Sushi City

 The first day of February set the seal on an action-packed January, which had seen plenty of spiritual growth, some resetting of important things and the prelude to a month of intermittent fasting to come. I was on the lookout for some quick, easy and filling recipes that could serve to power us up before fasting sessions and revitalise us after we broke our fasts. I looked no further than a homemade sushi recipe.

I realised music too would be out of the equation during the month of fasting and so took the opportunity to listen to one of my current favourites in the shape of the Style Council’s 1989 album “Modernism; a new Decade” . The final effort from this group, which was not released until 1998, sees messrs Talbot, Lee and Weller embrace wholeheartedly the burgeoning acid house club and trip hop scene with a record that is satisfying and as essential as similar contemporary efforts from the likes of the Happy Mondays and Soul II Soul.

Sushi has long been a love of mine since a trip to a now defunct restaurant in one of the big cities near home back in 2008. I’d never made it from scratch but now seemed as good a time as any. 

The ingredients were as follows:

One cup of Sushi Rice.

A small tin of Red Atlantic Salmon.

A cucumber.

An avocado.

Some fish sauce.

5 seaweed sushi roll wraps.

The way to make the Sushi is like this:

1. Boil and simmer the Rice for 25 minutes. Then leave to cool down.

2. Take a wooden sushi rack and put a sushi roll wrap on the rack.

3. Spread the rice over the sushi roll wrap so it covers three quarters of it and is half a centimetre deep.

4. Spray in a vertical line down the part of the rice immediately to your right the fish sauce.

5. Put the Avocado, Salmon and Cucumber on top of the line of fish sauce in a straight, vertical line.

6. Roll the contents up to form a tube, use two or three roll wraps if there’s a lot of filling in your sushi, and leave it in the tube to set.

7. Once set, remove and cut into slices and serve with Soy Sauce. 

This was a recipe that was filling and very flavoursome and it took my mind back to a recent rewarding trip to Asia. Next time I’ll improve it even more by spreading the rice more thinly through several tubes and using more cucumber and avocado to make more bite-sized sushi pieces.

World of Cupcakes

The Holiday Season brought much time to reflect, unwind, be thankful and focus on the future. Not to mention to try some new recipes. This time round it was an opportunity to make some cupcakes with the ingredients below:

Ingredients

For the Sponge:

225 grams of Self-Raising Flour

Half a teaspoon of Baking Soda

Four Beaten Eggs.

225 grams of Salted Butter, softened at room temperature.

200 grams of Sugar, 100 of Brown Sugar and 100 of Caster Sugar.

1 teaspoon of Vanilla Essence. 

If you want a coffee sponge, add three tablespoons of instant Coffee of your choice. 

For the Icing

50 grams of Unsalted Butter, softened at room temperature

5 tablespoons of icing sugar

Food Colouring of your choice

Dolly Mixture, ensure it is made with Beef Gelatine, rather than pork, to keep it healthy and Halal. 

The Method

1. Cream the Butter and Sugar for the sponge until fluffy. 

2. Add the eggs and stir thoroughly into the mixture.

3. Add the flour and baking soda, plus the vanilla essence and, if desired, instant coffee granules. Stir into a thick paste.

4. Divide the mixture between bun cases, the mixture should make about sixteen or more cupcakes depending on how liberal you are in distributing the sponge mixture.

5. Cook in the oven for around 35 -40 minutes on gas mark 2.5. That way the sponge is moist and not excessively dry.

6. At the end of the cooking period, you will know the buns are ready because the sponge comes out clean when a fork is stuck into them and the sponge will spring back slightly when pressed. 

7. Place the buns on a wire rack to cool. 

8. Make the topping by creaming together the remaining butter and icing sugar. Add food colouring of your choice and decorate the cupcakes, once cooled, with the icing and the Dolly Mixtures. 

This recipe was one that was a hit all over the local region as we distributed cupcakes to loved ones for them to savour as 2026 approached us. 

King Kenny's Muffins

 It seemed almost like a dream, two weeks in a tropical paradise with the family sandwiched between two life-affirming stops in the Arabian Desert. In between, there was a break at the seaside at a resort featuring the bluest and clearest of seas and sand that was whiter than white. On the seafront was one of a chain of restaurants founded by the late country star Kenny Rogers. While there we sampled healthy fast food, if that is not an oxymoron, that included corn muffins. These were the muffins that inspired today's dish.

Having absorbed more Taylor Swift by osmosis, I found her 2019 album "Midnights", featuring the undeniably defiant "Karma" was on the player as I prepared this recipe.

These were the ingredients:

2 eggs Beaten

140g Cream Cheese

Half a tin of Sweetcorn.

Pinch of Mustard

Pinch of Tarragon.

Pinch of Pepper.

Pinch of Nutmeg

4 tablespoons full cream milk.

400g Self-Raising Flour.

Method

1. Stir the wet ingredients, eggs, cheese, milk and sweetcorn, together to form a paste.

2. Add the dry ingredients, being the flour herbs and spices, and stir them into the mixture.

3. Divide the mixture into balls around the size of a golf ball. 

4. Cook for 20 minutes on Gas Mark 6 on a greased and flat baking tray. 

5. Remove from the oven and put the muffins on a wire rack to cool.

Savoury met sweet on this dish while the pastry had a light and fluffy vibe to it that made it very textured and flavoursome.