Categories: Asian

Ingredients

• You will need:
• bamboo rolling mat
• rice paddle
• super sharp knife
• water in a bowl
• a WET dishtowel
• Ingredients:
• Nori (dried seaweed sheets; check the asian section)
• Koshihikari (sushi rice, you can find with the specialty rices in most food stores)
• seasoned rice wine vinegar
• fillings, such as cream cheese and salmon, cucumber cut long and thin, avacado, imitation crab meat.
• Gari (pickled ginger), optional
• wasabi (optional)
• high end soy sauces, such as Kikomann
• sesame seeds or salmon/flying fish roe (salmon roe is SALTY AS HELL, flying fish is smaller and more palatable)
• I used cream cheese and salmon (buy GOOD salmon, trust me) for my filling for the first few times I tried to make them. After you get the hang of it, you can start trying more adventurous stuff...

Directions

1. Prepare the sushi rice according to the package. (Usually, 1 cup of THOROUGHLY rinsed rice, 1 1/4? cup of water, bring to boil cover and let simmer COVERED for 20 minutes. Remove from heat, let stand 10 minutes, covered. Remove to non-metallic bowl and stir in 2 tbls of rice wine vinegar)

2. Place the nori on the bamboo rolling mat. It will probably try to curl. Take a scoop of rice with the paddle and slap it on there. It won’t try to curl any more. Gently work the rice across the nori, leaving 1/2 inch at top for rolling and sealing. Add rice as needed, but try to keep the rice layer thin. Spread to the edges, save that top one.

3. At edge closest to you, make a small gully with the paddle. Lay the filling in here, making sure to go edge to edge.

4. Move the edge of the nori/rice sheet to the edge of the bamboo mat. With your fingers, hold in the filling and roll up the bamboo mat, tucking in the filing as you get around to the first roll, and rolling the mat back as you go. (It sounds weird, but you’ll see what I mean when you do it.)

5. Before completely rolling up the nori, gently touch the edge of the exposed nori with water, then finish rolling. Roll on the counter a few time wrapped in the bamboo; this helps it to all stick together.

6. place the sushi roll on a cutting board. Wet the blade of a REALLY sharp, long knife, and with one back stroke, cut the sushi about 1 to 1 1/2 inches from the end. This is where the ART of sushi comes in. I STILL can’t do this back stroke thing, but if you wipe your blade every time and wet it, you can still make it look good.

7. Arrange artfully on dish, sprinkle gentle with either sesame or roe, and enjoy with ginger, wasabi and soy sauce!

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