Lots about Sushi: with VIDEO

Sushi Toolbox

• Dark soy sauce
• Rice wine vinegar
• Short grain rice
• Nori – small sealed packages
• Rice Spatula
• Rolling Mats
• Wasabi paste or powder
• Pickled Ginger (Gari) – white (homemade) or pink

Sushi Rice

• • • 2 C short grain rice (meshi)
      • AKA Sushi Rice, Glutinous Rice or Pearl Rice
        Very starchy and sticky OR if you can’t find any, add 1 TBL cornstarch to your rice
      • Rinse three times
    • 2 C water
      MIX BELOW – Use this after the rice has finished cooking
    • 3 T rice vinegar or Sushi seasoning vinegar (heated in microwave)
    • 1 TBL mirin
    • 2 TBL sugar
    • 2 tsp salt

STEP BY STEP

• • 1. Measure your amount of rice while it is dry
    2. Wash rice in a bowl of cold water
    3. Strain
    4. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 until water runs clear (total three times is usually OK)
       
    5. Mix pre-measured amounts of rice and water and let set for 30 minutes
    6. Cook rice according to directions
       OR Put rice into boiling water, simmer 15 minutes
    7. Remove from heat, cover and let rest 10 minutes
    8. Meanwhile, mix vinegar, mirin, sugar and salt
    9. Poke holes/wells into your rice with a spoon
    10. Pour over a wooden paddle onto rice … drizzle
    11. GENTLY fold cooked rice into vinegar mixture
        Stir around, don’t beat (fan with paper plate to help it cool more quickly)
    12. Keep your hands wetted
    13. Cover with plastic and let cool about 30 minutes on the counter.  Do not refrigerate

Rolling Tips and Tricks

• • • Nori (海苔) is the Japanese name for edible seaweed and is frequently used for sushi across the world.  It is usually just referred to as seaweed.
      
    • Seaweed . Smooth and shiny goes toward the outside.  Rough side goes to the inside against the rice.
    • Use plastic wrap as a covering for your sushi mat
    • Press rice flat onto plastic
    • Dress with slices of cucumber, avocado, shredded imitation krab meat
    • Do not overfill
    • Tuck and roll
    • Dip knife and hands in water
    • Cut in half three times for 8 pieces or half, then thirds for six pieces.

Sushi Filling Options

• Salmon
• Shrimp
• Tuna (mahi mahi)
• Red snapper
• Spanish mackerel
• Scallop
• Mushrooms
• Avocado
• Scallion
• Sesame Seed
• Caviar
• Un
• Fennel Leaves
• … and actually whatever you want to wrap into it

Types of Sushi

• • • Chirashizushi: “scattered sushi” – Sushi plus other things over rice
    • Oshizushi: “pressed sushi”. Also known as hako-sushi which means “box sushi”
    • Nigirizushi: “hand-pressed sushi” – Frequently like a salmon roll (See Nigiri below)
    • Makizushi – meaning “rolled sushi” – What most Americans visualize when they hear sushi
      Generally wrapped in Nori (seaweed), but can occasionally be wrapped in a thin omelette, soy paper, cucumber, or shsiso (perilla) leaves.
      • Hosomaki: “thin roll” – rice on inside, nori on the outside
      • Chumaki: “medium roll” – rice on inside, nori on the outside
      • Futomaki: “thick roll” – rice on inside, nori on the outside
      • Uramaki: “inside-out roll” – rice on outside, nori on the inside
      • Temaki: “hand roll” – cone-shaped roll
      • Tekkamaki:  Cut tuna into sticks, put nori on mat rough side up, put down rice then tuna

Nigiri

1. Shape sushi rice into a bite-sized football, but don’t compress
2. Schmear wasabi on fish, krab or shrimp
3. Put wasabi against rice and squeeze only to merge all ingredients.  Do not over-compress

Westernized Sushi

• • • • Dragon Roll:  Eel, crab, cucumber with avocado on the outside
      • Tiger Roll:  Avocado, shrimp tempura, cucumber
      • California Roll:  Rice down on plastic covered mat, then nori, avocado, crab, cucumber. Roll wrap in rice sprinkled with sesame seeds
      • Rainbow Roll: An assortment of fish and avocado on top of a California Roll
      • Spider Roll: Soft-shell crab, cucumber, sprouts (or lettuce, roe, or avocado) and sometimes spicy mayo
      • Spicy Tuna Roll: Rice, tuna, mayo, and chili sauce wrapped in nori
      • Philadelphia Roll: Salmon, avocado, asparagus, and cream cheese wrapped in rice
      • Dynamite Roll: Yellowtail and/or prawn tempura, bean sprouts, carrots, avocado, cucumber, chili, and spicy mayonnaise
      • Teriyaki Roll: Nori, chicken, teriyaki sauce wrapped in rice
      • Boston Roll: Crab, salmon, and scallion wrapped in rice
      • Alaska Roll: Asparagus, and avocado wrapped in rice, topped with Smoked salmon
      • Scallop Volcano Roll: California roll topped with a baked scallop and mushrooms
      • Summer Roll: Sashimi and veggies inside wrapped in rice paper
      • Spicy Tataki Roll: Spicy tuna inside. Sashimi tuna and avocado outside.
      • Eel Avocado Roll: Rice, avocado, and eel wrapped in nori.  Topped with avocado
      • Seattle Roll: Cucumber, avocado, raw salmon, and smoked salmon wrapped in rice
      • Firecracker Roll:  Spicy scallop inside. Tuna and avocado outside
      • Yellowtail Roll: Yellowtail and scallion California roll.
      • Hawaiian Roll: Garlic and albacore inside. Wrapped in rice with avocado and albacore on top.
      • Mango Roll: Avocado, crab meat, tempura shrimp wrapped in rice, topped with mango slices, and creamy mango paste.
      • Classic Roll: Tuna, avocado, and cucumber wrapped in rice and nori
      • Futomaki Roll: Crab, egg, and vegetables wrapped in rice and nori

See www.Ranker.com for a list three times longer than the one above.

Extra Tips and Information

• • • If you are going out for sushi, use these tips:
      • Smell should not be overly “fishy”
      • Weekends are when the fresh fish come in
      • Ask about source of their sushi
    • Japanese style sushi has the rice on inside
    • American style sushi has the rice in outside
    • Sashimi is considered by many to be a type of sushi made with raw high-quality fish or raw meat.  It is actually a completely different dish.
    • Sushi should be freshly but quickly killed, usually with a knife point to sever the brain stem
    • Bleeding fish in ice water immediately after killing keeps the meat clear
    • Wait several hours for rigor to start for a firmer flesh
    • Visit All About Sushi Guide for more information

Jacques Pepin Sushi Tray

• • • Jacques Pepin made a sushi platter by putting down a layer of rice, and then cubes of salmon, cubes of tuna, small bay scallops, chopped black mushrooms, pieces of avocado (tossed in lemon juice to prevent browning), diced scallion, sesame seeds, caviar, uni, and fennel leaves.  He served wasabi and soy in a cup.  It was WAY easier than formal pieces of sushi and looked just beautiful.

Common Types of Sashimi

• • • Salmon (Sake)
    • Squid (Ika)
    • Shrimp (Ebi)
    • Tuna (Maguro)
    • Mackeral (Saba)
    • Horse Mackeral (Aji)
    • Octopus (Tako) – Usually blanched or cooked
    • Whale Meat (Gei-niku)
    • Sea Urchin (Uni)
    • Scallop (Hotate-gai)
    • Puffer Fish (Fugu)
    • Yellowtail (Hamachi)
    • Fatty Tuna (Otoro)

• • • You may also view my page for Dungeness Crab Cakes which was filmed at a class aboard the MS Rotterdam.
    • The below video was taken at the Phoenix Eats Trade Show, so has very little verbal description, but offers some very good video for rolling sushi.

Video from Kikoman