Serve 2



A bowl of sushi with sashimi on top is a favorite in Tokyo. You can use just one ingredient like tuna, or the assorted sashimi normally used in restaurants including tuna, prawn, eel, sea bass, shellfish, herring roe, salmon roe – almost any good material from the market on the day. My selection is good for serving at home.

INGREDIENTS:
½ quantity vinegared rice

Sashimi (your choice of):
2 uncooked tiger prawns, peeled but with tail fins intact
1 octopus tentacle
125 g fresh tuna and/or salmon
1 turbot fillet, about 75 g
1 small squid, cleaned and skinned
2 large dried shiitake mushrooms
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon mirin (rice wine)
Salt

To serve:
4 cm cucumber
Pink pickled ginger
Wasabi paste
Japanese soy sauce (shoyu)

HOW TO MAKE:
1. Make the vinegared rice (sumeshi).
2. Bring a saucepan of lightly salted water to the boil, add the prawns and poach for 1-2 minutes until just pink.Remove with a slotted spoon, cool under running water, then pat dry with kitchen paper.
return the pan of water to the boil, add the octopus tentacle and cook for 7-8 minutes. Drain and cool under running water. Pat dry with kitchen paper and slice diagonally into thin discs.
3. Cut the fish into 4 slices each.
4. Put the squid, skin side up, on a cutting board and make very fine slits two-thirds of the way through the thickness, first lengthways, then crossways.Put in a bowl, pour over boiling water and drain. As the squid curls up, the slits open to form a flower. Immediately plunge into cold water. Pat dry with kitchen paper and cut into 4 bites size pieces.
5. Soak the shiitake in warm water for 30 minutes and drain, retaining the soaking liquid. Cut off the stems and put in a saucepan with the sugar, mirin and a pinch of salt. Cover with some of the soaking liquid, stir, then bring to the boil and simmer for 4-5 minutes until most of the liquid disappears. Let cool in the liquid.
6. Cut 2 green slices off the cucumber, 5 cm wide. Make fine slits lengthways, leaving 1 cm intact on one side. Open up the slits to make 2 cucumber fans.
7. Divide rice between 2 bowls and arrange the seafood over the rice and top with a cucumber fan and a pile of pink pickled ginger. Serve on small individual plates with a tiny heap of wasabi, and a little jug of soy sauce.