In Japan, very little sushi and a lot of sea, so the diet is dominated by seafood and all kinds of algae and almost no starchy potatoes with bread and fatty meat. As a result, the average Japanese daily absorbs a half times less calories than a European, while feeling full and happy life. Is not it, a tempting prospect - to add a little magical Japanese sea to the diet? Moreover, it is not difficult to do this: it is enough to learn how to prepare a dish called sushi (or sushi, as those who understand Japanese phonetics say). Sushi: recipes and methods of preparation - in our article.
About sticks and carpets
Curious fact: in traditional Japanese restaurants, cooks are allowed to cook sushi only after ten years of apprenticeship. However, there are basic secrets of mastery, which everyone can master, and at home. However, to begin with, you'll have to jump into the supermarket and buy:
• a small bamboo mat (with its help you will roll rolls);
• Food sticks;
• a shallow bowl (it is convenient to mix soy sauce with a sharp wasabi).
For a long time deciding the question with the basic inventory, we pass to the products. Attention: they should be bought immediately before sushi preparation - ingredients for real Japanese food should be as fresh as possible. First of all, you will need:
• Fig. Ideally, if it's special Japanese for sushi. However, for domestic sushi it can be replaced with small round-grained;
• Leaflets of dried nori seaweed. smooth on one side and rough (to better hold the rice) on the other;
• Soy sauce - an indispensable attribute of many dishes of Japanese cuisine;
• sharp Japanese horseradish wasabi. Often it is sold as a paste, but gourmets recommend buying a powder and preparing the seasoning yourself: just mix a teaspoon of the product with a teaspoon of cold water and let it brew for 10-15 minutes;
• Sushi-vinegar,
• fillet or back of sea fish - marinated or chilled, but not thawed. For sushi, tuna or salmon are perfect.
• When all the preparations are done, you can start cooking and twisting.
Do not be afraid to spend time in the store on a thoughtful choice of the freshest and right sushi products. German scientists have established that if ordinary everyday shopping takes you about 150 calories per hour, then a walk through the store, combined with meticulous conversations with sellers and the search for a specific product among a lot of similar ones, increases energy expenditure up to 220 kcal per hour.
Master class on disorder
To start acquaintance with Japanese cuisine "at home" is best from the most uncomplicated species of sushi. For example, such. Nigari-sushi - small rice logs, covered with a "petal" of fish fillets. Prepare nigiri-sushi elementarily: from boiled rice we form oblong "koloboks".
Prepare the right rice
For most of them, rice is required, naturally, correctly. Here's how: in Japanese cooked
1. Thoroughly washed rice fall asleep in a saucepan, pour cold water in a ratio of 1: 1.5 and put on a slow fire.
2. When the water boils, cover the pan with a lid and cook, without stirring, for 20-25 minutes, gradually increasing the fire from slow to medium. Rice is ready when it absorbs all the water.
3. Remove the saucepan from the fire, mix the finished rice with a wooden spatula, add a couple of tablespoons of sushi-vinegar (per half a kilo of rice) and mix thoroughly again. In addition to useful gymnastics, this lesson has one more bonus: the hour of torsion-spinning of rice koloboks and leaves of nori takes up to 80 kcal from you. 2-3 drops of wasabi and cover with a thin, almost transparent slice of fish. It is curious that this kind of Japanese food is very often found in our restaurants like "Yakitoria", but in Japan such sushi are rare. Maki (they are also rolls). From the Japanese word "poppies" translates as "rolls". And this dish is made accordingly. On the bamboo mat, stele a half of the nori sheet (rough side up), lay a layer of rice with a thickness of 5-7 grains on top, and rice - optional: it can be sea fish fillet, fresh or pickled cucumber, or even diced avocado . Then turn off the mat so that the edges of the nori connect with each other. The rug is removed, and the resulting poppies are cut into 4-5 pieces.
- The Ta-maki ("horns"). This is the best treat for a spontaneous feast in Japanese. We put on the table a few bowls with a variety of stuffing for sushi, a large bowl with warm rice and a rug with two-sliced nori leaves. Each participant of the feast prepares himself a treat: he takes a burrow into his hand, puts a spoonful of rice on it, drips wasabi to taste and adds a filling. Then the nori turns into a roll and goes into the mouth.
- Tirasisushi ("the ears are in disorder"). This kind of sushi is not very popular with us, but the Japanese prefer it. And no wonder - they are prepared elementary: on the warm rice laid out in the bowl, slices of raw or pickled fish, cucumbers rush in an art disorder. A few drops of wasabi and soy sauce - and the treat is ready. Pleasant and, most importantly, low-calorie appetite!
- What kind of Japanese table, if it's not around the Japanese? Invite your girlfriends to make a make-up a-la Thoroughbred resident of the Land of the Rising Sun - yes, even with the use of bleaching rice flour! Face whitening, drawing eyebrows like a geisha, and tiny coral sponges - this make up, according to the calculations of all the same Japanese scientists, takes from the young ladies from 30 to as many as 100 x1, depending on diligence. Add to this a complex structure of hair, fastened with bamboo sticks (still minus 100 kcal), and ... laugh heartily at yourself and each other at the mirror. After all, laughter, as you know, is the best friend of a thin waist.
Diets secret
Meals in Japanese - a pledge of not only harmony, but also longevity. According to statistics, the Japanese are the longest-lived nation on the planet, and the Japanese almost do not know old age. Here are just a few secrets of the magic cuisine of the Land of the Rising Sun.
• The most popular dish of Ukraine - all kinds of bakery products. In Japan, rice occupies the same place. This cereal is a supplier of "slow" carbohydrates, which for a long time retain a sense of satiety. In addition, rice removes excess fluid from the body and relieves swelling.
• Japanese people practically do not drink coffee. But in large quantities (up to 10 cups a day) use green tea, known for its antioxidant properties. This drink normalizes metabolic processes and rinses the intestines, relieving the body of toxins and, as a consequence, extra kilograms.
• The descendants of samurai and fried food are indifferent: their diet is dominated by cooked or steamed foods, which retain a maximum of vitamins and beneficial microelements.
• The Japanese eat with chopsticks or small, almost dessert forks / spoons. Try to follow their example - and very soon you will notice that the portion that must be eaten for the feeling of satiety, was reduced by almost one and a half times.