The best laid plans....and sushi rice

Today's plan was to unpack those last few items from my hand luggage and make some sense of the photos that I took whilst in the UK with a view to getting them loaded onto flickr in this month's allowance.

Ha!

That's all I have to say.


So far I have been swamped catching up with all the letters and paperwork outstanding from the last week.

I am still trying to respond to all of my emails, and I still owe my friend a long detailed letter that I started at the airport, ran on for 14 pages and now has dribbled out of content but has not been finished if you follow me.  It currently sounds like the unfinished symphony in D minor - where D stands for depressed - can't send it in that shape she'll be on the next plane out under the impression that I am about to leak claret all over the bath.

But - I have weeded out my flower beds and collected up the last of the poppy and sweet william seeds ready for next year, just waiting for the asters to finish flowering and I'll have a good collection of flower seeds ready.  Can you say "procrastination"?

I also went and 'communed' with my studio, having not dared to be in there for the last couple of days for fear that I would just lock myself in there and not come out.  My  little brain cells are zinging about all over the place putting together all my existing fabrics with the car boot delights winging their way by post to me now.

This is how I feel today .......

One of things that I did do in the UK (mainly thanks to another friend who steered me (literally after I got confused wandering around the shopping centre) in the right direction) was to eat Sushi.

I heart Sushi

And I can't make it to save my life.

I have bought the seaweed sheets, I have found the right sushi recipe, I have the right ingredients, but it just does not taste the same.

Thank you M&S for bringing sushi back into my life.

Sushi ~ cold boiled rice moistened with rice vinegar, usually shaped into bite-size pieces and topped with raw seafood (nigiri-zushi) or formed into a long seaweed-wrapped roll, often around strips of vegetable or raw fish, and sliced into bite-size pieces (maki-zushi).
Dictionary.com

To make sushi rice, use only short grained rice, washed and rinsed well then soaked for 30 minutes before cooking.

Cook in just enough water to cover the rice for 20 minutes in a pan with a lid, first bring the water to a boil then leave on a low heat, finally turn off the heat and leave the rice to steam for a further 15 minutes.

My handy hint :  if you are worried about how much water to use to cook rice so that you don't end up with soggy rice soup, add slightly more water, cook for 15 minutes then drain the rice.

Let the hot rice water drain into the cooking pot, leaving the rice in the colander place it over the pan making sure that the base of the colander and therefore the rice are no longer immersed in the water then cover with the lid - this allows the rice to continue cooking in the steam.  

Leave over the low heat for the final 5 minutes, then leave to continue steaming for the last 15 mintues.

The sushi vinegar is made from 1/3 of a cup of rice vinegar, 3 tablespoons of fine sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt.  Heat these together until the sugar dissolves then leave to cool.  With a wooden spatula stir the sushi vinegar through the hot rice, being careful not to mush the rice up with the flat side of the spatula.

Well all this boring paperwork is giving me an appetite, looks like leftover Thai curry from the freezer tonight, bulked out with yet more green beans from the garden and a few more patty pan squashes - from having none last year I am now overrun with the blasted things.