Making sushi with Sushi Shop Marylebone

I love eating sushi and quite enjoy making it too. When I try to make it at home, it always turns into a real mess, with sticky rice everywhere. I have since picked up a few tips about making sushi from a few lessons and the mess is significantly reduced but my efforts are by no means refined.

Properly made sushi is such a beautiful thing. Restaurants that serve sushi usually plate them up with such artistry from the glistening pieces of fish, perfectly formed nigiri sushi and mind bogglingly equal size portions of maki sushi, decorated with carved bamboo leaves, mounds of daikon and flowers.

We learnt a few new tricks at the new Sushi Shop in Marylebone. This is the second outlet for this European Sushi chain in London. The shop is a double fronted space with the open kitchen on one side and seating on the other. For a casual dining space, it is beautifully appointed with sleep minimalist Japanese aesthetics. On the tables are their own brand bottles of soya sauce and an intriguing sweet soya sauce, their best seller.

Executive chef Pierre came over from Paris to oversee the final details and spent some time teaching us the finer points of making a perfect piece of nigiri sushi. As the restaurant had not officially opened at this point, I was amazed that they let us loose on their pristine kitchen and untouched equipment. The knives were so very very sharp!

How to make Salmon Nigiri Sushi

Things to remember:

• The sushi rice should be flavoured and used warm
• There should not be too much sushi rice
• The sushi rice should be lightly compressed, not too hard as it will break the rice grains
• Roll the salmon or fish on gently and it should then be shaped between your fingers to a squarish shape.
• Notice the tails of the fish on the end of the piece of Salmon nigiri.

This all looks quite uniform to me but to a trained chef, it is a bit of a mess. The sizes are all over the place but I didn’t really mind.

We then took the Salmon Nigiri a bit further by adding a teriyaki glaze and blow torching the fish lightly. This was a delicious twist to an ordinary piece of salmon sushi.

How to make Maki Sushi

We also had a go at making maki sushi using a bamboo mat. This is where I have come unstuck before. Gauging the rice to filling ratio is a tricky business. It has to be not too little and not too much or your roll will be a disaster. We did both normal cucumber rolls to practice, then a fancy inside out California roll with the nori seaweed on the inside.
The steps are: lay down a layer of rice leaving some space on the top edge. Add some cucumber in the middle evenly. Roll the mat over and compress lightly in a square shape. Release and roll it over all the way and compress again.

When cutting, it is customary to cut into 6 pieces. Wet the knife and make sure it is sharp. You don’t want to saw it, just one straight cut. Cut it in the middle first, then tidy the ends. 

A beginners cutting guide to maki sushi, use the width of the knife to judge the width. This way, you will get them all the same height. Great trick.

Here is the inside out California Roll.

And here is the plate of all our sushi creations.

The Sushi Shop has a very extensive menu and you can order to eat in or takeaway. Their menu has the traditional Edo sushi selection and a very inventive European fusion selection which includes a “French Touch”, Chicken Caesar and a Mango Tempura roll. They also do a spectacular London box which has 38 pieces of mixed sushi.

The Sushi Shop is a new favourite now. Shame it is not nearer to me or I would be ordering from there quite often. Do check them out.

Sushi Shop Marylebone

EatCookExplore was a guest of the Sushi Shop