If you are like me, you want your food prepared and put infront of you, but those who are into cooking, you might want to learn how to fillet fish. Chef David Banks demonstrates how to fillet three whole fish and prepares them four different ways without cooking. Once you know how to do this, you are halfway there to becoming a sushi chef. Serving sashimi on the right sushi plate makes a great presentation.

If you are into Japanese cooking, you might want to consider using Donabe (clay pot). When you cook with Donabe, it distributes heat evenly, allowing a wonderful blending of flavors. Clay pot cooking is still being practiced in many cultures. Japan is no exception. I highly recommend it if you want to take your cooking skills to the next level.

The following article is republished with a permision from Naoko Moore. Ms. Moore shares a variety of recipes on her blog Mrs. Donabe’s Rustic Japanese Kitchen and www.toirokitchen.com.

Author: Naoko Moore

I made some Inari Sushi (sushi rice in fried-tofu pouch) to take to a dinner party at a friend’s house.

I got the nice homemade abura-age (pressed fried tofu) from Meiji Tofu. After slicing one side of each abura-age to open up to make it a pouch, I simmered them in a broth which contains dashi stock, sake, soy sauce, sugar and mirin with the drop-lid (otoshibuta) on. It’s a slow simmer for about 30 minutes or longer until the broth is reduced down and abura age soaks up most of it.

While cooling down the cooked abura-age, I made the sushi rice with Kamado-san (double-lid donabe rice cooker). I cooked the rice with a packet of multi grains, so that it’s not only pretty visually but also the mixture is more nutrient. The cooked rice was quickly seasoned with brown rice vinegar-sugar-salt mixture. Then, at the end, I mixed in the sauteed daikon leaves.

Stuffing each abura-age with the rice is as tricky as making each abura-age into a pouch at the beginning of the process. The tofu skin is very delicate, so you need to be very careful not to break it.

After the careful preparation…20 inari sushi are ready! I posted the full recipe on toiro’s website.

Eggplant Sushi
By Sturat Mitchel

Sushi has been a Japanese delicacy for centuries and was originally intended to preserve fermented fish. Nowadays, sushi bars (famous for its conveyor belts) have become upscale restaurants in high-class cities. But, you don’t need to be upper crust to enjoy this simple Japanese meal. You only need to know how to make sushi.

There are many sushi-making kits out there with their own how-to books and guides. Find a book with simple recipes that a beginner can try out. You’ll be surprised to see how many simple dishes there really are.

The ingredients are not many. You only need rice (Japanese is the best bet, since they have a unique consistency can hold the sushi together), rice vinegar, sugar, salt, nori (seaweed) and toppings of your choice (eggs, cucumbers or crabsticks).

First, you will have to cook the rice. Most brands actually give instructions at the back of the packet, but in case they don’t, here are some pointers. You cook the rice the normal way by rinsing it with cold water and cook in a rice cooker. What’s important is to dissolve the vinegar, salt and sugar in a pan under low heat for a few minutes before letting it cool in a bucket of ice. Add the mixture into the cooked rice a little at a time. While doing that, you need to ‘fold’ the rice with a spatula without squishing them. It is ready when there is a shine to the grains.

The next part requires a bit of creativity. Spread the rice on a large piece of seaweed, which in turn is placed on a sushi mat. Add your toppings on the rice and start rolling! You may not get it right the first time, but that’s how you make sushi. You rarely get it right the first time.

A delicious topping for sushi is eggplant. This fruit (yes, it is actually a fruit), comes in many shapes and sizes, the most common one being purple and long. It can also be cooked in many ways, from being sautéed, char-boiled and even pickled. If you want to make it as a sushi topping, you will have to know how to cook an eggplant.

The Japanese usually pickle this delicacy and make them into tempura. It is best to serve them raw, with a little lemon juice to prevent browning, if you want it to be part of a sushi roll. You can also, grill these beauties on a searing hot grill for a smokier flavor. For those stir-fry nuts, cubed eggplants can be added to a hot wok with salt, garlic and red chilies.

Whatever way you cook it, eggplant will always taste good, especially if it is in a roll of Japanese rice and nori.

Related Articles

How to Cook Eggplant

How to Make Sushi

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sturat_Mitchel
http://EzineArticles.com/?Eggplant-Sushi&id=1703246

If you are a true sushi connoisseur and have 26 minutes to kill, you might enjoy watching this clip. A group of people with notably sophisticated palate, including Anthony Bourdain discuss their love for sushi over fine sashimi and sake. They are what I consider food intelectuals. Bourdain asks the group an interesting question. “What would be one plate of food you eat if you are dying tomorrow?”

Fast forward to 8:25 to go directly to the best part of the clip.

If you love sushi so much that you have to be thinking about it all the time, a sushi stapler serves as a perfect reminder at work. Someone must have had a lot of time on their hand to come up with something like this. I wonder what chain of thoughts put the two together. What’s nice about the sushi staplers is that they are practical.