How To Make Sushi

Sushi, a popular Japanese dish, is something that even the most daring cooks hesitate to prepare at home. Perhaps it’s the raw fish, or perhaps the delicacy of preparing it is daunting. Whatever it may be, the Japanese dish is, in fact, perfect for when you are short on time and need to impress! It’s healthy, requires little preparation, and is prepared fresh. If you want to learn how to make sushi at home, look no further!

Essentially, sushi is made of a filling (“neta”), rice (“shari”), and seaweed (“nori”). The filling can be any vegetable or meat; some popular choices are cucumbers, scallions, avocado, cream cheese, crab meat, smoked salmon, shrimp tempura, and tuna. As for the rice, the type of rice used in sushi is very specific—Japanese short-grain sushi rice—and it’s prepared in a vinegar solution called shari-zu .

If you have a favorite roll, look up the filling ingredients in advance. For instance, the Philadelphia Roll is made of salmon, cream cheese, and cucumber or avocado. That said, you can let your culinary creativity soar when you’re learning how to make sushi and experiment with any filling you want, whether it be chicken or mushrooms.

7 Steps To Making Sushi

1. Rinse the rice thoroughly until the water runs clear and prepare it as you would normally cook it.

2. While the rice is cooking, prepare the shari-zu (sugar, salt, and rice vinegar) by cooking the ingredients in a saucepan on low heat until the sugar granules dissolve. Let the vinegar mixture sit until it reaches room temperature.

3. Mix the cooked rice and shari-zu together. Let the rice cool to room temperature.

4. While the rice cools, prepare your fillings. Part of learning how to prepare sushi is learning to julienne the vegetables , pick the crab meat for bits of shell, slice the fish into pieces that are 4 inches long and 1/4 inch thick pieces, and–if you are planning to use tuna–scrape the meat off the sinews with a knife.

5. Take a sheet of seaweed, placing the shiny side down on a bamboo mat. Wet your hands with water and spread half a cup of sushi rice onto the seaweed until an even layer covers all but a small border at the top edge.

6. Add the fillings along the center of the rice. Start rolling the bamboo mat away from you, applying a even and light pressure to ensure the roll stays compact.

7. Remove the roll from the bamboo mat, and cut the roll into 8 segments using a sharp knife.

Tips

When it comes to sushi filling, less is more. As a rule of thumb: One pound of filling makes ten rolls.

When slicing the sushi rolls, moisten your knife to prevent tearing.

If you are using raw fish as your filling, it should be frozen for at least one day to kill any parasites.

To make room for more filling, you can flip the seaweed over after layering it with the rice (after step 5), so that the shiny side with the rice layer is facing the bamboo mat. The end result will be a roll with rice on the outside and all fillings on the inside.

Now that you know how to make sushi, be sure to serve it with wasabi, pickled ginger, soy sauce, and spicy mayo .