London’s Best Cookery Schools – Feng Sushi

Sushi Masterclass with Silla Bjerrum

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Recipe for Salmon in White Miso & Sweet Potatoes

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WIN Silla’s Simple Japanese Cookbook!

Silla Bjerrum is Danish by birth but has lived in the UK since the early 90s. During her university years in London, when she planned to be an academic, Silla took up a job as a kitchen helper at a friend's Japanese cafe to make ends meet, and fell completely in love with the cuisine.

Five years later and by then a fully trained sushi chef, Silla opened her first Feng Sushi restaurant in Borough Market with co-founder Jeremy Rose in 1999. She travelled to Japan to hone her sushi-making skills, and was the first woman in the UK to be invited to the prestigious 7 Samurai Sushi Competition in 2008. In addition to running her own Feng Sushi School and running her 6 Feng Sushi branches across London, she regularly teaches at Leith's, Divertimenti and Billingsgate's The Seafood Training School.

I have been a great fan of Silla's cooking for years now having used her "Simple Japanese Cookbook" on many occasions, and so I was thrilled to be invited to one of the sushi classes taught by Silla Bjerrum herself.

Over a few hours, Silla taught us how to prepare and roll a variety of different sushi - it was fascinating to see how she made it look so completely effortless to feed a group 6 hungry students while teaching/entertaining us all at the same time. Under Silla's instruction we learnt and rolled some utterly scrumptious sushi including:


Cucumber maki, and avocado maki with pickled ginger;

Crab and avocado inside-out (iso) maki;

Hand-dived scallop iso maki;

Prawn tempura temaki (hand-rolled) and;

Salmon nigiri.

We were also given a demonstration on how to fillet, marinate and cut mackerel sashimi . Silla used a mixture of sea salt, sushi seasoning (rice wine vinegar and mirin) and soya sauce to marinate the mackerel which gave it a firmer texture and agreeably tart flavour.

We also learnt how to cut salmon sashimi from a salmon block or steaks. The salmon had a buttery texture, yet was ultra-light and very delicious.  Silla's secret is to marinate the salmon in sake to tenderise it and slightly cure it.

I was very impressed by Silla's commitment to sustainable fishing and by the quality of the ingredients used - no crabsticks in sight as Feng Sushi bans them in its kitchens opting for real crab meat, line-caught mackerel, sustainable salmon, and hand-dived scallops. Feng Sushi does not sell blue fin tuna and sources its fish and other produce locally whenever possible from green and ethical suppliers.

A sushi-making course at Feng Sushi costs £150 and takes place on a single day for about 4 and a half hours. You will learn about the Japanese ingredients used in the making of sushi and where to source them, how to prepare sushi rice, and roll a variety of maki and nigiri sushi. The course fee includes a sushi making kit, a copy of the Feng Sushi Cookbook, and enough sushi to take home to feed you and a friend. To learn more about Feng Sushi classes click here.

At the end of the class, Silla gave me a copy of her book "Simple Japanese" - this a book I already have and thoroughly enjoy. One of the recipes which I really like and have cooked on a number of occasions is the grilled miso salmon with sweet potato. I have reproduced Silla's recipe below for you to try at home.

Miso and Poppy Seed Salmon with Rustic Sweet Potatoes

(Serves 4)

Ingredients

200g white miso paste

2 tbsp caster sugar

2 tbsp mirin

2 tbsp sake

400g salmon fillets

2 large sweet potatoes

2 lemons

100ml olive oil

2 tbsp poppy seeds

salt and pepper

100g baby spinach leaves (or your preferred green leaves - rocket, watercress)

extra virgin olive oil for drizzing

Method

1. Place the miso paste, caster sugar, mirin and sake in a saucepan over a medium heat and stir constantly until the ingredients have all melted. Set aside to cool.

2. Cut the salmon into 2cm cubes and place in a plastic or glass container. Pour the cooled miso mixture and marinate in the fridge for 2-3 days.

3. On the day of serving, preheat the oven to 250°C/Gas 9. Cut the sweet potatoes into 2cm cubes and place on a baking tray. Squeeze the juice from the lemons and combine with the olive oil, poppy seeds and some salt and pepper. Pour this dressing over the sweet potatoes then, for extra flavour, add the lemon skins to the baking tray. Roast for 25-30 minutes or until cooked through.

4. Take the salmon from the fridge and rinse off the marinade (I remove the excess marinade with my hands and then kitchen paper but do not rinse the fish). Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and place the fish on it. When the sweet potatoes have been cooking for 20 minutes, place the tray of fish in the oven, turn it down to 220°C/Gas 7 and continue cooking.

5. Divide the baby spinach or other green leaves among serving bowls. When the potatoes and salmon are cooked, remove from the oven and discard the lemon skins. Gently mix the fish and sweet potatoes together and place on top of the spinach. Drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil and serve as a main course.

I would like to give this new copy to a reader of The London Foodie so that you can try this recipe for yourself! I would also be interested to hear your feedback on this Japanese cookery book.

For a chance to win a copy of Simple Japanese by Silla Bjerrum, all you need to do is leave a comment with your NAME and E-MAIL address in this post (luizharaAThotmailDOTcom). The winner will be randomly selected  on the 20th May at 7:00pm and his/her name will be published here.


The winner of this competition who was randomly selected by random.org is entrant number 1! Congratulations Kay! I will be in touch to arrange delivery of Silla's cookbook to you.

Food and Beer Pairing Masterclass at Belgo

Another season, another food festival at Belgo restaurants. In June I reviewed the great value Lobster Fest at Belgo Centraal (here), and this month I went back for their "Wednesday Night Pilgrimage" - a beer and food pairing masterclass in celebration of Oktoberfest.

Hosted by a "Master of Beer", every Wednesday at 7pm during the month of October, the sessions are a communal affair, with seats allocated on long tables - a great opportunity to meet other beer and food lovers. "Pilgrimages" cost £33 which include a 3 course menu, with each course paired to specially selected beer from Belgo's cellar of Trappist brews, Abbey and Lambic beers.

This excellent value menu has three choices of starters, main courses and desserts. I was fortunate to be able to sample most of the dishes on the "Pilgrimage" menu during my visit. Starters include "Parsnip and Ginger Soup", paired with Jupiler Pilsner, which I found deliciously spicy and well seasoned, and "Moules Mariniere" - mussels steamed with cream, white wine, garlic, celery and onion and matched with Belgo Witbier which was my favourite.

The "Champagne, Duck and Truffle Terrine", served with onion and plum chutney and paired with De Kloninck Blonde, was also good but in my opinion was the weakest of the three choices.

I adore mussels and unsurprisingly, my favourite main course was the "Moules Portugaises" which was paired with Bruges Zot Blonde. This was a delicious dish of mussels and roast chorizo in a tomato, garlic, olive oil and paprika sauce with new potatoes and basil. I loved the combination of meat and seafood, so characteristic of Portuguese cuisine (Pork and Clams from Alentejo being one of my favourite Portuguese dishes).

Another excellent main course was the "Beef Carbonnade" perfectly matched with the heavily yeasty Witcap Stimulo. The beef had been slowly braised in Faro beer, nutmeg and brown sugar, and was richly flavoured and tender.

The vegetarian choice for main course was "Mushroom Bouchee", a dish made of puff pastry case filled with wild mushrooms in an Orval Beer and truffle cream sauce with asparagus spears and button onions. The combination of pastry, mushroom and cream was heavenly and went well with the pairing of Palm Amber beer. This was my favourite beer of the evening with a lovely toasty malt aroma and hints of bitter orange on the palate.

Desserts include "Poached Pear" in raspberry beer served with lemon sorbet and matched with Floris Apple beer, "Belgium Chocolate Pudding", paired with Westmalle Double (rich and complex with a fresh bitter finish), and "Belgium Waffle" served with chocolate sauce and Mort Subite Gueuze as the beer of choice.

In my opinion, the waffle was the most interesting of the three desserts - it was deliciously light but with an intense vanilla flavour which went well with the chocolate ice cream and the unfiltered lambic beer.

If you would like to book a place in this beer and food pairing masterclass, quote "Wednesday Night Pilgrimage" when booking.

In addition, all Belgo restaurants will be offering two buckets of Belgian beer throughout Oktoberfest, each comprising four bottles served on ice for £15:

Bucket 1: Floris Apple, Mongozo Banana, Floris Krierk (cherry), Floris Mango

Bucket 2: Delirium Nocturnum (9%), Delirium Tremens (9%), Floris Framboise, Floris Wit Blanche.

Cost: £33 for a three course meal including 3 beers matched to the food, this is very good value.

Likes: good value meal, excellent range of Belgian beers, moules frites.

Dislikes: I was not hugely impressed with the dessert choices, and the restaurant can get very noisy with West End drinkers in part because of the low ceilings and arches.

Verdict: I thought this was another excellent value deal by Belgo, and a great way to experiment with "Cuisine a la Biere" (food marinated, cooked or flavoured with beer) and the pairing of beer and food.