Homemade sushi

Sushi is a traditional Japanese dish, whose basis is rice combined with vegetables, seafood or fish. The most commonly used types of fish in sushi are raw salmon and tuna. Pickled ginger, soy sauce and wasabi, otherwise known as Japanese horseradish are all used for serving.

Depending on the shape and ingredients used, we distinguish multiple types of sushi, such as maki, nigiri, uramaki, hosomaki, futomaki, gunkan maki or even kaburamaki. For example, maki is rice shaped into a roll, filled with vegetables or vegetables and fish or seafood. The whole thing is wrapped in nori, i.e. dried sea algae. A bamboo mat is used to precisely wrap and roll the rice with the ingredients. The mat makes it easy to achieved the desired roll shape and by using it you can make sure that the ingredients stay inside the nori.

Rice is the basis of every sushi. It must be properly cooked and seasoned. In addition to salt and sugar, rice vinegar should be used to season the rice. As for the rice itself, there are many varieties at the supermarkets. Which rice should be used for sushi? Rice with short, round or oval grains is the best for sushi, such as mobilimai or mochigome. This type of rice is quite sticky once cooked, so its grains easily combine into a whole and after rolling the sushi they do not fall apart.

Today’s recipe is for maki sushi, for which I used cream cheese, avocado, cucumber and crab sticks, i.e. surimi. I served the sushi traditionally with ginger, wasabi and soy sauce. What additives you use in your sushi depends only on you.

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Ingredients for sushi.

• 200 g sushi rice
• 340 g water
• 25 ml rice vinegar
• 1 full teaspoon of crystal sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon of salt
• nori sheet
• 2,5 surimi sticks
• 1,5tablespoon of cream cheese
• 1/2 avocado
• small piece of fresh cucumber

Additionally: bamboo sushi rolling mat

How to make homemade sushi.

Put the rice into a bowl, pour cold water over it and set it aside for 5 minutes. Then rinse, pour out the water and pour in clean one. All together, change the water and rinse the rice 3-4 times.

Pour water (340 g) into a pot, put it on a heat and bring it to boil. When the water starts boiling, add the rinsed rice. Stir, reduce the heat to very low and simmer for 18 minutes.

Put sugar, salt and vinegar into a bowl. Heat it in the microwave for a few seconds, then stir until the sugar dissolves.

Remove the cooked rice from the heat, and set it aside for 15 minutes, covered. After that, transfer it into a large bowl, add the vinegar combined with sugar and salt and mix thoroughly using a wooden spoon. Set it aside to cool it down a bit – the rice should be lukewarm when forming the sushi.

Cut the unpeeled cucumber into strips, peel the avocado and cut it into small quarters. Remove the surimi from the foil, leave in a piece.

Place the bamboo mat on a kitchen counter. Place a sheet of nori on the mat with its shiny side downwards, then cover it thoroughly with rice, leaving a 1.5 cm wide strip empty on one of the long sides. The rice will stick to your fingers, so it is worth having a bowl with cold water on the side to rinse your fingers in it from time to time. In the center of the nori sheet, spread the cream cheese along the long side and place the cucumber, avocado and crab sticks next to each other on it. Grab the mat’s end completely covered with rice and gently begin rolling the whole thing into a roll, while carefully pressing it. Once done, cut the roll into two parts with a sharp knife then cut each of the created halves into four pieces. Keep the sushi in the fridge before serving.

Good to know when making sushi.

The nori sheet I used was 20 by 18.5 centimetres. I got 8 large sushi rolls out of the ingredients in the recipe. If you want to make more rolls, divide the nori into two parts. This way you will get 16 pieces of slightly smaller sushi rolls. The amount of rice will be enough for 16 pieces but you will need more cucumber, avocado and surimi.

In general, it is not recommended to stir the rice when cooking. I admit stirred it once because I was a bit afraid that it would burn. Depending on the pot you use, you might want to stir it just once if you feel that the rice would burn but otherwise it is not necessary. If you can, use a pot with a non-stick coating.

Do you like dishes made with rice? If so, try our recipe for Rice pudding with strawberries.