Personal - Vegetarian Sushi Course

Hi Blog,

I bumped into one Facebook post about sushi preparation and what made it so special is a vegetarian sushi course.

Where to have such a course for vegetarians?! And I could tag on my skillfuture credit aka free course!

I know a bit of sushi preparation here and there, I tried before and honestly, it tasted bad... Needs to be revised. So I decided to take up this course and improve my skill in sushi preparation.

Honestly, Singapore maybe small but I have never come here at all and it didn't know it's existence. 😄

Ooo... Queuing to take lift and wait for your agent to turn up.

Thanks XY for joining me on this course. Great to have someone to learn together.

Ooo yes thanks to this company for conducting such lesson

Oooo, this seemed like our classroom will be conducted at. Some pupils already turned up.

Hmm... Where should we sit...

XY agreed with me to take the front seat, one of the most expensive seats.

(Credit to Joc, our agent) she bought us breakfast to start the day. Thanks for making your way here - guide us area briefing and ensure we are comfortable then leave.

Before we started the course, we will need to ensure we have enough and the right tools inside the table cabinet.

It seemed like I have no issue. Most of the standard cutlery.

The lesson started with a bit of a small introduction of our teacher chef - Mr B. Teo aka Chef Teo. Knowing that most of our pupils were elderly, so he conducted the class in mandarin. Chef Teo shared a fair bit about his past and how he is today, inspiring and meaningful; glad to see that he tries his best to assist people who need a helping hand to save them from the abyss. Hope he will continue to share his youth experience and motivate the youngsters. Anyway, the lesson started... Below pictures might seem all over the place because I was trying to watch, remember and follow the steps. I also sorted up the picture sequences as Chef Teo tends to prepare everything in one go and mixed the preparation of the ingredients for time efficiency.

Preparing Sushi Vinegar (2 pax) and Sushi Rice

First! Prepare 1 cups of rice vinegar (two potions). Recapping my preparation before attending this course, I just simply applied the vinegar onto the cooked rice then added sugar and salt after the vinegar on the rice... No wonder It tasted awful... Like not satisfying... Today I managed to learn it properly!

4 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt into the rice vinegar! Omg! That's a lot! But if you want to reduce the sugar level, you can just put in 2 tablespoons.

Hmm... I can't differentiate what is a tablespoon and a teaspoon. Today I got to identify it. On the left is tablespoon and on the right is a teaspoon.

Stir the mixture until no more sugar and salt dissolved.

Hmm... From 2 cups of rice vinegar added 4 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt, which increases the volume. The best part is that we can store this sushi vinegar, as long as it didn't contact with water (so do make sure the container or bottle in which we store the sushi vinegar is dried.) you may also purchase ready-made sushi vinegar from your local grocery store. For me, it will be fun to make it ourselves, whereas there might include other additional ingredients in the mix.

Next, Chef Teo introduced this wooden rice tub as one of the cooking tools if we really were into sushi; as it helps to resolve many challenges I faced while preparing sushi rice. Typically, we won't have a such wooden tub at home, so I can only use the plastic tub. The disadvantage of using a plastic tub is that it is unable to absorb the moisture of the sushi vinegar that well... And end up, the bottom rice will be wetter than the one near the top or edge - imbalance application.

The next thing is that we cannot wash this wooden tub with soap, only water and constantly wipe it with a clean cloth. Right now, Chef Teo sprayed sushi vinegar as a base layer on the wooden tub to allow some absorption.

As for the number of cups, since we were preparing for 2 pax, then we will need 2 cups of sushi rice and we needed to comb the extra to ensure the actual amount - no more no less. Take note, we have to allow the rice to soak for at least 15 minutes.

Add in actual 2 cups of water - no more and less too. After the rice cooker settled the rice... look at the beautiful white furry rice.

Pour out the content onto the wooden tub

Spread it out and pour in the sushi vinegar

(Credit XY) Mixed it well and let it cool down. I test-tasted and oh my... It is the type of sushi taste I had ever missed long time.

Vegetarian Teriyaki Sauce

These three ingredients are the most important ingredients (Sake, Mirin and Kikkoma Soy sauce, take note these are Halal, even the Sake is zero alcohol content. Honestly, I know there is vegetarian version for Mirin but I have not heard there is one for Sake, I guess... Shopping time!) for making the legendary Teriyaki sauce! I heard from Chef Teo, he took a while to earn enough trust from his master in order to obtain this Teriyaki Sauce secret. Wow! I must learn this properly.

Heat up the wok

Chef Teo shared, to know how much do we need to pour in to make the sauce. He shared this golden rule which also applies to most Japanese cuisine, which is everything has to be equal in ratio. Like Sake:Mirin:Soy sauce for making Teriyaki is N:N:N if you are planning to make more then increase the number, as for this... It will be 2:2:2 tablespoons

After it boils...

Add in two tablespoons of sugar and continue to stir.

Let it boil and chill until it becomes starchy, then can keep in the refrigerator. It can store and last for future use without contact of water.

Preparing Seasoning Tomato

Something random but this session was to show how to prepare seasoning tomato. Cross-section slice along the skin of the tomato, then boil with it.

After boiling, let it rest a while, then take it out to remove the seeds section

Marinate in the soy sauce

It might take a while we can prepare other ingredients. This one will treat like a mock fish.

Preparing Gunkan Ah Char

Making sushi, the most important is to have every ingredient ready before rolling. For this, Chef Teo taught us a fusion Ah Char dish (not quite but more or less) to make a Gunkan sushi

To start the pan with sambal chill

Make it fluid

Pour in cooking oil

Stir fry for a while

Add in a spoon of sugar and salt.

While wait for the sauce to cool down

We can start cutting other ingredients like cucumber, carrot and cabbage.

Half of the cabbage should be enough to make 40+ Gunkan sushi

Dice it

When I mentioned fusion above, to have its sour taste, he added sushi vinegar.

Let it chill

then drench out the water

Same thing - dice the cucumber

Carrot... chop chop chop

Pineapple... chop chop chop but will put this last.

A pitch of salt and mixed it up, then let it rest.

Use a cloth to squeeze out the fluid

ooooo! That is a lot of fluid!

Same rule applied for the chopped mixture.

Then pour in the sauce

Stir it well and done.

Other ingredients

Chef Teo helped to prepare every ingredient

Avacado slices. I think I need to learn how to slice it well.

Each of us gathered our own onto our plate.

Meanwhile, Chef Teo taught us how to make a presentable mushroom - A star mushroom

Use a small knife to slice a V

then made a 60/120 degree V cut

And ended with another.

Sushi Roll - Maki & Temaki

Time to roll some sushi! My bad I couldn't document everything.

Chef Teo taught us one IMPORTANT and USEFUL method of having the rice stick to your hands, which is to wear gloves (Not for professional sushi chef)

and applied Mayonaise on the gloves.

Just check out the rice does not stick at all; easy roll!

We spread the rice on the seaweed

to every corner of the seaweed; do not press the rice too hard.

leave a cm spacing at the end

but ensure the sides are filled with rice

make sure it is aligned

Check again for the one cm remaining

I have difficulty describing this part... I shall leave it to the images.

Next was the part why I attended Sushi preparation, I wanted to learn how to roll Temaki. Chef Teo taught us to roll with this paper piece. The first fold is the critical one to roll a successful Temaki.

Check this one and practice! I think I got it now!

Now time to complete a set of different sushi!

COMPLETED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How was it?

Thanks bro for accompanying and we completed the course together!

Show off our proud work!

We all graduated as certified sushi preparation!

Chef Teo made a sushi cake but too bad we don't get to try it, as it is a teaser for level two of Sushi preparation.

Overall, I glad that I decided to attend this course as I learned a lot. Hope one day, I can prepare it to my friends.

Jeff