Here’s a lovely idea from Japanese food specialist www.yutaka.co for kids to make for their mums this Mother’s Day. It’s a beautiful bouquet that’s entirely edible because it’s made from sushi cones – or temaki, to give them their official Japanese name.
You can choose to fill them with whatever you fancy – avocado, wasabi, red pepper and even smoked salmon (although think twice about presenting someone with a fish-smelling bouquet). The decoration features spiralized veggies, flowers pressed from tofu, carrots or whatever you have to hand (courtesy of food cutters) and a range of lettuce leaves to provide the foliage.
For a small posy, you should make three cones or, for maximum effect, create a minimum of nine. They need to be made on the day, as the fillings make the nori seaweed cones a little flimsy if they’re left too long.
Not only is it something homemade, the sushi bouquet is something everyone can enjoying eating. Who says you can’t have your cake and eat it?
Yutaka Mother’s Day Bouquet
Ingredients
500g Yutaka Sushi Rice
6 tbs Yutaka Rice Vinegar
4 tbs sugar
2 tsp salt
7 – 9 Yutaka Nori sheets
Cocktail sticks for the flowers
1 large carrot
1 large beetroot
1 large courgette
Rosso or Salad Bowl lettuce leaves
Yutaka Tofu
Fillings
Choose your favourite sushi fillings e.g. avocado, cucumber, smoked salmon, crab sticks as well as a dab of Yutaka Wasabi
Method
Rinse 500g sushi rice in a bowl of water, drain and repeat at least 4 times then drain rice with a sieve. Put 660 ml water and the washed rice into a saucepan. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes with the lid on. Turn off the heat and leave to stand for 25-30 mins without opening the lid.
Mix the rice vinegar, sugar and salt together and fold into the cooked sushi rice after it has cooled down.
Spiralise ½ carrot and thinly slice the other half – using flower cookie cutters, cut out shapes in various sizes and repeat same with the beetroot and the courgette. Using Yutaka Tofu, slice off about 3 thin pieces and repeat flower cutter process.
To make up the bouquet
Roll a nori sheet into the shape of a cone and fill with the sushi rice. Make a well in the centre with your finger and add your fillings, then cover over with rice so they are hidden. (Helps if you wet your fingers first as the rice is sticky).
Top with one of the spiralized vegetables and place a flower of your choice on top (secured with a cocktail stick). Repeat process with a new cone and with another vegetable until you have three cones featuring spiralized veggies.
With the remaining nori sheets, make additional cones, add rice plus fillings and tuck in a small lettuce leaf or three depending on their size and top with 3 flowers (again secured with a cocktail stick).
The bouquet can then be wrapped in tissue paper and cellophane and tied up with ribbon.
About Yutaka – Good Food Made Japan-easy
Yutaka means ‘good harvest’ in Japanese and that’s exactly the aim of the company: to create authentic Japanese food products made in the traditional way. Their ethos ensures their products are of the highest quality and feature a lot less additives compared with other brands on the market.
Tazaki Foods, the name behind the Yutaka brand, was the pioneer of Japanese food in the UK and was responsible for opening the very first Japanese restaurant in the country some 35 years ago.
Since then, the company has become the leading supplier to the Japanese restaurants, hospitality industries and food manufacturers in the UK.
It also offers a fast-growing range of ingredients allowing people to make traditional Japanese food at home such as sushi, sauces, soups, rice, noodles and “easy to use” meal kits. Having been the first in the market, the brand continues to be the leading authentic Japanese range in 16 countries across Europe and the Middle East.
