How to make a Sushi Roll

Who says it never rains here in San Diego? Working on a Sunday, I had to run down to the office from my 4th floor kitchen to finish up some paperwork for an extern I have from the Art Institute. The day started off a bit cloudy and as I was just about to leave the office when low and behold…rain. I like rain, don’t get me wrong but it is coming down fast and furious at the moment so I figured I’d write a quick bit on how to roll sushi. I must be getting hungry…

This is not a recipe for making sushi, but more of a tutorial on how to roll a simple and basic Maki roll. The images I am using are from a dinner party I had a couple of years ago, when I had the time to entertain friends and drink some great wine. If you would like me to post the recipes for the sushi rice and a couple of rolls, please leave a comment stating such and I will respond, if the interest is there.

OK…to start you will need a Hangiri (you can get a Hangiri here). A Hangiri is a wooden bowl used for seasoning and cooling the sushi rice. Some of the excess moisture is absorbed by the bowl, leaving you with a fully cooked and somewhat dry rice kernels, perfect for making sushi. I have used stainless steel bowls before I got my Hangiri, and they work OK. The rice will come out a whole lot better if you can snag a Hangiri, so I would suggest doing so.

Once the rice has been cooked and seasoned, you want to start by placing a bamboo rolling mat on you flat working surface. Angles are great with it comes to geometry but do not work well when rolling, so make sure your work surface is flat! Get yourself a small bowl of vinegared water (to dip your hands in ) and place one sheet of nori on top of your rolling mat.

Wet your hands slightly with the water (so the rice will not stick to your hands) and spread out a fair amount a quarter of the way up the nori sheet. Using your hands, spread the rice out so most of the sheet has been covered and that the rice is pressed out to the edges of the nori. The blue plastic on the mat is press and seal, which works great in keeping your mat clean if you get a bit messy when rolling.

All rolling was done by my friend Kat’s boyfriend, who is not a professional chef. If he can do it so can you!

Now you want to place your ingredients in a row on the edge of the rice closest to you, as you will be rolling away from your body. The photo shows a classic California roll (avocado, cucumber and fresh crab meat) which can be on your first couple of attempts a bit messy.

Now you want to pick up the end closest to you and fold it over on top of its self, then roll. Make sure that you use your fingers to hold the product snug against the rice when you begin, or your filling will be everywhere but where it is suppose to be, inside your roll!

Roll it tight! A loose roll is not OK and most of your friends will chuckle if someone picks a piece up and the entire thing disintegrates like a satellite falling from space back to earth. Rest your roll on the seam that was created when you finished the roll to ensure a good seal and a tight roll.

If need be, trim the ends to remove any product that may be hanging out or that decided that it wanted no part of your sushi making experiment. Tap the ends with your hands or a knife to make sure that the ends are as compact as possible.

So you are minutes away from grinding down you home made Maki roll, but first you have to cut it. Most make the mistake of using a clean, dry knife to cut their rolls and wonder why the nori tears and the things begins to fall apart. A dry knife is the worst thing for a sushi roll. Your sushi rice is very sticky and will need some sort of lubrication to cleanly slice through it. You will want to dip your knife in the vinegar water you were using to dip your hands in. Have a damp towel on hand, dip your knife and cut. When you have a buildup of rice starch on your blade, wipe it off, re-dip the knife and continue to cut until the roll in cut into eight pieces.

Pretty easy huh… So now, depending on how many of your friends have come by to freeload on your home made sushi, keep rolling until the rice is used up and you have enough for all involved. Grab a cold beer or some sake, get the soy sauce and ginger ready and dive in!

This is a great way to beat the high price of eating out for sushi and a perfect way to spend a interactive night with your friends and/or family. I think making sushi at home is one of the more enjoyable ways to have dinner with friends and it allows you to experiment with different ingredients. The great thing about this is you can keep it traditional, raw fish and veggies or you can play around and modify things a bit, think BLT, corned beef or Spam (which happens to be a fav of this chef!)

Making sushi at home is fun, inexpensive and a great way to entertain. Oh look…it has stopped raining! Time for this chef to run back up to the kitchen and finish up brunch…

Enjoy!

chefRob

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