Hi ADSactly Foodies! Today's foodie post is a little bit different from my usual recipes. Today I show you how to make your own sushi. Let me tell you from the beginning, that it might seem difficult, but it's actually one of those recipes that once you have the hang of, you are going to want to make it over and over again, just to improve your technique!
Why sushi? I had never made sushi before and felt like a challenge. Let me tell you guys, this most certainly was a challenge!
I am definitely no professional, but I must say that all my years of working in sushi restaurants definitely paid off. I definitely had a good idea of what to do and how to roll the rolls, and had some insider tips up my sleeve.
🍣My Top Tips for Making Sushi 🍣
Make sure you have a good recipe for the rice. The rice is the most important ingredient, besides the fish, and having good quality, perfectly cooked rice really makes a difference
Make sure your ingredients are fresh. Crisp vegetables, delicious, fresh fish and crackly nori all make for a delicious roll.
Keep a bowl of water with a few drops of rice vinegar at your side. This is a sticky business, and keeping your hands and knife wet helps to alleviate any extra mess and difficulty.
Be prepared! Have all your veggies, fish and other fillings chopped and ready, your sauces prepared and your rice cooled to room temperature before you even attempt to make your first roll.
Use a plastic or glass container for your rice, and a wooden spatula. No metal! The metal could taint the taste of the rice, and react with the vinegar.
Let's make sushi!
This recipe will make about nine to ten rolls, enough for three hungry or four peckish people. My main ingredients were salmon, avocado, carrot and cucumber, but you can of course use whatever you like
Use this rad rice calculator here to calculate how much rice you need for your desired amount of rolls
🍣INGREDIENTS 🍣
Rice:
3 Cups of Sushi Rice
3 and 1/2 Cups of Water
Half a Cup of Rice Wine Vinegar
2 T Fine White Sugar
2 t Salt
Fillings:
250gr Fresh Salmon
1 Avocado
Half a Cucumber, julienne cut
3 Carrots, peeled and julienne cut
Bunch Spring Onions, chopped julienne, and into fine rounds
Condiments:
Japanese Mayonnaise
Chinese 7 Spice (Togoroshi)
Soy Sauce
Fish Sauce
Sesame Seed Oil
Chilli Flakes
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🍣 METHOD: 🍣
You are going to need about 40 minutes to prep everything, and about half an hour to an hour for the rice to cool down, so if you are able to make the rice before hand, you should. An important tip to know, is to not make it the night before as you cannot refrigerate the rice. It will get hard and crusty.
Cooking the Rice:
First, wash the rice. This may seem like a trivial step, but trust me - it's not! Washing the rice gets all the starch out, making the rice perfectly glutinous and glossy. Much like when cooking risotto, this is a vital step. I rinsed my rice six times, until the water ran absolutely clear. Then, leave it to soak in some water for a further half an hour.
Once you have finished soaking the rice, rinse one more time, and place it in a pot with some water. The ratio here should be for every one cup of rice, add one and a quarter cup of water. You just want the rice to covered, as too much water can cause the rice to become dough-like.
Now, place the pot on high heat, and cook for about eight minutes, stirring frequently, until the water boils. Once the water is boiling, leave the pot on the heat, and turn the heat down low, and cover the rice. Check back every few minutes, until there is no more water, and the rice grains are nice and fat. Next, transfer the rice to a bowl. Don't scrape the rice at the bottom of the pot. It is possibly burnt and will add a terrible taste to your rice.
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Seasoning the Rice:
This is the most important step. Heat up a small pot with the vinegar, sugar and salt, and cook until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Next, add it to the rice bit by bit, mixing the sauce into the rice with cutting motions. This should take about two minutes. Now, wait for the rice to cool to room temperature. As excited as you are to make some sushi, try to be patient and wait until the rice is completely cooled. You can use this time to prep your fillings.
Once the rice is cooled, you are able to make your rolls. Be creative with your fillings and have some fun!
Rolling a Maki Roll:
There are so many variations on sushi rolls, that I thought I would show you, step-by-step, how to make a maki roll. You can also make California rolls, hand rolls, nigiri and even sashimi if you are brave.
Cut a sheet of nori in half, lengthways. Lay your nori on the working space, rough side up. Press a small amount of rice onto the sheet, taking care to not add too much rice. You don't want to be like this guy:
Leave the horizontal edges free of rice - this is where the rolls will close.
Lay the ingredients in the centre of the roll, and use your mat to close or roll the first section of rice, closest to you, away from you. By doing this you will almost close the ingredients into the roll. Now, roll it over again, and the edge without rice on will meet the rest of your roll and close. You can roll it freely without the mat on your work surface to ensure it is a perfect shape.
My favourite combination was salmon with avo,spring onion, cucumber, japanese mayo and the spicy togaroshi. MMMM!
I would say that it is best to roll all of the rolls you will be making, and set aside until you are ready to eat them. Only then should you cut them into smaller pieces. This will keep them fresh, and keep them firm.
It definitely will take a few tries to get the method, but once you have it, it gets easier. It was my first attempt at making sushi, and I was quite happy with the outcome.
I would definitely advise you to watch a few videos on rolling sushi before you give it a try. I found the following video where the chef has a go pro, giving a unique view. It helped me immensely
One Last Thing - My Secret Sauce Recipe:
You can definitely just dip your sushi in ordinary soy sauce, but to take your sushi to another level, try my secret (or not-so-secret now) sauce.
Mix together half a cup of soy sauce, two teaspoons of rice vinegar, one teaspoon of sesame seed oil, a teaspoon of sugar, some chopped spring onions and a few chilli flakes. This is definitely one of those sauces that is made to taste, so experiment with quantities to get exactly the taste you like!
Serve your sushi with japanese mayonnaise, wasabi, pickled ginger and any other condiments you like.
Practise makes perfect, and I definitely want to make this again!
Let me know in the comments if you have made sushi before, and if you have any tips for our readers?