Sushi

Rinse the rice thoroughly under cold water, drain and rinse again and then put in a large pot with a lid.

Pour over 500 ml water and bring to the boil, simmering for around half an hour until all the water has been absorbed – remove from the heat, cover with the lid and set aside for 10 minutes.

Place this rice on a large flat, clean surface or a tray (if you use a metal tray, it will cool down more quickly) and then sprinkle over the mirin and see to it that it’s worked into the rice thoroughly.

Turn the rice around to help it cool down to room temperature, and then take out the bamboo sushi mat and put a sheet of nori on top of it.

Keep a bowl of water next to you so that you can dip your fingers into the water before you touch the rice – it helps the rice not to stick.

Spread the rice over ¾ of the nori, taking a little bit at a time and pushing it to the edges leaving a layer of about ½ cm thick – now make sure that the ¼ piece without rice is the furthest away from you.

Squeeze out or smear a bit of wasabi in a line quite close to you and on top of that, put a layer of tuna, a piece of avocado (or spring onion) and a piece of cucumber and roll up the bamboo mat slowly, tucking in the edge of the sushi roll closest to you, and then start to roll away from you – pressing lightly with both hands.

Take the roll off the mat and put it with the joining edges downwards on a piece of cling wrap and put in a cool place until you’re ready to serve it.

Don’t put it in the fridge because the fridge will dry out the rice.

When you are ready to serve it, lightly moisten your very sharp knife, trim the ends so that they are neat and cut the roll into the sizes that you like – serve with pickled ginger, wasabi and little bowls of soy sauce.

Option: you can fill your sushi with anything you like – there are no hard and fast rules.