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How to make sushi 101
Equipment needed:
Pan to cook/steam rice (with tight fitting lid)
sushi rolling mat
sharp knife
basic ingredients:
sushi rice
vinegar powder
nori (seaweed)
mayonnaise
wasabi paste
tinned tuna fish in water
smoked salmon
1x cucumber
1x ripe avocado
pickled pink ginger
sushi soy sauce
optional extra ingredients:
pickled radish
fresh fish (tuna steak)
sesame seeds (roasted)
service items:
chopsticks
plates
bowl for dipping
OK so thats the basic list.. you can get more into things when you have mastered the basics (or the tuna fish and cucumber roll as I
call it). Last week was the first time I had ventured into the RAW fish side of home sushi making, having usually stuck to the safe
ingredients that are pre-cooked. I have to say that it made a huge difference, the texture and taste of raw tuna on rice was quite
amazing... but we'll leave that for sushi 103.
Onto your choice of rice...
Sushi rice is of course different to your average grain rice, the grains are small and fat (like risotto rice) and so you have to
wash it very well - at least 3 or 4 times or until the run-off is clear. Using the normal cooking method of 1 cup of rice to 1 and a
half cups of water and a pinch of salt, cook the rice for about 15 minutes (or untill all the water has been soaked up) and then
leave to steam for 10 minutes before tipping the whole lot out and mixing in about 2 teaspoons of vinegar powder and leave to cool
for about an hour.
While we wait for the rice to cool, this gives us enough time to prepare the other ingredients....
Take the cucumber and cut a 10cm slice off, now we want to remove the watery seends in the middle, so cut it in half long ways and
remove the center core and discard, slice the cucumber thinly along its length. You can also prepare a 4 or 5 cucumber batons, these
are about 10cm in length and 1cm square on the height and width, you can use these batons for a plain cucumber roll. Feel free to
prepare any other ingredients like the pickled radish in this way too.
Open your tin of tuna, drain off the excess water and fork out into a bowl, mix with alittle wasabi paste and a tablespoon of
mayonnaise.
Right.. so now we have the cold (and sticky) rice. Best advice for working with rice is to use slightly wet hands (infact anything
that touches the rice should be slightly wet... I always wet my knifes too)
Open your rolling may and place a sheet or half a sheet (depending on desired size) of Nori on top of the rolling mat, now wet your
hands and GENTLY spread out a small handfull of rice, so it evenly covers the whole sheet (make sure you leave about 1cm of the nori
free of rice - this should be at the far end of your sheet and will be used to seal your sushi roll)
Now at your end of the nori (about 2 cm from the edge), place a small sausage of the tuna fish, next to this you can put some of your
thinly sliced cucumber.. you should now have something that looks like this....
Ready to roll?
Ok lift your end of the mat and gently fold over the stuffing, now continue to roll over the rest, being careful not to trap the
rolling mat between the rice.. when you reach the empty space of nori, wet your fingers again and gently dab a few drops onto the nori, then finish the rolling (the wetness will make the nori stick, and you have completed your 1st roll.
Take a very sharp knife, wet the blade and cut your roll in half (into 2 sausages), line them up and trim off the other ends, cut each roll into either 3 or 4 depending on preference...... well done, you just made some SUSHI!
sushi 102 will cover the inside out rolls, sushi 103 will cover everything else... enjoy!!!
Posted by mrmule at February 1, 2006 09:38 AM
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Comments
I can't believe it, my co-worker just bought a car for $60738. Isn't that crazy!
Posted by: Betsy Markum at May 23, 2006 03:48 PM
