Kind of finger foody, these are excellent for eating standing up; we passed them around the kitchen on Christmas Day at a friend’s house as a load of people mucked in preparing a memorable Christmas lunch, and they went down very well indeed. The rice mix seems simple, but it’s actually very very tasty indeed, with a beautiful savoury ricey flavour, and the lovely surprise of the little piece of fish in the middle

200g sushi rice

1 tspn sugar

½ tspn salt

1 – 2 tspns rice vinegar to taste

1 tspn sesame oil

2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds – ideally a combination of black and white ones

3cm square peeled ginger, very finely chopped

60g fresh shitake mushrooms, trimmed and very finely chopped

3 spring onions, white parts only finely sliced.

Vegetable oil

100g freshest sushi grade salmon, cut into into 1 cm cubes

Wasabi

1 tbsp chopped chives

10 x large spoons, like the ones you get in Chinese restaurants to drink your soup with, for instance

To serve; Soy sauce

• Put the rice into a big bowl. Add plenty of cold water to the bowl then gently stir and mix the rice with your hand. When the water becomes cloudy with starch sieve it away. Repeat this step up to 5 times or until the water becomes clear. After washing the rice soak in plenty of cold water for at least 30 minutes

• Drain the rice, then put it and 260 mls of water into a medium sized saucepan and put on the stove at maximum heat until the water boils. Once the water boils, turn down the heat to low and let the rice simmer for 15 minutes with the lid on

• Once the rice has simmered, remove the sauce pan from the stove, take the lid off, put a clean tea towel over it, put the lid back on and leave the rice to steam, off the heat, for a further 10 minutes. Take the lid off and leave to cool for another 5 minutes

• Meanwhile fry the ginger and spring onions for 1 minute, then add the mushrooms. Cook for 5-6 minutes. Remove form heat and allow to cool

• Spread the cooked rice out in the big bowl. Mix the sugar, salt and vinegar till the sugar and salt are dissolved and sprinkle over the rice. Add the sesame oil, mushroom mixture, chives, sesame seeds and mix well

• Place a piece of salmon on each spoon, and smear a tiny amount of wasabi paste. Using clean wet hands, take a heaped teaspoon of the rice mixture and shape into a ball. Place on top of the fish, and press down around it, so that the salmon is a hidden surprise

• Arrange the spoons on a serving plate, and pass around