For years, I tried to make her happy by baking special cakes on her birthday, thinking every kid has a sweet tooth. It takes me quite many years to realize there are folks like me who prefer savoury stuff.
So I went about making a sushi cake, which is nothing but pressed sushi. Traditionally, pressed sushi is made in an oshizushihako (押し寿司箱) or pressed sushi box. I don’t have any, so I had to innovate.
Do you remember those Tasty magic videos… pressing sushi ingredients into ice-cube trays and all. So I went around the house to collect items I thought would make my sushi look cool.
While I am at it making a sushi cake, I went and pressed sushi on everything I can find: ice-cube trays, doughnut molds, and a cake tin.
Here’s the verdict: much easier than rolled sushi, nigiri or temaki sushi, and prettier too.
Pressed Sushi
Equipment
- Mold of any kind, I use doughnut mold, cake tin, ice-cube trays etc
- Cling wrap
Instructions
Rice
- Rinse the rice at least thrice. Choose Japanese sushi rice for best results. About 1/2 cup of uncooked rice for each person.
- If you do not know how to measure water with the index finger, then use 1 cup of rice : 1.3 cups of water.
- Cook the rice in a rice cooker or over the stove.To cook rice over the stove, boil the water at medium heat with the rice until the water levels off with the rice.Turn to the lowest heat possible and cover the pot of rice. Remove after 5 minutes. Keep the lid closed until you are ready to use it. Probably an hour later.Now, if you are wondering at this point why Asians cook rice before anything else, because we do! That's just the most important step in our food preparation. Do the same!
- Drizzle sushi vinegar into the rice. I cup of rice will need 1/3 cup of sushi vinegar.If you are making the sushi vinegar the ratio of vinegar : sugar : salt is 5:3:1 using the tablespoon or cup.
Fish
- Slice the fish into the size you want. Typically 3 kinds of fish will make your dish look outstanding. Make sure the fish is of sashimi quality.
Garnishes
- Edible flowers, spanish leaves, ikura, ebiko, chives, slices of fruits, slices of radishes or tomatoes are all great
- Sesame seeds
Assembly
- Cook rice and season with sushi vinegar.Line the mold with at least 2 layers of cling wrap.
- Place fish/protein and cut veggies into the cling wrap to create a bottom layer.
- Fill the mold with rice to about half the height of the mold.
- Add another layer of veggies or meat/raw meat.
- Top the mold with rice.Refrigerate for 10 minutes.
- Remove the sushi from mold and garnish.
Sauces
- My Japanese carpaccio sauce: mix 1 tbsp of sugar, 2 tbsp of mirin and 2 tbsp of soya sauce with 1 tsp of grated ginger.
- Teriyaki sauce: Cook 1 tbsp of sugar with 2 tbsp of mirin and 2 tbsp soya sauce until the sugar has melted and sauce thickened.
- Japanese Mayonnaise or Siracha
