I am on a sushi kick and really want to try making some at home this weekend with avacado, carrots, and cucumber (I can nix the cucumber if it becomes too cumbersome). Does anyone have experience with this? Should I buy a sushi kit or just get the mat, rice vinegar and nori separately? I know I should use short-grain rice, but beyond that is there special “sushi rice” I should use?
Also, every guide online I’ve seen (a grand total of 3) states that one should roll the mat with the nori inside, and then the next step is “cut sushi.” But I"m not clear on how one extricates the completed roll from the mat.
Any further tips, like common sushi-making mistakes and how to avoid them, would also be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
The sushi mat doesn’t need any extricating-- it works sort of like. . have you ever, um, watched a friend roll a joint? It’s like that. The mat lets you apply even pressure to make everything a nice shape. Like a cigarette rolling device. It doesn’t get really wrapped up with the nori.
They make kits? Skip it.
Get some calrose rice-- just basic shortgrain white rice. The cucumber shouldn’t be difficult to work with at all. I wet the far end of the nori when I start to finish rolling so that it seals the roll-- it’s a bit adhesive.
Don’t skip the step where they suggest that you cool the rice down by sort of folding it with a spoon while cutting in the vinegar. If you try to work with the rice when it’s still hot the nori will buckle and shrink.
Don’t try inside-out rolls yet. They’re a bit of a PITA and IMO not worth the extra effort.
Wrap your mat in Saran-Wrap as sometimes the rice oozes out of the nori and sticks.
Buy good quality nori (usually the most expensive). Cheap nori is brittle and will crack when you try to roll it. If you roll it tight enough on itself, when you unroll the mat, you should have a freed roll ready to cut.
Cut your vegetables fairly thinly - you will have more fun wrapping up three or four sticks of carrots than one big chunk.
Buy the best quality fish you can afford. Trust me.
Wait until the rice is fully cooled before adding in your rice vinegar. As long as you have a good quality short-grain Japanese rice, you should be fine. I pre-boil my vinegar with the sugar and salt to make sure it is all fully integrated instead of just adding the ingredients separately and potentially getting a sugar grain or salt grain in the taste. I don’t own a wooden hangiri for preparing my rice, but I do make sure to not use a metal bowl (I use clay) as I think the metal reacts to the vinegar and gives an off-taste to the rice.
Well, I was raised a vegetarian and only in the past couple of months have started eating any meat at all. I enjoy fish when I purchase it outside, but am not really familiar enough with purchasing and storing and cooking (although I know that sometimes sushi has raw fish) fish to use it in my own sushi.
For fish-type fillings that are a little less intimidating, you can use smoked salmon, cooked (canned) crab, or even pre-cooked eel, which you can find in the frozen section of an asian grocery store.
Put a lot LESS rice on the nori than you think. It shouldn’t be a completely solid layer – there should be some spots where you can see the nori.
There’s a knack to getting a perfectly round, well sealed roll – luckily if you make mistakes you can eat the evidence.
