Food
and cooking tips and techniques:
 The
beginner's guide to making Sushi
Sushi
~
cold boiled rice moistened with rice vinegar, usually
shaped into bite-size pieces and topped with raw seafood
(nigiri-zushi) or formed into a long seaweed-wrapped
roll, often around strips of vegetable or raw fish,
and sliced into bite-size pieces (maki-zushi).
Dictionary.com
A
few things you need to make Sushi
In
order to make sushi at home, you will need a few items
for the preparation. If you live in a large enough city,
you may be lucky enough to find some of these items
at the local grocery store. For the more difficult to
find items, you may need to go to a store specializing
in Asian foods. A basic list is as follows:
- A
bamboo rolling mat (Makisu)
- Cutting
board
- A
sharp knife
- A
wooden spoon or spatula
- A
large wooden or glass bowl
- Medium
grain rice
- Rice
vinegar
- Sugar
- Nori
Seaweed or soybean paper (for rolls)
- Wasabi
(Japanese horseradish mustard)
- Gari
(pickled, thinly sliced ginger)
- Fish,
seafood, and /or vegetables as desired, depending
upon what type of sushi you plan to make
- Soy
sauce
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Some
of these items are optional, depending upon what kind
of sushi you would like to make.For instance, you would
not need nori seaweed or a rolling mat if you are making
nigiri, which is a hand sculptured ball of sushi rice
topped with a small slice of fish or other toppings.
The
Basic California Roll
If
you are going to introduce someone to sushi, this is
the way to do it. A California roll contains crab meat,
avocado, and cucumber.
Spread
about a cup of rice on the sheet of nori, leaving about
an inch of uncovered nori at one side. Do not pack the
rice, rolling will take care of that. The rice should
be less than a 1/4 inch thick -- you should be able
to see nori through the rice. The biggest mistake is
using too much rice.
Put
avocado slices on top of the rice first, one slice thick,
near the edge of the rice, the edge opposite the uncovered
nori. Unwrap and split a piece of imitation crab meat
lengthwise into two pieces. Place the two pieces end
to end on top of the avocado. Then add several strips
of cucumber next to the crab and on top of the avocado.
(If you put the avocado on last, it is a lot messier
to roll.)
I
prefer to place the nori on a sheet of plastic wrap
on top of the bamboo mat, to keep the avocado and rice
out of the mat. Slowly fold the mat over, tucking the
end of the nori to start a roll. (Keep lifting up the
mat and plastic wrap as you go.) Lessen the pressure
slightly to straighten out the roll, if needed. Then
continue rolling with medium pressure.
Remove
roll from mat and cut into 6 or 8 even pieces. Important
Tip: Keep the knife very moist to prevent sticking,
remoistening before each cut. First cut the
roll in half, then fold the two halves together and
cut into thirds (6 pieces) or quarters (8 pieces). Sushi
bars usually serve the roll sliced into 6 pieces, but
8 is easier. Turn the pieces on end and arrange on platter.
Tip:
Sometimes, if the end pieces are quite uneven, the
ends are cut off at the one-third point and stood on
end. Then, the other section is cut in half at a slight
angle. All pieces will then look more alike when stood
on end.
Some
sushi bars make an "inside out" California
roll. The rice is spread over all of the roll, there
is no uncovered edge as above. Then the nori is turned
over onto the plastic wrap so it is rice side down.
The ingredients are placed on one edge and the roll
is rolled as before. After rolling, the roll is rolled
in toasted sesame seeds prior to cutting, or sesame
seeds can be sprinkled on top after cutting. Optionally,
flying fish roe can be used in place of the sesame seeds
(it actually tastes better, but sesame seeds are easier
to find).
Preparing
Sushi Rice (Shari or Sushi Meshi)
Rice
cooked for sushi should be slightly harder in texture
than for other dishes. You will need approximately one
cup of cooked rice for each roll. It is easier and better
to make too much rice than too little. Every recipe
for sushi rice is different, but they all work. You
might find a recipe on the bottle of rice vinegar, on
the bag of rice, or on the package of nori.
Most
recipes call for rinsing the raw rice until the water
runs clear, but I often neglect this. The reason it
is rinsed first is to remove talc from the rice. Most
rice seems to be coated now with some sort of cereal
starch, rather than talc, so rinsing could be omitted.
They also suggest letting the rinsed rice drain in a
colander, or zaru, for 30 - 60 minutes. It's up to you.
Just promise me one thing - that you will not
use instant rice, converted rice, or brown rice. The
rice you use should be short-grained rice, preferably
Cal-Rose.
A
fairly consistent recipe is to use equal amounts of
rice and water, which will make the same number of cups
of rice as the total of the rice and water. Another
book mentions adding water until it is one inch above
the rice, but I would go with the one-to-one ratio.
The rice and water are brought to a quick boil, boiled
for 1 minute, covered, simmered for 20 minutes, and
let stand for 10 minutes after removing from the heat.
It is optional to add a piece of kombu to the water
and rice while it is brought to a boil, then removed.
Another option is to add a few drops of sake or mirin
to the water, but it will make little difference when
the vinegar is added afterward.
Put
the hot rice in a large bowl and pour sushi vinegar
evenly over the surface of the rice, mixing it into
the rice with quick cutting strokes. You should use
one tablespoon of vinegar per cup of rice. Fan the rice
at the same time to cool the rice quickly. What I often
do is pour the vinegar into the pan and stir it in,
then spread the rice out on aluminum foil on a cookie
sheet to cool. If you are keeping track of the terminology,
a hangiri, handai, or sushi oke
is a rice cooling tub and a uchiwa is a rice
cooling fan.
If
you cannot find sushi vinegar, you can make your own.
To make sushi vinegar, combine 1/3 cup white vinegar,
2 tablespoons sugar, 1-1/2 teaspoons salt, and a dash
of MSG (optional) in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil,
stir to dissolve everything and remove from heat.
Preparing
Sushi Omelet (Tamago)
Thin
egg sheets
Yield: 4 - 6 sheets.
With
chopsticks, beat 4 large eggs with 1 Tablespoon sugar
(or more to taste) and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Pour through
fine-holed strainer into glass measuring cup to remove
any membrane. Heat skillet and oil well. pour a small
amount of the egg mixture (1/6 to 1/4 of the total)
into the skillet and tilt pan to spread. When the bottom
has set, remove from heat and carefully lift up egg
sheet taking care not to tear the sheet. Turn over and
return to heat and cook lightly for a few seconds until
the second side is golden. Carefully remove and drain.
Repeat.
Thick
egg sheets
Yield: 1 sheet.
Use
same recipe, but cook entire amount at once. Cooking
is similar. The preferred pan is a 9-inch square tamago
pan.
Americanized
medium thick egg sheet. Yield: 1 sheet. Beat two large
eggs with 2 to 3 teaspoons sugar and 1/4 teaspoon salt.
Pour into well-greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. Bake in
preheated 300 F oven for 15 minutes. Carefully flip
egg sheet onto paper towel and drain. (I would be tempted
to cook all of these in a similar manner, possibly using
a square baking pan.)
Tamago
yaki
Yield: 1 roll or sheet.
Beat
four large eggs, 4 Tablespoons dashi (stock, see below),
1 Tablespoon sugar (or more to taste), 1 teaspoon mirin
(sweet rice wine), 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce, and salt
to taste. Strain as before. In a well-oiled tamago pan,
pour in about a quarter of the mixture and spread as
if making a crepe. As the mixture cooks, and as it bubbles
and sets, roll it and move to the back of the pan. Reoil
the pan and add more mixture, being sure to get some
under the roll. Again, as it cooks, roll the roll to
the front of the pan, then move to the back. Repeat
until all the mixture is cooked. Remove the roll from
the pan and roll as if for a sushi roll and squeeze
out excess liquid. It can be rolled into a round or
rectangular shape, then is sliced when cooled.
Dashi
A
basic stock, usually made from dried bonito flakes and
dried kelp. You can use instant dashi, called dashi-no-moto,
which is like a bouillon cube. You can also substitute
any other stock if you don't like the fishy taste.
Some
Sushi recipes:
Inari
Sushi
Tuna
Rolls
Maguro
Nigiri
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