While I can’t deny I love making sushi, the rice sold for that purpose here is a lot more versatile than Western marketing suggests. In Japan, bowls of steamed, sticky, short-grain rice are eaten with almost every meal and, when topped with meat, fish or vegetables become a meal in themselves. You are welcome to use sake for the sake of authenticity (see what I did there?), but I found that a dry, white (i.e. grape) wine works surprisingly well. Serve this bowl as an easy vegan main, or a vegetarian one, with the addition of a soft-boiled egg; or even as a side-dish alongside a piece of teriyaki-sesame trout or mackerel.

Ingredients (for 2):

200 g “sushi” short-grain Japanese rice

280 ml cold water

2 handfuls of shiitake mushrooms

1 small bunch of spring onions, each cut into 3 shorter pieces

4 slices of daikon, peeled and sliced into half-moons

a sprinkling of toasted nori flakes, or other seaweed seasoning

Japanese soy sauce (or Tamari to make it gluten-free)

about a glass of white wine or sake

sesame or sunflower oil

2 soft-boiled eggs (optional)

• Wash the rice in a sieve until the water runs clear. Then add it to a pan and add 280 ml of cold water.
• Bring to the boil, cover and simmer on low heat for 10 minutes.
• Take off the heat and keep covered for another 15 minutes.
• Using a knife, make a little cross on top of each mushroom.
• Heat some oil in a large wok or frying pan until it is hot.
• Add the mushrooms and the daikon slices and fry for a couple of minutes.
• Deglaze with a generous splash of wine, reduce and follow with a generous splash of soy sauce.
• Add the spring onion pieces and stir-fry until the sauce is reduced, the spring onion is just tender and everything is coated in soy sauce.

 Daikon looks like a giant white carrot, but is in fact a crisp and mild Japanese radish with a hint of bitterness that disappears with cooking.

• Fluff the rice with a fork or a rice paddle and divide across two bowls.
• Arrange the vegetables and top off with the nori flakes.
• Eat with chopsticks and keep some extra nori flakes and soy sauce handy.
• Itadakimasu!