Sushi Day

I did a Sushi Making Class yesterday. I really enjoyed it as, though it wasn't sold as such, it was more about home-style sushi than cutting and preparing certain fish the right way. We learnt various different rolls, but my personal favourite must surely be the Inari. Not something I've ever been especially enraptured with, the recipe we were given for these was fabulous.

Inari are little tofu pockets that are filled with sushi rice and generally then topped with something like tobiko or seaweed salad. The recipe we made though, was sushi rice that was combined with fabulous flavours and textures. I think filling the Inari with the mixture which included braised shiitake mushrooms, sesame seeds and pine nuts was a more interesting option than topping them and leaving the rice within plain. What's better is that the pockets are filled and turned upside down, leaving no hint of what lies within until you bite into one of them. At this time, there is a little explosion of colour, texture and flavour. While the steps to make the Inari are easy, there are quite a few of them. Preparing the rice of course, braising the tofu, mushrooms and also carrots in their own specific and very precise combination of flavours. It was fun, but you'd really only want to prepare these if you were making a reasonable amount of them I think.

I learnt that Inari (Oinari) is often considered to be a fox (though a little online investigation shows there is much more to the story than this) who has a particular liking for these little tofu pockets. This then is the reason for tofu pockets being called Inari.


This is the tofu pockets before they are braised. You must first cut them in half (as seen above) and gently winkle your fingers in, much like you might work your fingers under the skin of a chicken for the purpose of filling it with butter and herbs. You need to be careful as the tofu skin is as delicate and easy to break as chicken skin. The pockets are sold frozen, and need to be defrosted before use.

Once they are prepped, they are laid over a strainer of some description (the little baskets used above are lovely, but I have nothing like them in my home) and boiling water is poured first over one side, then the other. This removes a little of the oil that is left over from their frying.

They are then plunged into their braising liquid which is a combination of dashi, sake, sugar, mirin, shoyu and usukuchi soys. They are left to simmer away under a 'drop lid' (a lid smaller than the pot so that it rests on top of the Inari) until almost all of the liquid has gone. This would seem to take at least a half hour.

They are then drained of the remaining liquid and left out on the baskets to drain further. When you are ready to stuff them with your sushi-style rice, give them a good squeeze like a sponge. They will be thinner and pliable, though still relatively delicate. The filling is popped in, not too tightly, and the flaps closed over and they then sit on the flap side, three to a plate, on an angle with a little 'rose' of ginger.

This is the mix we filled our Inari with. It's sushi rice combined with dried shiitaki mushrooms which are braised in a combination of dashi, sugar, mirin and shoyu, again cooked down until the liquid is all but absorbed. The mushrooms are first soaked and cut into dice. We used about six mushrooms to about 3 1/2 metric cups of cooked and prepared sushi rice. I think I might like to use a couple more mushrooms for my mix as they are so delicious. The carrots, (small batons) were braised in dashi, sugar, mirin and a pinch of salt. There was just 75g of carrot and again, I'd be tempted to use a little more here. I know the Japanese are all about balance, but my taste buds just like the balance skewed a little! The other ingredients were toasted white sesame seeds (called for 3 tbsp, but seemed to be more 'to taste'), toasted pine nuts, which surprised me, again about 3 tbsp of these. All simply mixed into the rice. Fabulous, light, child friendly (my kids loved these) and inexpensive.