Japanese-style trout with sushi rice

Food styling VALERIE BERRY

Serves 1

Cooking time: 35 minutes, plus an hour’s soaking time

This is based on a Japanese dish – chirashizushi – which is like deconstructed sushi (the name means ‘scattered sushi’). It’s basically a bowl of fish, rice and vegetables that you arrange to look as beautiful as possible. You can leave the fish raw and cut it into slices, but I cook it in the winter. Other fish – salmon, mackerel, tuna or king prawns – can be used too. You can sear tuna on a griddle and cut it into slices. Add edamame beans to the rice if you like. You’ll need a wide, shallow bowl to serve in.

Ingredients

150g Japanese rice

(sushi rice)

11/4 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tbsp caster sugar 135g fillet of trout

1 tsp groundnut oil 6 radishes, cut into wafer-thin rounds or matchsticks

40g cucumber, cut into

thin batons

8cm square piece of nori,

crumbled or sliced About 1 tbsp pickled ginger 2 tbsp salmon roe

1 tsp sesame seeds, white

or black

For the egg ribbons

1 large egg

Pinch of caster sugar Pinch of salt Groundnut oil, for brushing

the pan

To serve

Japanese soy sauce (it’s a little sweeter than Chinese) or Chinese soy sauce Wasabi

Method

Wash the rice in a sieve until the water runs clear. Put it in a saucepan and cover with enough water to come about 1cm above the level of the rice. Leave to soak for an hour. Drain the rice and rinse again, then put it back in the saucepan and add 195ml water. Bring to the boil then turn the heat down very low and cover. Cook the rice for 15 minutes.

Make the egg ribbons while the rice is cooking. Mix the egg with the sugar and salt. Brush a very small pan with oil and heat it. Pour in the mixture and swish it around. Once it starts to set, use a palette knife to lift the edges and get underneath – this helps keep it loose. Flip over to cook the other side, then put on a chopping board. Cut the round of egg into quarters, pile them on top of each other and cut into fine strips. Set the egg aside.

Mix the rice vinegar,

1/2 tbsp salt and the sugar together, and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Tip the rice out on to a tray and drizzle the mixture on top. Using a spatula, very gently turn the rice over

– be careful not to crush it – so that all the grains get seasoned with the vinegar mixture. Don’t overmix or the rice will become too sticky. Cover with a tea towel and leave to cool. Heat the oven to 200C/ 190C fan/gas mark 5. Brush the trout fillet with a little groundnut oil, season and put it in a small roasting tin lined with foil. Cook for 6 minutes. This will give you fish that’s cooked on the outside but not on the inside.

Put the rice in a broad, shallow bowl and arrange the vegetables, nori, pickled ginger, egg and salmon roe on top. Add the trout, broken into a few large flakes or scattered in small pieces on top of the rice – it should still be raw on the very inside. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve with soy sauce and wasabi.