Sushi at Home
Cooking Skills: Rice 2
Chapter 2 · Sushi at Home
Shopping list for this chapter
The basics
Sushi is rice, a filling and (usually) nori seaweed, nothing more. The craft is in the rice, which you've done in chapter 1, and in the handling: wet hands, a light touch, a sharp knife. Everything is much easier if you set up first: a bowl of water with a splash of vinegar for your fingers, a board, a very sharp wet knife, and your fillings cut and ready.
| Type | What it is | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| Chirashi | Toppings scattered over a bowl of sushi rice | Easiest |
| Inari | Sushi rice in a sweet tofu pocket | Easy |
| Temaki (hand roll) | A nori cone you fill and eat at once | Easy |
| Maki | A rolled log of rice and filling wrapped in nori, sliced | Takes practice |
In this chapter the fish is cooked or hot-smoked, not raw. Hot-smoked salmon is the soft, flaky kind sold ready to eat (not the thin cold-smoked slices). Raw fish is covered in the box after the recipes.
Try it
Hand rolls (temaki)
The easiest sushi, and the most fun. Everything is laid out on the table and each person rolls their own cone. Nori goes soft quickly, so roll and eat at once.
Ingredients (2 portions)
- 160 g seasoned sushi rice, made in chapter 1 (a bit under half the batch)
- 2 nori sheets, each cut in half
- 5 cm cucumber, cut into thin sticks
- ½ ripe avocado, sliced
- 60 g hot-smoked salmon (flaky, ready to eat), in strips
- 1 tsp sesame seeds
- 2 tbsp reduced-salt soy sauce, for dipping
- 1 tsp wasabi paste
- 1 tbsp pickled ginger
- Lay out the rice, fillings, soy sauce, wasabi and ginger on the table. Keep the nori in a bag or box until needed.
- Hold a half-sheet of nori shiny side down, in your left palm (right if you're left-handed). Spread about 40 g of rice over the left third, leaving the rest bare.
- Lay a little cucumber, avocado and salmon on a diagonal across the rice, sprinkle sesame seeds on top.
- Fold the bottom-left corner up and over the filling, then roll it into a cone. Seal the end with a grain of rice. Eat immediately, dipping in soy sauce with a touch of wasabi.
Maki rolls: cucumber and avocado, salmon and cucumber
Maki are the classic rolls, with the nori on the outside. The first one is the hardest, the second is fine, and by the third you've got it.
Ingredients (2 portions)
- 240 g seasoned sushi rice (the rest of a 400 g batch from chapter 1)
- 2 nori sheets
- 5 cm cucumber, cut into long thin sticks
- ½ ripe avocado, sliced
- 60 g hot-smoked salmon, in strips
- 1 bamboo rolling mat, wrapped in cling film (or a clean tea towel and cling film)
- 1 small bowl of water with a splash of rice vinegar, for your fingers
- 2 tbsp reduced-salt soy sauce, to serve
- 1 tbsp pickled ginger and wasabi, to serve
- Lay the mat on the board with the slats running across you, cling film on top. Put a nori sheet on it, shiny side down.
- Wet your fingers. Spread 120 g of rice evenly over the nori with a gentle patting motion, leaving a 2 cm strip bare at the far edge.
- Lay your filling in a line across the middle of the rice (cucumber and avocado for the first roll, salmon and cucumber for the second). Don't overfill.
- Lift the edge of the mat nearest you and roll it up and over the filling, tucking the edge in firmly. Keep rolling, pressing gently, until you reach the bare strip. Dab the strip with water to seal.
- Wet a very sharp knife, and cut the roll in half, then each half into three. Wipe and re-wet the blade between cuts. Serve with soy, ginger and wasabi.
Inari pockets
Sweet-savoury tofu pockets, sold ready seasoned, filled with sushi rice. They're about the easiest sushi there is.
Ingredients (2 portions)
- 150 g seasoned sushi rice
- 6 ready-made seasoned tofu pockets (inari age), from a pack or tin
- 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
- 1 tbsp pickled ginger, finely chopped
- 30 g cooked edamame beans or peas
- Fold the sesame seeds, ginger and edamame through the rice.
- Gently squeeze each pocket to remove excess liquid and open it with your fingers.
- Fill each with about 25 g of rice, pressing it into the corners, and fold the flap over. Serve flap side down.
Chirashi bowl
"Scattered sushi": a bowl of sushi rice with toppings arranged on top. All the flavour of sushi with none of the technique.
Ingredients (1 portion)
- 175 g seasoned sushi rice
- 60 g cooked peeled prawns
- 1 medium egg, beaten
- 1 tsp oil
- 5 cm cucumber, thinly sliced
- ¼ ripe avocado, sliced
- ½ nori sheet, cut into thin strips with scissors
- 1 tsp sesame seeds
- 1 tsp pickled ginger
- 1 tsp reduced-salt soy sauce
- Beat the egg. Heat the oil in a small non-stick pan over a medium heat, pour in the egg and swirl to make a thin omelette. Cook for 1 minute, until set, slide it out and let it cool, then roll up and slice into thin ribbons.
- Put the rice in a wide bowl. Arrange the prawns, egg ribbons, cucumber and avocado in sections on top.
- Scatter over the nori strips and sesame seeds, add the ginger, and drizzle with the soy sauce.
Every recipe above uses cooked or hot-smoked fish. To use raw fish instead, leave out the cooking: lay thin slices of raw fish where the cooked fish goes. Where raw fish needs something different, it is said below. Raw fish carries more risk than cooked fish, so read this before you decide.
Who should avoid raw fish: the Food Standards Agency lists pregnant women, children under 5, people aged 65 and over, and anyone with a weakened immune system (for example from illness or treatment) as more vulnerable to food poisoning. They should not eat it raw.
When buying:
- Buy from a fishmonger or supermarket fish counter you trust, tell them it is for eating raw, and ask them directly. "Sushi-grade" is a marketing phrase, not a legal standard in the UK, and does not guarantee anything.
- Parasites: for fish that is sold to be eaten raw, UK rules for food businesses require freezing to -20°C or colder for at least 24 hours (or -35°C for 15 hours), because that kills parasites such as anisakis worms. Farmed Atlantic salmon is exempt from this requirement, as the way it is reared leaves a minimal parasite risk. Wild fish is not exempt. A home freezer is usually about -18°C and not reliably cold enough, so the safest choice is fish sold as suitable for eating raw, or one your fishmonger confirms has been frozen to the standard. Don't rely on freezing it yourself.
- Look for fresh-looking fish: firm, springy flesh that bounces back when pressed, a clean, mild smell of the sea (not "fishy" or sour), bright translucent colour, no brown edges, no slime, no pooled liquid in the pack. If whole, eyes should be clear and bright.
- Buy it last on your shopping trip, keep it cold (an insulated bag with an ice pack) and get it into the fridge straight away. Use it the same day, or the next day at the latest.
- Salmon and tuna are the usual choices for beginners. Avoid raw shellfish.
When making:
- Keep the fish in the fridge until the moment you slice it, and put the slices back in the fridge until you assemble.
- Use a clean board and a very sharp knife that are only used for raw fish; wash them, your hands and the work surface in hot soapy water afterwards. Cut with long, single strokes, about 5 mm thick, across the grain.
- Make the rice first and let it cool to room temperature before the fish touches it. Warm rice warms the fish.
- Assemble last and eat at once. Don't leave raw fish sushi out for more than an hour, and don't keep leftovers: throw them away.
- Check each slice as you cut, and discard anything with a worm, a strong smell, or a slimy surface.
Changes to the recipes: in hand rolls, maki and chirashi, use raw fish instead of the smoked salmon (about 60 g) and prawns; no other change is needed. Smoked salmon is salty, so raw fish makes the roll blander and you may want a little more soy sauce, wasabi or ginger. Inari and onigiri are not suitable for raw fish.
Experiments
How much rice
Most beginners use too much rice.
- Make three cucumber maki rolls with 80 g, 120 g and 160 g of rice.
- Slice and compare the rolls, noting how easy each is to roll, how it looks and how it tastes.
Look for: At 160 g the nori is hard to close and the roll is mostly rice. At 80 g the filling is easier to taste. 120 g is the usual starting point.
Toasted nori
Does toasting the seaweed matter?
- Take two nori sheets. Wave one briefly (about 5 seconds each side) over a gas flame or on a dry hot frying pan until it turns slightly greener and crisp.
- Use each to make a hand roll and eat them at once.
Look for: The toasted nori is crisper and more fragrant, the untoasted is chewy.
Wet knife or dry knife
How do you cut a roll without squashing it?
- Roll two identical maki. Cut one with a dry knife and one with a knife dipped in water between every cut.
- Compare the cut ends.
Look for: The dry knife drags and squashes the rice. A sharp, wet knife slides through. If neither works, your knife needs sharpening.
With a mat or without
Do you need a bamboo mat?
- Roll one maki on a bamboo mat and one on a sheet of cling film or a clean, thin tea towel.
Look for: The film does the same job as the mat. Use whichever is easier to keep clean.
Tasting notes
| What I tried | Method or amount | What I saw | What I thought | Will I do it again? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hand rolls | ||||
| Cucumber and avocado maki | ||||
| Salmon and cucumber maki | ||||
| Inari pockets | ||||
| Chirashi bowl | ||||
| Amount of rice | ||||
| Toasted nori | ||||
| Wet vs dry knife |
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Roll falls apart | Too much rice or filling, or rolled too loosely | Use less of both; tuck the edge in tightly at the first turn |
| Nori tears | Rice too wet or nori damp | Pat the rice drier; keep the nori away from steam |
| Nori is chewy and tough | Old or humid nori, or the roll stood too long | Store nori sealed; eat rolls soon after making |
| Rice sticks to the knife | Dry knife | Wet the blade before every cut |
| Rice is hard and cold | Rice came straight from the fridge | Let it return to room temperature before rolling |
| Filling falls out of the ends | Overfilled, or not centred | Keep the filling to a thin line in the middle |
- I can make a hand roll and a maki roll.
- I can use a wet knife to cut a roll cleanly.
- I can make a chirashi bowl without any rolling.
- I know the signs of fresh fish and the parasite and freezing rules before using it raw.
- I know who should not eat raw fish.