Grilled Shiitake Sushi

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Cookbook

The Complete Book of Sushi

Published by Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.

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Grilled Shiitake Sushi

Editor's Note: This vegetarian sushi recipe will be as satisfying as it is easy to make. It only takes a few simple ingredients to make Grilled Shiitake Sushi. Lightly seasoned, grilled mushrooms are combined with flavorful sushi rice for an irresistible sushi creation. You can easily adapt this recipe to suit your tastes by following one of the included filling variations or by inventing your own. Unlike a lot of sushi, each piece of this Grilled Shiitake Sushi is shaped individually, so be sure to get your whole family involved in the sushi-making process.

Makes10 pieces

Ingredients

1 tablespoon tablespoon Japanese soy sauce
1 tablespoon mirin
10 fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems removed
1 cup (5 oz./150 g) sushi rice
1/2 nori sheet sliced into 10 strips, ½ inch x 3 inches (1 cm x 7.5 cm)
Finger bowl; water with a splash of rice vinegar

Instructions

Combine soy sauce and mirin and brush on shiitake. Grill mushrooms until tender, 2-3 minutes. Dip both hands in finger bowl and shake off excess. With one hand, pick up 1 tablespoon of rice and gently squeeze and shape it into a rectangle with rounded edges. Pick up a mushroom with the other hand, bending your fingers to form a shallow mold that mushroom can rest in. Place shaped rice ball on mushroom and very gently press down with index and middle fingers, holding thumb at top end of ball to stop rice being pushed out the end.
Turn over rice ball so mushroom is on top and continue gently pushing topping against rice with your index and middle fingers. Turn sushi 180 degrees and repeat. The topping should look like a roof over the rice ball, with very little, if any, rice visible. Place a nori strip on top of the mushroom and tuck each end underneath rice ball to keep the mushroom in place.

Filling variations:

Replace mushrooms with tofu.
Seasoned omelette slice tied with blanched scallion, or sliced avocado with wasabi mayonnaise and toasted sesame seeds.
Pickled radish (takun) and shisho leaf, tied with seasoned kampyo strip.
Seafood options: sashimi fish (salmon, tuna, kingfish, trevally), squid, cuttlefish and shrimp (prawns).