with this one.

The second one we tried was a mini iso - where the rice would be on the outside and the nori sheet on the inside.  You started the same with spreading the rice across on the nori sheet, we then sprinkled with shichimi powder which I'd never heard of before but actually really like the taste - and then the technically bitty, you have to flip the nori sheet over so the rice is flat on the mat.  You then put cucumber, inari (fried tofu) and tamago (sweet omelette) on top of the nori sheet and again, start rolling.  This was more difficult trying to keep the rice on the outside and the ingredients on the inside, but I vaguely managed this one though you can see that a lot of my rice abandoned ship at one end.

To get individual wee sushi bites, you cut your 'roll' in the middle, put the best sides together and then do your slicing. Next up was three slightly different ones but I can't remember their names.  It all starts with three 'blobs' of rice.  I think one of them - the one on it's side which looks like a cup, is called a masago gunkam and was filled with fish roe which tasted like sweet popping 'bubbles'

 

 Finally, we moved on to the most technical one, a California roll which was also described as sushi ice cream - no, it's not a dessert like I thought, it's described as icecream because you roll the nori sheet to the shape of an ice cream cone with a few fillings inside.  I chose chicken, cucumber and chilli sauce.    Crikey, I can't believe I was actually allowed near that knife!  And - I survived with all digits intact!

 You can see what my California roll looked like below on my tray of finished sushi treats

Actually, they don't look too bad though when I compare them alongside Stewart's neat tray I can see where I wasn't so successful. But it looks alright though doesn't it - think I must have slightly punch drunk by the end of this adventure as I do look rather proud of myself!

All in all, this was actually really enjoyable. It was quite funny towards the end as they opened the restaurant while we were still playing with our own creations and we did get a few bemused looks.  But, it was good value, Basia was an absolute pro and obviously really into her craft, and, whatever we made we got to take away to eat later.  Very enjoyable.