Recipe for :

This is one of the recipes from Mrs Susie. If you want to find out more about her have a look at her biography page which she has written. Mrs Susie specialises in Oriental cooking. An important first step in Oriental cooking (which I think is important) is at the end of each recipe.

Ingredients

Maguro, or red tuna (no older than 24 hours)
Prepared sushi rice
Wasabi
Soy sauce for dipping

Method

• Place a small handful of sushi rice into your hand and mold it into a skinny football shape about 2 inches long. I know that sounds odd, but I can't describe it better than that.

• If the rice sticks to your hands, try dipping your hands into a water / rice vinegar mixture first.

• Slice the maguro about 1/8 to 1/4 inches thick, in strips about 2 inches long , one inch wide.

• Smear a little wasabi on one side on the maguro and press it, wasabi side down, onto the rice balls.

Enjoy!
Mrs Susie

"I have studied oriental cooking quite a bit and the one thing that makes it different from other styles of cooking is: it is 90% preparation and 10% cooking. It is very important to have everything in the recipe already prepared for cooking before you start cooking.

I take a plate and cut up my ingredients as called for in the recipe and place them on different parts of the plate. Only then do I think about cooking. I will put my oil in the pan and, as the things are called for in the recipe, I will sweep them into whatever pan I am cooking with, cook for as long as called for, then add the next ingredient.

Oriental cooking happens so fast. To stop and cut up the garlic (for example) if I had the ginger cooking in the pan would result in burnt ginger before the garlic is finished.

When I am cooking a ten or fifteen course dinner you should see my kitchen. I have plates all over and all my sauces mixed in bowls and everything is ready to cook before I start cooking. This is the right way to do it and necessary to have a well-timed dinner.

Another thing, get yourself a good cleaver that will not rust. You will be surprised how much you will use this for all your cooking, not just oriental cooking. Do yourself a favor and get a good one. I think I paid $20 for mine but again that was 20 years ago".