Making sushi (and shamelessly plugging German cinema) in Berlin.

It's half-term. I'm in Berlin. Ah, the perks of working in a primary school.

I've had a pretty awesome week. I saw my sister again (for the first time in almost a year!), went for long walks, read a German book, spent a good two hours gawping at paintings at the Neue Nationalgallerie, ate all the cheese in my parents house, and had a drink or ten with a good friend. And I went to the cinema. Twice.

I try to go to the cinema at least once when I'm here, because it's cheap and I finally get my pick of German movies on the big screen, instead of having to wait and see what filters through to the cinemas of Britain. Like every country, Germany has its fair share of shite, but there are many genuinely amazing films that just never make it into theatres anywhere else. This time 'round I watched Die Wand (The Wall). Allow me to gush for a moment... It was amazing. Martina Gedeck (of The Lives of Others and The Baader-Meinhof Complex fame) was beyond brilliant- as the only human protagonist, she pretty much carried the film. I highly recommend seeing it if you want something very different, and/or if you like your movies on the depressing side. I know I do.

However, the need for a bit of balance (and my dad's suggestion) compelled me to also go watch a sweet little film called Sushi in Suhl, which is based on a true story, yo! Apparently, in the 1970s, in a town called Suhl in the GDR (that's East Germany, guys), a chef working in one of the local taverns developed a keen interest in Japanese cuisine. So, despite never having been to Japan or ever having tasted Japanese food before, and armed with a few recipes from a book (propaganda ministry approved, I would imagine), he set about cooking a full Japanese meal for his friends. They liked it, but they all thought he was bonkers. Despite warnings of the potential political shitstorm it might cause, he opened a little Japanese restaurant, which apparently became quite a phenomenon in that little isolated corner of the world. 

Yeah they made a movie about this. 

While the film was cute, it mainly just left me with one hell of a craving for Japanese food. So I put my mum's giant shiny kitchen to use and made sushi for the family. 

See, there was a food-based point to all this! (Kind of.) And now, for lots and lots of photos.

Ingredients, yo.

Multitasking.

Fillings! Salmon, tuna, smoked tofu, sweet potato puree, natto, cucumber. (Not pictured: mountain of avocado).

 If you own a rice cooker, sushi rice really is super duper easy. All you need then is some Japanese short grain rice (you will not be able to make sushi with long grain rice, it's just not sticky enough), well-washed. I used 3 cups this time, because that's all we had left, but I've been known to make 6 cups worth, because sushi has the tendency to get eaten pretty fast.

To the cooked rice I gradually added rice vinegar, about 1/4 cup, with 1 tbsp sugar and 1 1/2 tsp salt dissolved in it (apparently some people gently heat the vinegar until it dissolves but I think that step is redundant, give it a good stir and it'll dissolve without the heat). Again, here quantities do vary, and I recommend adding the vinegar mix gradually, and taste as you incorporate it into the rice.

Use either a wooden or ceramic bowl for the rice, and incorporate the vinegar into the rice with a rice paddle in a cutting motion (no stirring). If you really want to test your multitasking skills, fan the rice to cool it down while you mix. Or get someone else involved. Teamwork, guys!

Once your rice is all sushi-vinegared up and somewhat cooler, take a small mound (you really don't need much, maybe the equivalent of the size of your palm), put it in the middle of your nori, which you have placed squarely onto your little bamboo rolling thingy, and use the rice paddle to spread it outwards, until you've covered most of the nori. Note that my rolling thingy in the photo isn't bamboo, it's "dishwasher-friendly" rubber, but it just didn't work as well. So ignore it, and never buy one.

Then you start with the fillings. Don't put them squarely in the middle, start by placing them at the end closest to you, that way it's easier to roll.

The filling in the roll pictured here is definitely a bit too much in the middle, but I like to live dangerously.

Put in whatever your little heart desires.

We all know that sushi is not limited to fish and cucumber. In fact, this was the first time I ever used raw fish. This is because a) I can't normally justify paying for it, and b) it wouldn't get eaten by as many people if I did.

Fillings I've used in the past include:
- cream cheese.
- pesto.
- tuna mayonnaise.
- Japanese plum paste.
- carrot and peppers.
- Sriracha sauce, in place of wasabi.



You get the idea. Anything goes really. The only constant for me is a sh*t-ton of avocado. That's non-negotiable.

 When rolling your sushi up, roll the end closest to you away from you, so that the end-side is just touching the rice, and press the sides gently to shape it. Then roll it up completely and press the whole thing to shape it, the bamboo roll will make it almost a bit square.

When cutting the sushi, I cut the ends off first, then down the middle, and each half will equal about 3 pieces.

Find a friend to cut with you, it gets a bit dull after awhile, plus you'll have someone to eat the ends bits with.

We had the leftover fish as sashimi, and dad made some cold soba noodles to go with the sushi. And miso soup. Yum.

There were two of these platters. I think my parents were a bit scared at the amount of food I had made.

But somehow we managed to eat most of it. Of course.

Invest in a rice cooker. Seriously.