My Homemade Sushi Recipe

Posted on October 6, 2018 by rozinaspersiankitchen

Well first of all I should confess I dislike seafood. So I had no idea I could eat Sushi or Sashimi. So once I was with Japanese friends in a restaurant, they ordered Sushi, and asked me to try. I said, nooooooooooo, never, ever,, I do not like cooked fish so how can I eat raw fish, but they insisted and I tried but you can imagine my face when I wanted to try sushi. Then magic happened and I was in love with sushi. Oh my God, it was FAN TAS TIC, so delicious, so tasty and not a fishy tasting fish.

The popular and commonly raw fish used for Sushi are: Tuna, Salmon, Octopus, cuttlefish, prawn, squid. For making Sushi, a very important factor in eating raw fish is freshness, so you need sushi grade fish from a qualified supplier. Then you would need a dark green seaweed wrappers or Nori.

So if you are a Sushi lover, as I am, here is an easy and tasty sushi recipe. Sushi is a traditional Japanese dish that is low in fat and high in protein. Sushi literally means sour, due to using vinegared rice. Main ingredients for making Sushi is sticky rice. There are varieties of Sushi for vegetarians and non vegetarians.

First of all for making Sushi you should consider a few items such as:

Sushi mat or rolling mat
Wasabi
Soy sauce
Nori or Sea weed sheets
Sharp knife

Secondly, is about what you can put in Sushi as ingredients!! Answer is you can use smoked or raw Salmon fish, Tuna, Shrimp, squid, egg, and vegetables such as cucumber, avocado, asparagus,carrots ….

Ingredients

250g sushi rice, cooked
30ml rice vinegar
Nori seaweed sheets
Smoked Salmon fish
Avocado, sliced
cucumber, sliced lengthwise and take out the seeds
3 eggs
pinch of sugar
Soy sauce
Wasabi
Sushi mat
Cling film
Sharp knife

How to make it??!!

Cook sushi rice and let it cool down. As the rice is chilling down, add vinegar. Mix together and set aside. Vinegar adds flavour and taste to sushi.

Crack the eggs, add pinch of sugar and beat them. Heat the oil in a pan and pour in the eggs . Allow to cook and then roll it. Once omelette is done, slice the omelette lengthwise.

Cut Salmon meat into nice thin strips or slices. Cut avocado and cucumber into thin strips too. Now everything is ready for sushi.

Put cling film onto a sushi mat ( it will make it easier to prepare sushi). One side of Nori sheet is silky and other side is rough. So place smooth side down and rough side facing you.

Wet your hand, grab a ball of rice and gently spread on sea weed sheet. Now, get a strip of salmon fish, avocado and cucumber and omelette and place them on the rice. Roll the mat and slightly squeeze and roll it again.

Other way for making sushi is, to spread the rice on one side of the nori . Then sprinkle sesame seeds on the rice and flip over it and place slices of salmon fish, avocado and cucumber and roll it.

Now dip the knife into the water and take off the ends of the sushi and them slice them all in same size.

Serve sushi with Wasabi, soy sauce, pickled ginger.

My Homemade Sushi

Ingredients

250 g sushi rice, cooked
30ml rice vinegar
Nori seaweed sheets
Smoked Salmon fish
Avocado, sliced
cucumber, sliced lengthwise and take out the seeds
3 eggs
pinch of sugar
Soy sauce
Wasabi
Sushi mat
Cling film
Sharp knife

How to make it??!!

Cook sushi rice and let it cool down. As the rice is chilling down, add vinegar. Mix together and set aside. Vinegar adds flavour and taste to sushi.

Crack the eggs, add pinch of sugar and beat them. Heat the oil in a pan and pour in the eggs . Allow to cook and then roll it. Once omelet is done, slice the omelet lengthwise.

Cut Salmon meat into nice thin strips or slices. Cut avocado and cucumber into thin strips too. Now everything is ready for sushi.

Put cling film onto a sushi mat ( it will make it easier to prepare sushi.

One side of Nori sheet is silky and other side is rough. So place smooth side down and rough side facing you.

Wet your hand, grab a ball of rice and gently spread on sea weed sheet. Now, get a strip of salmon fish, avocado and cucumber and omelet and place them on the rice. Roll the mat and slightly squeeze and roll it again.

Other way for making sushi is, to spread the rice on one side of the nori . Then sprinkle sesame seeds on the rice and flip over it and place slices of salmon fish, avocado and cucumber and roll it.

Now dip the knife into the water and take off the ends of the sushi and them slice them all in same size.

Serve sushi with Wasabi, soy sauce, pickled ginger.

Harissa ( Wheat Bulgar Porridge From South of Iran)

Posted on June 17, 2018 by rozinaspersiankitchen

Haleem, or hareesa is a thick and delicious porridge. Basically, this dish is made of boiled ground wheat or barley (bulgur) mixed with spiced meat….Haleem ( Halim) is popular dish in Iran, Arab countries around the Persian Gulf, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.

Haleem, hareesa, Jareesh, Keskeh or Arizah has different recipes and varies from region to region.

Haresse or halim is a dish for breakfast, and very popular especially during month of the Ramadan and also as a breakfast in the weekends. According to Wikipedia, the first written Hareese recipe dates back to the 10^th century.

This is a slow cooked dish for 6-7 hours. My following recipe belongs to South of Iran and in cities South of Iran, this dish is called ‘ Hareese’ that is served as breakfast.

The meat for this dish might be lamb, beef, mutton, turkey or chicken. The key point is frying the meat in spices such as turmeric and cinnamon which gives it amazing flavour.

Ingredients

250g lamb meat
1 cup wheat bulgur, soaked in the water overnight
7 cups water
1 tbsp cinnamon powder
2 tbsp white sugar
½ tsp turmeric
2tbsp black or white sesame seeds
butter
Vegetable oil
pinch of salt

Instructions

Heat the oil in a pot and add the meat. Fry the meat until brown. Then add turmeric and 1 half of cinnamon powder to the meat and saute for 2 minutes. This will give lovely flavour to the meat. Now add water to the pot and bring it to a boil.

Drain the bulgur and once water starts to boil, add, pinch of salt, bulgur, black sesame seeds, and sugar.

Reduce the heat and allow to cook until meat is tender and dish is thickened. Once dish has reached to consistency, you need to mash it. Traditionally a wooden masher was used, but nowadays you can use a blender or mixer and make it puree.

Serve harissa in a platter, topping with melted butter, cinnamon, sugar and sesame seeds.

Sheermal Bread ( Naan Sheermal)

Posted on May 29, 2018 by rozinaspersiankitchen

Sheermal/shirmal bread naan is a traditional mildly sweet flatbread in Iran. Sheer means milk in Persian language,and because the dough is kneaded with milk instead of water , it’s called sheermal, means a bread made with milk.

Sheermal bread is popular in Iran, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Semnan سمنان is located in South of foothills of Alborz Mountains. Semnan is one of historical and ancient cities of Iran, which was an important city throughout the era of the Persian Achaemenid Empire ( 550-330BC).

Anyway, if you travel to ancient city of Semnan and towns around Semnan, among the souvenirs of this city, such as pistachio, walnuts, local breads, silk made cloth, halva, candy sugar and fruit leather, Sheermal bread naan is very popular between tourists, that is baked in Seman city for over 100 years.

Sheermal bread naan is one of bread for month of Ramadan.

Ingredients

3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup warm milk
½ cup sugar
100 g melted butter
1 large egg, beaten
1 egg yolk, beaten as egg wash
1 tbsp dried yeast
½ tsp salt
Sesame seeds (optional)

Instructions

In a bowl, mix sugar, yeast, and milk warm together.

In other bowl mix flour with salt and then pour milk mixture, beaten egg, and melted butter in it. Combine together. Oil your hand and knead the dough with your hand for 6-7 minutes until is smooth and no longer sticky.

Cover the dough, and let to rest until double in size. You can leave the dough in a corner of your kitchen in room temperature , to rise but it will take long time dough double in size but if preheat the oven for few minutes, and then turn off the oven and by this way you can create a warm environment to speed the dough to proof and rising up.

Preheat the oven to 160C.Line your baking tray with parchment paper and once dough is ready, place it on the parchment paper. Sprinkle some flour top of it and deflate the dough.

Cover the dough and let to rest for another 20 minutes. Then give favourite decoration or design to the bread.

Egg wash top of the dough and garnish with sesame seeds. Sprinkle pinch of cinnamon powder on the dough. Transfer the dough into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

Tabrizi Ginger Bread

Posted on January 15, 2018 by rozinaspersiankitchen

Today I baked a kind of muffin bread made with ginger, sugar and sesame seeds which comes originally from Tabriz a beautiful city in Iran. Might be baked like flat bread or muffin.

Ingredients
4 cups plain flour
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
¼ cup oil
1 Tbsp ginger powder
100g sugar
1 Tbsp dried yeast
1 Tsp salt
¼ cup warm milk
1 cup cream yogurt
1 Tbsp Saffron water
Sesame seeds for garnish

Preparation
In a bowl with warm milk add dried yeast powder, mix together. Cover the bowl with a lid for 10 minutes. Mix oil, ginger powder, salt , egg and yogurt together. Add yeast mixture to above mentioned ingredients and blend together. In a large bowl with flour, add mixture and combine well. Using hand, knead the dough for 10minutes.
Cover the dough with a kitchen towel for 2 hours until the dough is full of air bubbles in a warm location.

Afterwards, Place the dough on the floured work surface. Punching the dough down.
Preheat the oven at 180 C.
Divide the dough into several medium size dough (120g) each one. Or larger ones. Give circle shape or square shape to the dough. Place on the baking tray. Make your favourite design or decoration on top of the dough. Cover dough with a towel for 15 minutes and let to rest.

After 15 minutes, mix egg yolk with saffron water and brushing surface of the dough. Spread sesame seeds over the dough. Bake it for 20 minutes.

Naan Sangak ( Sangak Bread)

Posted on January 12, 2018 by rozinaspersiankitchen

Sankagk is one of the tastiest Persian bread (Naan) which is made with wholemeal wheat and plain flour on the hot pebble stones. Yes hot pebble stones. Isn’t that amazing !!. Sangak was baked in Iran since 1500 years ago.

Sangak is a kind of triangular flat bread. Length of a naan Sangak is about 60 cm ( See the original photo from Sangak). Sang iد Persian language means stone and Sangak means little stone or pebble stones.

sangak (2)

Ingredients
2 ½ cups warm water
3 cups whole meal flour
1 cup plain flour
1tbsp. dried yeast
4tbsp. sesame seeds
1 ½ tsp. salt
Pebble stone (fish tank stones) as much as cover surface of your baking tray
Oil

Preparation
In a bowl, mix dried yeast with ¼ cup of warm water. Cover the bowl with a lid and Let it set for 5 minutes.
Dissolve salt in ½ cup of warm water and add it to yeast mixture. Let to rest for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, slowly add remains of water (3/4 cup) and two types of flours to the above mentioned liquid. Combine well. Now, you have smooth and soft dough.
In a large bowl with 2tbsp vegetable oil, place the dough in. Let to rest for over the night ( 7-8 hours).

Heat the oven at 260C. Spread all pebble stones in the baking tray. Place the tray in the oven and let it be hot for 30 minutes.

Grease surface of working board. Place the dough and divide it into smaller doughs ( 150g) each one.
The key for preparing the dough at this stage is: to keep your hands and the tray very wet.
Place the one of small dough on the tray and make it flat. Sprinkle sesame seeds all over the dough.

Then, take out stone tray from the oven and gently place the dough on the stones. Because dough is wet, it will slip on the stones.
Bake it for 15-20 minutes.

Once it’s ready, upper side of bread is crispy and other side of bread is baked by hot stones and after taking out of the oven, let it cool and then make separate stones from the bread.
It is such beautiful, delicious and healthy bread. Rub the butter and jam or place some Fetta cheese on the bread and try it with a cuppa tea. You would love it. It goes wonderfully well with kebab or omelette as well.