To feed her son's sushi habit, Marie-Claire Digby signed up for a class that made sushi as easy as pie.
What is it with men and big, sharp knives? When I told a colleague that I was doing a sushi workshop at Cooks Academy, in Dún Laoghaire, she predicted that the gender balance might differ from my previous cookery class experiences, and as it turned out, six of the 16 sushi novices were men.
The school's new kitchen buzzed with anticipation as tutor Vanessa Greenwood, co-founder of the cookery school with her husband, Tim, signed us in and handed out the all-important knives (disappointingly tiddly, but razor sharp).
Greenwood's nori roll-making demonstration made the process appear worryingly simple. Surely it couldn't be this easy? But the instructions were clear. The ingredients - sheets of roasted nori seaweed, bowls of sticky rice, wasabi paste and pickled ginger slices, together with colourful julienne strips of vegetables and peeled prawns - were on hand, and within minutes the first rolls were being sliced and displayed with pride. There were no disasters; nobody's roll burst open or failed to stick together. But some were definitely neater than others, and overfilling, and using too much rice, were the most common mistakes.
Filled with new-found confidence, and seeing an affordable way of feeding my 12-year-old son's expensive sushi habit, I tackled the slightly more fiddly reverse roll, with the nori on the inside and a sesame seed outer coating. California rolls never look as good as when you make them yourself. Nigiri sushi (individual rice balls shaped by hand) sorted the men from the boys, however, and the artistry of the sushi chef became apparent as we tried, with mixed results, to imitate Greenwood's efforts.
"Students are always amazed that they can roll perfect nori rolls [ maki] after only a short demo. Most students tell us they can't believe how easy it is," Greenwood says.
Having practised with shredded veg and small shrimps, we were let loose on the raw fish: salmon and tuna. Slivers of raw tuna marinated in garlic, ginger and soy sauce took on an attractive glassy appearance - a sort of "cooked" look that might tempt those who say they don't eat raw fish - as we discussed sashimi, or raw seafood.
What everyone really wanted to know was where to get fish fresh enough to use raw. "Don't buy from a supermarket, go to a fishmonger, and tell them what you're using the fish for," was Greenwood's advice, along with commonsense tips on how to recognise really fresh fish.
At home later, I put my new skills to the test, and found that the most popular fillings for my nori rolls were smoked salmon, cream cheese and chopped chives; grilled red pepper and asparagus; and avocado and fresh crab meat mixed with a little bit of chopped red chilli and a dash of lime juice. The raw salmon fillet I bought after interrogating my local fishmonger on its age and provenance worked best in an attempt at the elegant, thin nori rolls, for which I cut the nori sheet in half before covering it in rice and rolling as normal. Holding the nori sheet briefly over a gas flame before you use it crisps it up.
Before the workshop, I swotted up on some good sushi books books on Amazon.com, and a visit to an Asian supermarket provided the essential kit: sushi rolling mat, nori sheets, wasabi, ginger, sushi rice and rice vinegar. A big flat plastic tray came in handy for cooling the rice.
RECOMMENDED READING Sushi Taste and Technique, by Kimiko Barber and Hiroki Takemura (Dorling Kindersley, £12.99). The Japanese Kitchen: A Book of Essential Ingredients with 200 Authentic Recipes, also by Kimiko Barber (Kyle Cathie, £25).
Sushi Rice
Makes enough for five rolls
500g sushi rice (Japonica/white,short-grain rice)
750ml water
4 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp caster sugar
½ tsp salt
Measure the rice accurately and put it in a bowl. Pour a generous amount of water over it and stir swiftly with one hand, then immediately discard the water. Stir the rice thoroughly with the tips of the fingers, then add more water, mix, and again discard the water. Repeat this procedure four or five times, until the water runs clear, then drain well in a sieve and leave to stand for 20 minutes, if possible.
After washing the rice in the prescribed way, put it with water (750ml water to 500g rice) in a heavy-based pan - the heavy base makes it less likely to boil over. Put the lid on and bring to the boil. When the lid starts to clatter, wait 15-20 seconds and then lower the heat.
Leave the rice to cook on a low heat for a further 13-15 minutes, raising the heat just before cooking is complete. Turn the heat off. Leave the pan covered for 10 minutes then remove the lid. If the grains on the surface have risen slightly, the rice is cooked.
Meanwhile make the sushi vinegar, which is a mixture of the rice vinegar, sugar and salt. Dissolve the sugar in the rice vinegar in a non-metallic saucepan over a medium heat and add the salt to taste. Do not use a stainless-steel pan, as it may react with the vinegar to produce a metallic taste. These ingredients should be mixed well. You can vary the amount of vinegar according to taste, and when making seafood sushi it is advisable to use less sugar for a lighter-flavoured rice.
Once the rice is cooked, and while it is still hot, put it in a flat-bottomed bowl (the bowl should also be non-metallic) and pour the sushi vinegar into it. Mix in the sushi vinegar thoroughly with a spatula. Use the spatula with even pressure, and a scooping motion, taking care not to mash the rice and make it too sticky.
Cool the rice down quickly using a paper fan (or substitute) while gently turning the rice with the spatula. Fanning the rice prevents it from becoming too sticky, and also adds lustre to it. Fan it to bring it down to room temperature as quickly as possible. Cover the rice with a wet cloth to avoid it drying out.
Sushi Nori Rolls
Makes four or five rolls
500g cooked sushi rice
roasted nori seaweed sheets
1 small cucumber or scallions, cut into julienne style matchsticks
handful small prawns in brine
1 small carrot, cut into matchsticks and blanched in boiling water
½ avocado, cut into matchsticks
wasabi paste
2 tbsp pickled ginger
soy sauce
These ingredients are guidelines only. You can choose from any number and combinations of fillings: cucumber, carrot, crab sticks, tuna, oily fish, avocado or any other brightly coloured vegetables.
1 Place a sheet of nori on a sushi mat, keeping the shiny side facing down. Spread about 100g of sushi rice over the surface of the nori, leaving a two-centimetre border along the edge farthest from you.
2 Draw an incision on the rice, two centimetres inside the edge nearest to you. Dot tiny specks of wasabi along this incision and then, with a knife, join up these dots of wasabi (the more wasabi you add, the hotter the rolls will be). Arrange strips of prawn, cucumber, avocado or carrot along the line of wasabi. Cut the ginger into spaghetti-style strips and line these along also.
3 Lifting up the edge of the mat closest to you, roll the sushi away from you. Press the nori edges together (you can dampen the edges) to seal the roll, forming a tube.
4 Using a small serrated knife, dipped into water (or the vinegar and water solution), cut the roll into discs at two- centimetre intervals. You could also cut them into wider rolls, cutting one end on the diagonal.
5 Serve with soy sauce, wasabi and pickled ginger on the side.
• Thanks to Vanessa Greenwood for the recipes. Her next workshops are on Wednesday, November 8th (7pm-9.30pm) and Thursday, November 23rd (10am-12.30pm). Cooks Academy, 2 Charlemont Terrace, Crofton Road, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, 01-2145002, www.cooksacademy.com