Sushi or 寿司 is rice mixed with vinegar. What we commonly know in the west as "Sushi" is actually Makisushi, where Maki refers to "rolled" and "sushi" being the vinegar rice, hence Makizushi means "rolled vinegar rice". Theres many other shapes using sushi though, and theres many fillings to use, so adjust ingredients to your own liking, add steamed aspargus, aubergine/eggplant, shiitake mushrooms, daikon, natto, radish, fresh cilantro and mint, roasted veggies of any kind and really theres no restrictions, as long as you like the ingredients.
Roll types:
- Hosomaki - small rolls made from ½ a nori sheet, with just 1 ingredient inside, fx avocado, cucumber or tofu.
- Futomaki - bigger rolls using the entire nori sheet, with many ingredients inside of your liking.
- Uramaki - medium sized rolls, similar to futomaki, but rolled inside out so the rice is visible on the outside, sprinkled with black or golden sesame seeds.
- Nigiri - an oblong shaped ball of rice, with 1 ingredient laid on top, fx avocado, cucumber or tofu, optionally add a small belt of nori wrapped around it to secure the topping, and add a seaweed flavour.
- Gunkan maki - similar to nigiri, but with an added sheet of tofu around its rice base, forming a ship.
- Temaki - a cone shape made of nori, filled with rice and the ingredients you like.
- Onigiri - a big traingle shaped rice sandwich, with a filling inside covered by the rice. Wrapped intirely in nori sheets or with a rectangular shapes nori sheet on one side of the triangle.
Serves 9-11 rolls
Ingredients
Rice
- 500g sushi rice (1.1 lbs or 2 cups)
- 790 ml water (3 1/3 cups)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 3 tablespoons mirin
- 120 ml rice vinegar (½ cup)
Filling ideas (optional how much you like)
- 9-11 seaweed sheets
- 1-2 packs of tofu
- Tofu inari pockets
- 1-2 carrots
- 1 avocado
- 1 handful sprouts
- 2-3 stalks of spring onions
- ½ mango
- ½ cucumber
- ½ red bell pepper
- ½ red onion
- A few radishes
- Sesame seeds (golden or black)
Dippings and sides (optional)
- Wasabi
- Pickled ginger
- Soy sauce (4 parts soy sauce + 1 part mirin + 1 part water)
- Teriyaki sauce
- Hoisin sauce
- Nuac Cham Chay Sauce
What you will need
- A sushi mat covered in saran wrap
- 1 pot and spoon to stir
- A non stainless steel dish and wooden spoon
- A non stainless steel bowl for vinegar and sugar
- Chopsticks
Instructions
Rice
- Add the sushi rice, water and salt to a medium sized pot. Put on a tight fitting lid and bring to a boil. Dont lift the lid at any time of preparation. When boiling, bring to a simmer on low for 8 minutes or so. Turn of the heat, and let sit for at least 20 minutes, 30 minutes is great.
- Add the vinegar, mirin and sugar to a bowl and mix. Use any bowl and spoon that is not stainless steel, as stainless steel reacts with the rice vinegar and gives it an off flavour. Use fx a glass/ceramic bowl and a wooden spoon. Microwave the mixture for about a minute, then mix again with the wooden spoon to fully dissolve the sugar.
- Add the cooked rice to a non stainless steel dish, fx a big ceramic pie tart dish or ceramic dish for lasagna etc. just big and wide so the rice wont fall out, and big enough to flip the rice. Fluff up the rice, pour the vinegar mix over the rice and mix well with a wooden spoon. Cover with saran wrap and refridgerate until use.
Fillings
- Chop any fresh vegetables you have into long thin sticks.
- Bake or fry pan any vegetables or other ingredients that you like, fx asparagus, aubergine, tofu, snap peas etc.
- Soak any dried shiitake mushrooms or other dried goods if you have them, and prepare as you please.
- Use any pickled or preserved ingredients as you like: diakon, umeboshi etc.
- Just add anything you like, but if possible, in long thin sticks for easy filling and rolling.
Rolling Makisushi
- Take a sushi bamboo mat and cover it in saran wrap. This with prevent the sticky sushi to stick to the mat. The mat should be placed with the lines horizontally in front of you, so you roll it towards or away from yourself, not to the side.
- Prepare a bowl with water for your hands, dip the hands in the water whenever you wanna work with the rice, as the rice wont stick all over your hands, but is easy to spread on the nori sheets.
- Futomaki / Put the seaweed sheet on the mat, spread a thin layer of rice, leaving about 2 centimetre or 1 inch space with no rice at the top. Place your fillings of choice in a long row horizontally on top of the rice. Wet the seaweed part without the rice, this acts as a glue. Roll the mat on top of your fillings and squeeze tightly to keep the ingredients in place, then keep rolling until you have no more left and squeeze tight again. Your roll is done, cut with a very sharp knife.
- Hosomaki / Same method as the futomaki roll, but use 1/2 a nori sheet and 1 ingredient.
- Uramaki / Spread the rice on the mat, then add the nori sheet on top, leaving about 2 centimetre or 1 inch space without any rice under the nori sheet. Add the fillings on top on a horizontal line, wet the seaweed and roll while squeezing the ingredients. Sprinkle with black or golden sesame seeds and cut.
Make all the different rolls as you like, not all rolls have to be the same, or with the same fillings. Often there’s less filling in some rolls and some rolls have more filling. Alternatively make nigiri, gunkan maki, temaki or onigiri as well, so you have a variety of shapes.
Enjoy !
