Sushi!

Using the tips from our friend Tialda and the ingredients picked-up with the help of two others, Yuri and Wakako, I made sushi all by myself! It was much easier and faster than I expected. I also did not have the worry of getting ill from raw fish, as I used smoked salmon. I'm not sure where to get sushi grade fish in Cambridge.

Tialda had taught me how to make Korean sushi, which meant adding sesame oil to the rice and sesame oil and sesame seeds along with the other ingredients to be rolled. I picked up the sushi mats, seaweed, sesame oil, sesame seeds, sushi rice, pickled radish and rice vinegar at Seoul Plaza—a Chinese/Korean/Japanese grocer located on Mill Road. The salmon I picked up at Sainsbury's and the cucumber at the daily market on Market Hill Square.

Recipe (makes about nine rolls)
Seasoned Sushi Rice
sushi rice (2 cups before cooking)
rice vinegar, to taste (I'm guessing 1/4-1/2 cup)
salt, to taste
sugar, to taste (I'm guessing 2-3 tbsps)
sesame oil, to taste (I'm guessing 1/4-1/3 cup)

(You can buy seasoned rice vinegar, which already has the sugar and salt added, or powdered sushi rice seasoning instead of vinegar, sugar and salt.)

Procedure
Cut one cucumber lengthwise into 9 or 10 strips. Cut smoked salmon into 9 0r 10 equal size pieces roughly the same length as the width of the seaweed.

Lay seaweed on sushi mat. Spread a thin layer of seasoned sushi rice on little over 1/2 of seaweed. Drizzle sesame oil and sprinkle sesame seeds on rice. Place one pickled radish, one cucumber strip and one salmon strip in center of rice. Using the mat, begin to roll the sushi, rice end first. Once you've rolled the rice end under, pull the mat back to tighten the roll. Then use the mat to complete the roll; and you can again use the mat to tighten the roll. To help the rolls keep their shape, place them in a container or foil, and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes. Then cut and eat. Since soy sauce contains wheat, we served this with tamari.