No16 [Cooking] Shikai-maki

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shikai-maki

If you are looking for a dish to impress at your dinner party, look no further. A decorative four sided sushi roll exhibiting a geometric pattern that resembles baroque stained glass, Shikai-maki, which means ‘four ocean roll’, will make your friends kneel down on the floor in awe at your culinary prowess.
This seemingly impossible to reproduce sushi is actually surprisingly easy to make. They are great with any colourful ingredients that can be cut into 2cm cubes. Mango and salmon are two of my favourites. Shikai-maki is the highlight of my popular ‘Dinner Party Sushi’ class, a bit tricky at first but everyone gets it right in the end. Happy rolling!

Ingredients:
– Yutaka Sushi rice
– 2 half & 1 quarter sheets of Yutaka Sushi nori (seaweed)
– 2cm x 2cm x 10cm length of cucumber

How to prepare:
1. Place one half length and one quarter length of dry seaweed in line on a sushi mat, making sure that they overlap at the join by about an inch. Stick the two sheets together with a few pieces of sticky sushi rice that acts like glue.
2. Spread sushi rice evenly across the seaweed , expect at the very top where you should leave about an inch.
3. Roll the whole seaweed sheet up tightly. Just like a Swiss Roll. Next, cut the roll in half lengthwise using a very sharp knife and then cut the two halves into quarters, creating 4 pieces in total.
4. Lay the other half length piece of seaweed on the sushi mat and place two of the quartered roll piece made in stage 3 facing back to back on top. They should be placed upside down, in a mirror image of the first two. Roll the stack of roll pieces across the seaweed, making sure it is wrapped tightly together. Finally, cut the finished roll crosswise into four sections.