Sushi balls with spicy mayo

Ingredients

• 300g sushi rice
• 6 tbsp mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp hot sauce
• ½ avocado, peeled and stoned
• Squeeze of lemon juice
• 3 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp chopped chives
• 3 tbsp black sesame seeds
• 80g cooked prepared crab meat, or prawns, chopped into small chunks
• Nori sheets (optional)
• Soy sauce, for dipping

Method

Rinse the rice a few times in running water, then add to a saucepan with 390ml water. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low and add a lid. Leave for 15 mins. Take off the heat and remove the lid. Fluff up the rice with a fork, then return the lid and leave for another 5 mins to finish cooking.

While the rice is cooking, prepare your other ingredients. In a bowl, mix the mayonnaise with the hot sauce and some salt and pepper. Chop the avocado into small chunks and toss with the lemon juice to stop it going brown.

When the rice is cooked, stir through the vinegar, sugar, salt, chives and sesame seeds. Immediately spread out onto a board or large plate to cool down, for at least 5 mins.

Once your rice is cool enough to handle, place a square of clingfilm flat on your kitchen surface. Add about a dessert spoon of rice to the centre, flattening it down. Put a blob of spicy mayo, a few pieces of prawn or ½ tsp of crab, and a few chunks of avocado in the centre – don’t be tempted to overload.

Put a little more rice over the ingredients, then gather up the clingfilm around the sides of the rice. Twist and squeeze the clingfilm around it, to shape the rice into a ball. You need to be quite firm, so the rice ball doesn’t disintegrate when you eat it. You can refrigerate these in the clingfilm, and take straight to a picnic or to lunch for work, or, if you prefer, you can decorate first. Use scissors to snip two long thin strips from a sheet of nori, and gently press over the rice ball in a cross shape. Re-clingfilm and refrigerate until ready to eat.

Serve with the remaining spicy mayo, and some soy sauce, to dip.