Making Sushi

[redfox]

I wouldn't recommend it. Sushi isn't a good make-ahead dish, because refrigerated rice gets unpleasantly hard.

[torakris]

sushi, especially the rice, should never be refrigerated, like redfox says the grains will become hard and unpleasant.

You can make it a couple hours in advance and keep it in a bowl covered with a wet towel, you can have all of the topping prepared ahead of time as well and just throw them together at the last moment.

In case anyone is looking for some ideas for vegetarian sushi topping here is a nice list with quite a few pictures:

http://rgmjapan.tripod.com/VEGETARIANSUSHI.html

[Cornellrob]

here in new york, when eating out sushi, i've noticed that at some of the higher end places, the so-called soy sauce doesn't really taste like soy sauce. it's too light in flavor and a little sweeter than soy sauce.

can anyone confirm what better places will use - whether it's soy sauce or some type of special preparation with soy sauce as the base?

at least a few places that I can think of - like sushi yasuda - have the "soy sauce" already lightly dabbed on each piece of sushi. i guess to try and prevent people from soaking each piece.

[danjou]

Hi,

Mr. Toshihisa Shimomachi, a sushi chef from Hokkaido ( Toyoken restaurant) who ran perhaps the best sushi bar in the Philippines, had a lighter, sweeter dipping sauce for sushi which was shoyu flavored with mirin and konbu, among other things.

For sashimi, he recommended plain shoyu.

[torakris]

Many sushi places do make their own "sauces" just like danjou described, hereis a recipe for one:

http://www.keepcookin.com/recipes/chefs/kumma/kumma01.html

scroll to the bottom of the page

[Hiroyuki]

In another thread, helenjp wrote:

I almost always buy fish or sashimi, and make edo-mae chirashi, or tegone-zushi, or sometimes aji-topped nigiri at home.

(Note: tegone = tegome?)

I like temaki-zushi. My favorite ingredients are:

1) Canned tuna mixed with mayo

2) Umeboshi paste + Yukari (aojiso furikake) + kani-kama (fake crab)

3) Atsuyaki-tamago (thick omelet)

What are your favorite homemade versions of sushi?

[torakris]

temaki is my favorite, it is a really economical way to feed sushi to my family. Here is a picture of a temaki dinner we ahd a little while ago, this is very typical.

The kids love it because they get to put whatever they want inside!

I do chirashi less frequently because my husband doesn't care for vinegared rice (I use plain unseasoned rice for temaki) but is is good for when you have a sushi craving but little money.

[Hiroyuki]

I forgot to mention that raw fish is optional in my version of temaki-zushi...

Your version is full of raw fish... and uni!!

[smallworld]

That spread looks great, Kristin- is that okra I see? Never tried that with sushi but it looks good.

My husband also prefers plain rice so I make just a little bit of sushi rice for me. And sometimes I put out some lettuce (the flat-leaf kind used for yakiniku) out along with the nori- makes an interesting variation.

One question for all you home sushi makers- do you use a special kind of soy sauce, and if so do you make it yourself?

[Hiroyuki]

One question for all you home sushi makers- do you use a special kind of soy sauce, and if so do you make it yourself?

As for my family, No, just regular soy sauce.

I have a question for torakris. Is your temaki always like that?

[torakris]

Yes this is a very typical temaki dinner for us.

Smallworld that green stuff in the middle is actually shishitou (Japanese small green peppers), I just happened to have a couple in the garden.

It was my first time to include them and I actually enjoyed it.

I try to add as many vegetables as possible as I can get a little uptight about things like that!

[torakris]

Looking back at the picture, I just realized that day we didn't have two things that we almost always have,

dashi-maki tamago (thick egg omelette)

and cucumbers

[Hiroyuki]

Yes this is a very typical temaki dinner for us.

You know what I'm thinking? I just envy you. But I have an excuse. My wife and my son don't care for raw fish.

Looking at your photo carefully, I found there is another important item missing--umeboshi paste! You know, the combination of umeboshi paste, ooba (aojiso), and fake crab is so goooood.

[Hiroyuki]

My question for all vinegared rice haters and their spouses- Have you ever tried citrus juice instead of vinegar?

[torakris]

My question for all vinegared rice haters and their spouses- Have you ever tried citrus juice instead of vinegar?

I sometimes make a sort of chirashi with lemon juice instead of vinegar and top it with smoked salmon, avocado and red onions.

and once I made a similar chiashi with sudachi (type of citrus) and sanma (saury pike), then agin I often make Italian style rice salads with lots of lemon juice and olive oil....

[Hiroyuki]

What do you do if you can't eat all of the raw fish you serve at tonight's supper? Here's a very good solution.

I thought that zuke was a dying technique for preserving raw fish until I saw a TV program yesterday morning. This program, Hanamaru Market, featured zuke, and made me realize that zuke is very versatile. It can be used to preserve not only seafood but also other foodstuffs. For example, to preserve what is left of the raw fish you serve tonight, prepare a mixture of soy sauce, sake, and hon mirin at the ratio of 1:1:1 and just soak the fish; it will keep for about three days.

More info about zuke later.

Hanamaru Market's website:

http://www.tbs.co.jp/hanamaru/

[jrufusj]

What do you do if you can't eat all of the raw fish you serve at tonight's supper? Here's a very good solution.

I thought that zuke was a dying technique for preserving raw fish until I saw a TV program yesterday morning. This program, Hanamaru Market, featured zuke, and made me realize that zuke is very versatile. It can be used to preserve not only seafood but also other foodstuffs. For example, to preserve what is left of the raw fish you serve tonight, prepare a mixture of soy sauce, sake, and hon mirin at the ratio of 1:1:1 and just soak the fish; it will keep for about three days.

More info about zuke later.

Hanamaru Market's website:

http://www.tbs.co.jp/hanamaru/

About once every two weeks, I eat 鮪　づけ丼 (tuna zuke donburi) from Mitsukoshi. I know it is slightly older tuna and probably from lesser varieties of tuna, but at 500 yen it sure is cheap for a nice whopping big container of well-seasoned raw tuna. The version I get also includes a good dose of shiro goma and I'm a sucker for sesame in any form.

Actually, it's more of a ju than a don, but I've never seen any depachika call the square containers anything but "don" or "donburi".

Jim

[Hiroyuki]

I like zuke don too. My mother used to make it for me because she knew I liked it. We loosely called it tekka don 鉄火丼.

But the point is that the original purpose of zuke, preservation rather than seasoning, is all but forgotten today.

I suppose that with zuke don, the tuna is marinated in 1) soy sauce and 2) for a very short time, as in the following recipes:

http://japanesefood.about.com/cs/rice/a/magurozukedon.htm

(English)

Soaking time: not specified

http://www2.ocn.ne.jp/~wacancan/002_wakuan/003_dukedon.htm

(Japanese only)

Soaking time: 10 min.

1) As for edomae-zushi, tuna is soaked in a combination of soy sauce with other ingredients such as sake, mirin, and dashi.

2) Some edomae-zushi shops soak tuna for half an hour before serving, but most soak it for three to five hours.

[Hiroyuki]

More info about zuke later.

Hanamaru Market's website:

http://www.tbs.co.jp/hanamaru/

I made tofu no zuke and cheese no zuke, following the recipes presented in the TV program, and I thought of starting a new thread on zuke if the results were good. Unfortunately, they were not as tasty as I had imagined; actually, I found both of them mazui (bad-tasting)!! Sorry to say this, but maybe you should limit the application of zuke to zuke don or something like that, or forget all about zuke...

(I'm sure you will enjoy tuna zuke (maguro no zuke) at an Edomae-zushi shop, though.)

[tektite]

my favorite to do at home is:

Natto no Nigiri (cant get the full natto flavor with maki) with chopped takuan and negi topped with uzura tamago yolk!

I could eat 20 of them in one sitting!

Edited June 16, 2004 by tektite (log)

[bentherebfor]

Alright, so I set in on my latest and greatest project in the kitchen: learning to make sushi. I bought a bamboo mat for rolling, and some nori that has been roasted and said "sushi nori" on it.

So far so good?

Okay, so I do have general knowledge on how to make sushi, but just in case, I logged onto the internet and watched the instructional video on www.foodtv.com

I found it helpful, yet after cooking up a batch of rice and spreading my ingredients, I simply could not get the sushi to form. First off, my nori doesnt seem to stick and seal when rolled. I tried "glueing" it with a little water, and that helped the problem a little. Overall, the sushi is very loose and not tightly rapped. Another possible problem in my eyes is the fact that I am not using sushi rice. I am using only basic white rice. Is this a problem? Or is it just my lack of experience? Am I doing something blatently wrong......and is there a place that offers good instruction?

Please help!

~Ben

[Yuki]

Don't use Jasmine, Uncle Ben, or Minute Rice. I would suggest getting some Japanese rice since they are more sticky. My mom don't add water when she is making rolls, she just press and hold them for a couple second.

[nessa]

Yep, its a problem. Sushi rice is a short grain and fairly sticky. Not to be confused with sweet rice wich is even stickier. Sushi rice maintains its grain shape but is tacky to the touch so it sticks to each other and to your nori so that you can press it and make it nice, dense and sliceable.

I use Kokuho Rose

Like this

and have also used Cal-Rose.

I'm no expert, but I've rolled a few of my own... Tee hee.

I do leave about a 1/2 inch margin of the nori on one side to seal. I use a teeny bit of water, and it works wonders. Too much makes it soggy, just right, makes the nori tacky enough to stick to itself.

Make sure the rice is cool before you put it on the seaweed or it will steam the seaweed and make it stcky and limp.

[origamicrane]

yep you best off getting hold of japanese short grain rice. And definitely don;t use any of those horrid non stick rices

I have used thai fragrant rice before

but you need to add more water then normal when you cook it

to make it more sticky.

Give this a shot

1. wash 3 cups of rice

2. soak the rice in water for 30 minutes.

3. then cook the rice in a rice cooker with 3 cups of water.

once rice is cooked and cooled used it as you done previously.

also one of the other reasons you roll might be loose is you have to have an even layer of rice on the nori and you filling might be too chunky.

Also once you finished rolling it is a good idea to hold it in its shape for a few seconds usually the residual heat and moisture from the rice will cause the nori to stick to itself and give it a gentle squeeze to compact the rice and filling together.

good luck next time.

[Exotic Mushroom]

Just to be clear - are you seasoning your rice? I wouldn't ask as it seems obvious, except that I have found in the past that people who have problems making sushi aren't actually making sushi (su (the vinegar treatment) + rice). That might be your problem. If you explain in more detail exactly what you did then I might be able to help you with what went wrong.