Home-made Sushi

Posted byJeanri VersterPosted inRecipesTags:, , ,

A basic version of the ever popular Japanese delight. For best results, sushi should be assembled shortly before serving. Refrigerate after making and use within a few hours if raw fish is used or a day if cooked crab sticks or smoked salmon or trout was used.  For those who do not enjoy Nori (seaweed paper), turn the ingredients into a delicious Sushi Salad.

Rice
200 g / 250 ml sushi rice
water to cover and rinse
375 ml water
30 ml sushi vinegar (see the recipe for home-made sushi vinegar below)

Filling ingredients
½ English cucumber, cut into fine strips
± 100 g crab sticks and/or fresh raw fish such as tuna or salmon, cut into thin strips
± 100 g blanched carrot, cut into thin strips ( 1 medium or 2 small carrots)
± 100 g firm ripe avocado, peeled and cut into strips (optional)

Egg pancake (part of the filling ingredients)
2 large eggs
5 ml castor sugar
1 ml salt
10 ml cake flour
10 ml oil for frying 

To roll
4 sheets nori (dried seaweed)
bamboo sushi mat

To serve
soy sauce (Japanese is excellent)
wasabi (Japanese horseradish)
pickled ginger

  1. Place the rice into a saucepan, cover with water and soak a few minutes. Stir with the fingers and drain.
  2. Add the 375ml water and salt and bring to boil. Reduce the heat to simmering, cover with a tight fitting lid and simmer about 15 minutes or until all the water has been absorbed.
  3. Place a clean kitchen cloth over the saucepan, cover tightly with the lid and allow to stand 15 minutes to complete steaming.
  4. To make the egg pancake, beat the eggs in a cup.
  5. Combine the castor sugar, salt and flour in a small jug and, using a whisk, beat in the egg. Beat together very well until smooth.
  6. Heat the oil in a small, preferably non-stick shallow pan and add the egg mixture.
  7. Cook over gentle heat until set, loosen carefully, turn over and cook briefly on the other side. Turn out, cool and cut into strips.
  8. Turn out the rice into a wide shallow dish to allow quick cooling and sprinkle the vinegar mixture over the rice. Separate the grains with a knife or fork while the rice is cooling. Cover with a cloth until ready to use.
  9. Pour a little vinegar into a small dish to moisten the fingers while working. Lay out the bamboo mat or perforated cloth onto the work surface and place a sheet of nori, coarse side upwards onto the mat.
  10. Dip a spoon into the rice vinegar and spoon and spread 200 to 250 ml of the cooked rice onto the nori, covering the width completely but allowing 2 cm at the top edge uncovered.
  11. Arrange strips of filling ingredients in a neat, tight line horizontally across the centre of the rice.
  12. Spread a little wasabi over the filling for flavour if preferred.
  13. Moisten the top edge of the nori with a little water and using the mat, roll up the sushi away from you, pressing and rolling as you go, making a firm neat roll surrounded by the mat .
  14. Repeat the process until all the rolls have been made.
  15. Cut each of the sushi rolls into 8 sections and place the rolls on their cut sides on a serving plate.
  16. Serve the sushi with small bowls of pickled ginger, wasabi and soy sauce for dipping.

32 pieces, depending on the thickness of the slices.

Home-made Sushi Vinegar
3 ml salt
30 ml castor sugar
50 ml Japanese rice vinegar 

  1. Mix the castor sugar and rice vinegar in a small jug to allow the sugar to melt.

Notes

  • Use tinned tuna chunks or smoked salmon
  • Vegetarian sushi – make delicious sushi with vegetable ingredients only.
Sushi rice ingredients: water, sushi rice and sushi vinegar
Place the rice in a sieve that fits in a mixing bowl.
Rinse the rice under running water until the water runs clear.
Place the sieve with the rise in the mixing bowl and fill the mixing bowl with water. Soak the rice for 15 minutes.
Bring the rice and water to a boil. Turn down the heat to a simmer, close with a lid and cook for 15 minutes.
The rice is cooked and ready to be mixed with the sushi vinegar. Cover the saucepan with a clean kitchen cloth , cover tightly with the lid and allow to stand 15 minutes to complete steaming.
Divide the cooked rice between two large containers to speed up cooling.
Use a nori sheet as is (this is recommended for beginner sushi makers).
Cut the nori sheet in half and work with one piece of nori at a time (this is recommended for more experienced sushi makers).
DIvide the sushi vinegar between the rice and mix it through gently – don’t squish the rice!
Spread the rice out over the surface of the container after mixing in the sushi vinegar and set it aside to cool.
Take about a handful of the cooked rice and spread it evenly over the nori sheet. Leave the top 1 cm of the nori sheet without rice.
Place a sushi mat on top of the nori and invert it onto a 2nd sushi mat so that the nori sheet is facing up.
Place the filling ingredients of your choice, e.g. cucumber, carrot, avo, smoked salmon, etc. in neat rows down the middle of the nori.
Roll the nori with the help of the mat and remove the sushi mat. Tidy up the ends before you cut the roll into 8 sections.
Cut the sushi roll into 8 bite-sized pieces with a cook’s knife (wet the knife’s blade with water before every cut)
Place the sushi with the cut side up on a serving plate and serve with soya sauce.
This is an example of what it looks like if a full nori sheet is used with the rice up.
Sushi using a full nori sheet with the nori on the outside.
Sushi using a full nori sheet with the rice on the outside, i.e. Inside-out sushi.