Do you love sushi, but you don’t know how to make it? Here’s a beginner’s guide to help you make sushi at home and enjoy one of your favorite dishes.
Sushi has come a long way, from simply being considered raw fish to a wide variety of excellent flavors and textures to entice nearly every palette. Raw fish and rice are still the key ingredients in every sushi dish, but you can learn how to make the type of sushi you want to eat and enjoy with this easy-to-follow guide.
Get the right tools
To do sushi the right way, you’ve got to have the tools that are used by Japanese experts. Some of the items you’ll need before you get into the recipes are:
- A bamboo sushi mat – they are inexpensive and easy to find
- Nori sheets – Most supermarkets now carry Nori sheets. They are sheets of seaweed, which is a major part of making sushi
- Sushi seasoning – In most cases, the main seasoning is vinegar. It’s probably best to start with vinegar that’s made for sushi to keep things simple. You can add other seasonings later.
- Rice – Medium grain rice is just fine to start with, and it’s cheaper and easier to find than sushi rice. If you like sushi for the special rice, you’ll want to get the real thing.
Make the Rice
Rice is typically one of the only cooked items in sushi. When you want to make sushi at home, you start by cooking rice and doing so the right way. Use this method to make the rice:
- Rinse 1 cup of rice in cold water
- Cook the 1 cup of rice in 1.5 cups of water. Bring this to a boil.
- Once the rice is boiling, reduce to a simmer for 8-10 minutes. The rice needs to absorb the water but not burn or stick to the pot.
- Spread the rice on a tray and add 2-3 tablespoons of sushi seasoning (vinegar) and mix well
Make a Maki Roll
The maki roll is the easiest sushi roll to make because it’s basically rice and filling in the seaweed wrap. You can work on making more complicated rolls later. Make the maki roll by doing:
- Place the nori sheet with the shiny side facing down and the long edge at the bottom. You can place it on your sushi mat, but you don’t have to.
- Wet your hands to prevent the rice from sticking and place a thin layer across the sheet, leaving a 1-inch gap at the top
- Add your filling of choice – This can be tuna, teriyaki chicken, salmon, avocado, cucumber, peppers, or carrots. Make sure these items are thinly sliced and have similar lengths to line them up on the rice. Place the filling halfway up the ride and let it hang over the sides to ensure the whole roll is filled.
Roll it up
Now it’s time to roll up your sushi. This will take some practice, but when you want to make sushi at home, you can practice and eventually get nice rolls out of the process.
- To complete the roll, have some water on hand, take the bottom of the sheet, and roll it so the bottom meets the top line of the rice.
- Hold the roll in place, wet your fingers with the water, dampen the exposed edge of the nori sheet, and continue to roll and seal the sheet as you roll.
- Place the roll on the sushi mat and roll the mat around the sushi, giving it a gentle but firm squeeze. This will help you compact the roll to keep it round without squashing it.
Cut it up
Using a sharp knife, cut the sushi roll in half. Before you make any cuts, run the edge of the knife under running tap water to prevent the rice from sticking to the knife. Continue to cut each piece of the sushi roll in half until you have eight pieces.
Serve and enjoy your maki roll sushi.
California rolls
Once you mastered the maki roll and understand how to make sushi at home, you can try to make a California roll, which has the rice on the outside and the seaweed wrapped around the filling. This takes a little more skill and practice because the rice is on the outside of the roll.
Its easy to enjoy some wonderful sushi anytime you want, even if you don’t like fish, you can use other ingredients that go well with the rice and nori wrap for some amazing flavors.
