Smoked Salmon & Avocado Rice Bowl

Ingredients

• 150 g smoked salmon, torn
• 200 g sushi rice, cooked and cooled
• 1 tsp rice vinegar
• 1 cucumber, sliced into half-moons
• 2 spring onions, sliced
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 avocado, sliced
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• 1 sheet nori, torn into strips
• pickled ginger, to serve
• miso soup, to serve
• edamame, to serve

Method

1. Tip the cooked rice into a wide bowl and fork through the rice vinegar with a generous pinch of salt — season now, while the grains are still warm and willing to take it on. Spread it out and let it cool to room temperature so the grains stay distinct rather than claggy.
2. While the rice settles, slice the avocado, cut the cucumber into half-moons, and tear the smoked salmon into ribbons. Smoked salmon at room temperature tastes of itself — fridge-cold, it tastes of nothing.
3. Whisk the soy sauce and sesame oil together in a small bowl. Taste it on the tip of a spoon — most of the salt comes from the soy, but a final pinch ties it together and stops the sesame from going flat.
4. Divide the rice between two shallow bowls, pressing it into an even bed with the back of a spoon.
5. Arrange the salmon, avocado and cucumber over the rice in distinct sections rather than tossing it through — the visual contrast is half the pleasure, and each forkful gets to be its own thing.
6. Spoon the soy and sesame dressing over each bowl, letting it pool into the rice rather than drowning the toppings. Taste a corner — adjust now, not at the table.
7. Scatter with the sliced spring onions, sesame seeds and torn nori strips. Lay the pickled ginger alongside, and serve straight away with a bowl of miso soup and edamame on the side.