Sushi making lesson.

Every once and a while I give a sushi making lesson. It's a great lesson as it's actually pretty easy to make decent sushi. I'm not going to arm wrestle a sushi master on this fact but for some californian rolls and some nigiri sushi if you follow instructions and are a little bit nimble of hand you should have no problem. I love the clean tasting flavours of the vinegar and ginger and am a little addicted to the whack of wasabi. I still like to think of it as healthy food, there's a lot of raw ingredients in there. Some kill-joy I was listening to on the radio who will remain nameless was denigrading sushi's nutritional stars, claiming it was high in sugar, low in fibre and therefore not so good for you. I do empathise with those not tolerant to blood sugar fluctuations but I have to think it still has to be better than alot of things. 

Back to the lesson it was a very sociable affair with guests rolling their own dinner to differing degrees of sucess, but that's the beauty of it it all tastes delicious. 

There's a photo of some maki rolls.

Beans and Doughnuts!

Sometimes my job is so very glamorous. I was working on a TV commercial for Batchelors beans for the last few days. I was assisting the food stylist. A large part of my job was sifting through piles of baked beans looking for perfect " hero " beans. I kid you not. The end result looks great, I got a round of applause as much out of sympathy for diligent bean sorting as much as anything. I'll look forward to seeing my little charges on TV sometime in the future.
I've had my eye on Mr Olivers doughnut recipe in his " Cook with Jamie, Cook Book." I made  them last week and found them a little lacking in oomph. It got me remembering doughnuts my sister used to make back when we were small. I remember them being so delicious that we couldn't eat them fast enough, almost burning mouths in the rush. I must give credit to my mother who although had no memory of the delicacies herself sought out the recipe in a ancient copybook. I'm glad to report they were as delicious as I remembered and are also dead easy. I did take Jamie up on his idea to serve the doughnuts with a fruit compote to dip into to. I made a rhubarb one and mmm it was good.


MAIRE'S DOUGHNUTS.
8oz SR flour
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp salt
1oz butter
2oz golden syrup
5fl oz milk
1 egg

Maire's

Jamie's

Sift the dry ingredients together. Rub in the butter. Mix the liquid ingredients together, reserving some of he milk back. Mix the wet into the dry, do not overmix, until you have a soft pliable, rollable dough, add more milk if necessary. Roll the dough out on a floured board till it's 1/4 " thick, punch out rings with cookie dough. Fry in hot oil  c. Flip over half way through cooking, fry until golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper and dust in caster sugar which you have added some spice to. Serve with fruit compote. Enjoy.