Question about Sushi

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Buffwannabe, do not despair. Making sushi is not all that difficult if you have the required ingredients. However, if you do not have a rice cooker, you could easily boil rice in a non-stick saucepan with equally good results. The same for the bamboo mat which helps you to roll the sushi into a tight long cyclinder. If you do not have it, you could use a piece of grease-proof paper longer than the nori (seaweed) sheet to guide you in rolling.

I have not experimented on short grain brown rice in my sushi making but I think that if you are to make good and proper sushi, you should get Nihishi (sp?) or Calrose short grain rice or any type of short grain rice as brown rice is not sticky enough for you to make into a roll.

To help you get started, here is my recipe for making sushi rolls:

1 cup (220gm) short-grained white rice
2 cups (500ml) water
2 tbsps rice vinegar
1 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp salt

Wash rice briefly and boil with water in a saucepan. When ready, remove from stove and mix all ingredients thoroughly together. Proceed with rolling when rice is still warm.

Note: This quantity is good for 3-4 Nori (dried seaweed) sheets. You could also roll them into conical shape. Easy toppings include pickled ginger, picked baby cucumbers, canned tuna, smoked salmon, cheaper grade caviar, cooked octopus, shrimp & calamari.

Good luck!
 
Since you are on a budget just keep one of your knives sharp. Wipe it off with every couple slices of sushi.

The Asian market should have had some sort of short-grain rice. Even at your grocery store there is not a box of sushi rice in the ethnic section? It is both in the ethnic section AND with the other rices. Sometimes it's in a bag, clear square container, or smaller box like a cereal box. In the Asian Market it should just be listed as short grain rice or they may call it sticky rice.

Chives, cucumber, avocado are all good in the rolls along with thin strips of cream cheese (low fat is fine for this too). One of my favorite rolls to make at home is salmon, a bit of cream cheese, chives, and fresh cilantro.

You do not rinse brown rice before cooking.
 
Here are some places you can buy sushi rice online, but like Kitchenelf said, just look for short grain rice in your supermarket.

There is no need to buy a special knife and a rice cooker if you are on a budget. Just keep your knife sharp and make the rice according to the package instructions. Do not forget, rice has been made for thousands of years before rice makers or electricity even.
 
I use my regular 'ole 8" western Chef Knife for everything. Just wet it with a damp towel when slicing rolls.

The rice cooker makes things really easy and is fairly inexpensive (mine was $15 at walmart). You can certainly cook on the stove top in a $5 pot, but if you plan to eat rice everyday as you say, I think the $15 rice maker is a worthwhile investment. Mine is a Black & Decker with a non-stick bowl. Every sushi-bar I've been to uses one as well.

Most often, I find that the one thing tripping people up from amazing sushi is their rice or their technique. Afterall, sushi (zushi) means "vinegared rice". I often eat just balls of sushi followed by some miso soup and pickles. It's the little things that count. Just trying to encourage you and remind you not to get frustrated if after 1/2 a dozen attempts you haven't "nailed" it. Took me about 1/2 a hundred tries before I got it down. Rice quality/age & technique are important. Traditionally, Japanese sushi-chef apprentices spend years learning to cook rice. The Japanese cuisine is fairly simple, but attention to detail is paramount due to that simplicity which amplifies any mistakes. It's not like say a pot of long grain river rice that you are going to smother with etouffee, or a gloppy bowl of mashed potatoes that can be hidden beneath rich gravy and hunks of meat and veggies. The rice is the star of the show and there is no gravy to cover it up (unless you smother it in chili-mayo or something). It's comparative to aging, preparing, and cooking a good steak. Took me more than a few tries to get that one right too! :)
 
Oh, I saw you were looking for a sauce recipe.

Here is what I use...

Spicy Sauce

1/4-C Mayonnaise (Kewpie Brand or Homemade preferred)
2-t Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce
1/2-t Toasted 100% Sesame Oil
1-T Finely sliced Scallion tops (the green portion)
1-T Tobikko or Masago Fish Roe

Mix everything in a dish and let it set for a while for the flavors to blend. You can play with all the ratios, but be careful about the sesame oil - it's very strong. Some recipes say use Miracle whip and Tabasco... try it and tell me how it tastes... :LOL:

I like to include the scallions beforehand and allow them to perfume the mayo. Most sushi bars use the less expensive masago (about 1/4 the price of good tobikko). For this sauce I'd say it's more than acceptable.

Simply mix some diced tuna scraps (excluding bloodline trimmings) with a little of the sauce (I also add some more tobikko/masago). Try some greens like pea shoots layered with the tuna mix. Cucumber is a bit "wet" for me in this roll. Avocado is good, but kinda overpowered by the sauce and doesn't offer much texture like the pea shoots. Make sure the nori is thoroughly crisp, and that your rice is 1st class.

Not a traditional Japanese preparation, but certainly one of my favorite western fusion recipes! It also makes a great dressing for cucumber strips and bits of leftovers like crab/octopus/tuna/etc sprinkled with sesame seeds and crushed nori bits over a disc of good rice served as chirashi. It's pretty much my standard use of trimmings from yellowfin blocks trimmed for nigiri/sashimi. When I buy a block of yellowfin loin, I'll trim it up into steaks, pepper-coat them, and sear them quickly. Then I cut the blocks into thin strips over a nice green salad witha balsamic vinaigrette. The next day I'll have spicy chirashi with the scraps.
 
Here's a pair of Unagi Nigiri I made for my younger sister the last time she stopped by (she loves it).

DSC06566.JPG


The best sushi chefs can form the nigiri rice balls in their palm so almost all the grains are parallel to one another. As you can see, I'm not of that ilk...:LOL:

I usually just eat pieces of unagi over a bowl of sushi with a bit of sauce, but many people like it in nigiri form. It is good, but I'm lazy so I just put it in a bowl when it's just me eating.
 
Nicholas that looks awesome!

Ok i got the rice cooker from walmart which costed me$15
Now i got a question about cooking sushi rice.
I got the short grain white rice, and i put the appropiate amounts of water, but after its done, it becomes INCREDIBLEY MUSHI.
Sushi rice is suppose to be soft, but NOT super soft. The rice also appears over inflated with water. What am i doing wrong? Does that appearance go away if i put it in the fridge?
 
Check out some of my previous posts. You need to rinse/soak/cook/cool properly. I listed some tips in a few of my previous posts.

It's going to take a bit of practice and trial/error as well, but the rice cooker will remove some of the variables and make things a little easier.

Practice, Practice, Practice! :)

Also, make sure your rice is a short grain sushi rice (like calrose) and not a short grain rice you would use for risotto like arborio.

Good luck, and have a great Thanksgiving. :pig:
 
Buffwannabe said:
Nicholas that looks awesome!

Ok i got the rice cooker from walmart which costed me$15
Now i got a question about cooking sushi rice.
I got the short grain white rice, and i put the appropiate amounts of water, but after its done, it becomes INCREDIBLEY MUSHI.
Sushi rice is suppose to be soft, but NOT super soft. The rice also appears over inflated with water. What am i doing wrong? Does that appearance go away if i put it in the fridge?

You need to add less water. Also, the rice cooker you have probably sucks. I have one of those digital Panasonic rice cookers at home and yes, it does make a HUGE difference in the quality of the rice when compared to one of the cheaper brands.
 
I'd disagree that the cheaper rice cookers "suck". I've tried out an expensive one at a friends house (almost $100) and found little difference between his rice maker and mine other than a bit more control and "gadget" options. Personally I think it all comes down to how you prepare the rice before and after. Washing, soaking, proper water ratio, resting, and cooling (along with using the proper type of rice of course). Cheaper models don't cycle as nicely, but even with expensive models you need to figure out the proper ratio of rice/water for that particular unit. Then variables like rice age/type, how long you soak the grains to let them "flower", etc., throw in more independants that you must account for in the water/rice ratio.

I'm not one to shy away from spending cash, but personally I've yet to see a rice cooker over $25 that justifies it's cost. Except perhaps for the jumbo commerical units if you have a restaurant and need volume. Just my personal opinion.
 
bump

hey tamsineclark, try watching a bunch of u-tube video's. Watch a few of them to see subtle differences.

It does take a bit of practice - first time I made sushi they were spectacular! I was so proud.

But after that... :LOL::LOL: ... complete and utter failure! 3 times and I haven't made any since. non-sticky rice - too sticky rice - too much filling - wrong fillings - horrid rolling... you name it and that was it!

ps.
N Mosher hasn't posted for quite some time and this particular thread is from 2006.

But I'm glad you 'bumped' this thread as I've been getting the urge to try again. Maybe it has been enough years that I won't mess up?... again? :LOL:
 
I successfully made good sushi first try. I simply used parchment paper, and the same rolling technique used for making tamales. I used short grain sushi rice, and my rice cooker for the rice, stirred in Mirin when the rice was cooked, to make it sticky, spread the rice onto the parchment paper, covered with thin slices of avocado, and pickled carrot for a California role, and with sushi grade ahi tuna, for a tuna roll. I also made sushi laying the rice onto softened nori, and rolled it. I cut the sushi with a very sharp chef's knife, dipped in water. I didn't really care for the flavor of the nori. But I love a bit of flying fish roe on top, with pickled ginger slices, and wasabi paste on the side.

Fancy gadgets aren't needed. Proper rice texture, and rolling techniques are absolutely required.

Here's a very goof video for making sushi - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QUpTeTVPJo

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
Get yourself a sushi kit, not some expensive gadget. The best sushi is made by hand.
Sushi rice, Japanese rice wine vinegar and sushi-grade fish is what is needed. Then be persistent.
I´ve tried loads of things over the years which have been spectacular failures, but I kept on trying. The more failures, the sweeter the success when you finally nail it!
 
Wow, how do we get into these super old threads? 2006. It's been a while. Lots of people who posted then are gone.
 
This thread will be of interest to anyone who is interested in making sushi at home. One more thing, any proteins used for sushi must be frozen to a certain temperature for a prescribed time to kill any parasites that might be in that protein. So sushi grade ahi tuna from your supermarket is as good as the proteins found in restaurant sushi. Your salmon, tuna, swordfish, whatever, will be just as good.

The key to cutting the rolls is a sharp knife, and the ability to cut straight up, and down. This can be done with a chiseled edge knife, a standard bevel edge, a convex edge, etc. Take a few practice cuts on celery, carrots, raw potatoes to get you skills honed. Wet the knife between cuts. you'll quickly learn to slice with your knife.

Part of the rice stickiness comes from adding the vinegar, and mirin to the rice.
nori (seaweed) is often used to add flavor, and makes rolling the sushi easier. It isn't required though. Personally, I'm not crazy about the flavor of nori. And not all sushi requires seafood. It can include cooked seafood such as shredded crab, lobster, scallops, shrimp, smoked salmon, lox, etc. You could even use pancetta if you wanted.

Don't be intimidated by sushi. The pros want it to seem like you have to go to their place to get great sushi. If everyone made it at home, they wouldn't make any money. It's not all that difficult.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
Having made several kinds of ceviche and coctel del mariscos, with the raw fish or shellfish marinated in lime juice, I wonder if the technique might be applied to sushi, sashimi, etc.
 
Interesting thought. As someone who doesn’t really care for raw fish (my preferred sushi is cooked crab, scallops, and shrimp), I think the acidity of ceviche might be a bit overwhelming. Give it a try and let us know!
 
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