Seared White Fish Roll with Jalapeño and Sriracha
it's sushi time again! everyone invited
Seared on top and raw underneath. A blowtorch run over the fish for about four seconds a piece does something a pan cannot: it browns the surface and leaves everything a millimetre down completely untouched.
If you do not have a torch, a metal spoon heated red over a gas flame and pressed onto the fish does the same job for three or four pieces at a time. It is how it was done before anybody sold kitchen torches.
The jalapeño is raw and sliced into thin rings, seeds and all. Against seared fish and sriracha it is the only sharp cold thing on the plate.
- Makes
- 2 rolls
- Hands-on
- 45 minutes
- Sear
- 4 seconds a piece
- Jalapeño
- Raw, thin rings
What you need
The roll
- 3 cups seasoned sushi rice, cooled
- 4 sheets nori
- 1 cucumber, in batons (from my garden)
- 1 avocado, sliced
On top
- 10 oz sashimi-grade white fish — yellowtail, sea bass or snapper — sliced thin
- 2 jalapeños, in thin rings (from my garden)
- Sriracha, in a squeeze bottle
- 2 tbsp mayonnaise, mixed with 1 tbsp sriracha
- Soy sauce, for the dish
How it goes
1 — Rice, rolled rice-out, cut first this time
Standard inside-out roll, cut into eight before the fish goes on — for a seared top it is easier to torch pieces than a whole roll.
2 — Drape a slice of fish over each piece
One thin slice per piece, laid over the top so it hangs down both sides a little.
3 — Torch it four seconds a piece, moving
Flame held a few inches away and kept moving. You want the surface to go opaque and catch a little colour at the edges, not to cook. Four seconds and off.
pro tip — No torch: heat a metal spoon over a gas flame until it is almost glowing and press the back of it onto the fish for two seconds. Reheat between pieces.
4 — Let it sit thirty seconds before the toppings
The fish is hot on the surface and anything fresh laid on straight away wilts. Thirty seconds and it settles.
5 — Jalapeño rings on, raw and thin
A ring on each piece, cut as thin as you can manage, seeds left in. If that is too fierce for the table, soak the rings in cold water for ten minutes first.
6 — Sriracha in stripes, not blobs
Drawn across the whole row of pieces in two or three thin stripes with a squeeze bottle or a spoon. Stripes are even across every piece; blobs mean one piece gets all of it.
7 — Sriracha mayonnaise on the plate, soy on the side
A line of sriracha mayonnaise beside the roll and a small dish of soy. The seared fish does not need much of either.
Sushi time again. Bring a torch. LFG.