Our speaker and demonstrator for October was Fraser from York Cookery School, who gave a fantastic guide to the basics of sushi making.
He began by debunking a few myths. Firstly – and to the relief of many present – he said the word ‘sushi’ actually means flavoured rice, not raw fish, which many people believe. (Note: that’s sashimi, if you want to know what you should avoid!)
As a result, Fraser told us he would be using some smoked salmon, but also beef, as well as vegetables, in his sushi. He began by showing us a simple roll of sticky rice wrapped in seaweed – the kind of thing we were all fairly familiar with thanks to M&S. As Fraser, demonstrated, it’s called sticky rice for a reason – it really does stick to the seaweed around the outside! With the addition of a strip of cucumber through the middle, it made a tasty roll which tasted much better than the shop-bought version.
The second piece of sushi Fraser made was a California roll, and he explained its interesting origins in post-war America as he went. Once he had showed us each technique a couple of times, it was our turn to get stuck in and create our own sushi. Of course, Fraser had made it look easier than it was, but with a bit of practice we felt confident we could make a decent attempt at it in future.
If anyone wants to sign up for a full sushi course, or anything else offered by York Cookery School, Fraser has kindly offered a 10% discount to all Sweethearts. Just send us an email and we’ll give you the code you need to use when you book.
Meanwhile, the meeting was also the first since the launch of our 100 Years, 100 Member campaign, which aims to bring the WI to a new generation of women as we approach its 100th anniversary in 2015. We invited guests to join us for free, and we were thrilled that around 20 women did just that. We also had a great turn-out of members – some of whom hadn’t been with us for a few months – and as a result, it was a busy night. It gave us great confidence for our campaign, and we look forward to seeing numbers rise when we open membership again in November.
If you’re interested in joining Spa Sweethearts WI, send us an email or come along to a meeting. We’ll be doing Willow Weaving on 13th November and having a Christmas party on 11th December, at 7.30pm as usual. Guests can join us for £5 per meeting (there may be a small charge for materials in November, but we’ll publicise this nearer the time) and if you sign up as a member for 2015 now, you’ll get to come to our November and December meetings for free. Ask a committee member for more information.
Comments