Feel like making your own sushi rolls but don’t know how? We tell you how to do it in 10 steps.
Ingredients for about 25 sushi rolls:
250 g sushi rice; sake (optional); 3 tbsp rice vinegar; 1 tsp salt; 2 tsp sugar; 3 sheets of nori seaweed; wasabi paste; 400 g raw fish (such as salmon or tuna) in thinly sliced strips; 1 cucumber cut into thin strips; Japanese soy sauce.
You’ll also need:
A heavy-bottomed saucepan with a tight-fitting lid; a small steel saucepan; a shallow bowl (non metal); a large bowl; a few small bowls; a bamboo rolling mat; a wooden spatula; a sharp knife.
- Rinse the rice in a large bowl of water by swirling it around with your hands an draining the murky water. Repeat twice.
- Bring the rice to a boil in 300 ml water. Cook the rice with the lid on the pan for three minutes on a high heat, then five minutes on a medium heat, and finally ten minutes on a low heat; all the water should be absorbed by now.
- Turn off the heat, add a dash of sake (for flavor) if you wish and let stand for ten minutes (covered).
- Meanwhile, heat the vinegar and salt in a steel saucepan; stir until the salt is dissolved. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved.
- Spoon the rice into a shallow dish. Make a small well in the middle and gradually add the vinegar mix.
- Using a wooden spatula, stir the rice until it reaches room temperature (waft a fan or magazine over it if necessary to cool).
- Lay a sheet of nori seaweed (shine side down) on the bamboo mat. Dip your fingers in a bowl of water with vinegar, scoop some rice into your hands, and cover the lower two-thirds of the sheet with it.
- Spread a small amount of wasabi across the middle of the rice from left to right. Lay strips of fish and cucumber on top of the wasabi.
- Using the bamboo mat, roll the nori sheet tightly from bottom to top, pressing firmly as you roll. Seal the end of the nori sheet using a little bit of water.
- Slice the roll with a sharp (wet) knife to create 2cm sushi rolls. Serve immediately with soy sauce and wasabi.
Text Caroline Buijs Illustratie Louise Lockhart
