Sushi Made Simple

Homemade California Rolls

First off, I have to say that I am not a sushi chef.  California rolls are one of the simplest types of sushi you can make, and I could barely pull those off.  But I will also say that making your own sushi doesn’t have to be terribly complicated as long as you have a nice sheet or two of yaki nori (roasted nori) seaweed, a little bamboo rolling mat (very helpful), good-quality ingredients to put inside, and very dry hands.  (Wet hands stick to the nori.)  Most packages of nori have illustrations on the back showing you each step of the sushi-rolling process; from there, it’s really a matter of grabbing the bull by the horns — or the crab by the claws — and getting hands-on practice.  The good news is that your sushi will taste great even if it would never pass a first-day-sushi-trainee inspection.

For this batch, I cooked brown rice and mixed it with a tiny hint of rice vinegar (sushi rice often has sugar as well, but I don’t like things very sweet).  Then I added a few slices of avocado and some canned crabmeat and carefully rolled up the nori sheet, gently compacting the roll into a rounded shape as I went.  (You have to keep moving it towards you on the bamboo mat so that you don’t wind up rolling the mat into the sushi itself.)  Other great additions to California rolls would be finely-chopped cucumber and small pieces of fresh mango.  Or replace the crab with cooked cocktail shrimp!

I’m starting to get the feeling that lots of ingredients would pair well with the faint nutiness of the brown rice and the tangy saltiness of the seaweed.  And as long as you go slowly and use a very sharp knife to cut your rolls into pieces, you should be able to come up with a respectable plate of sushi.  (Note on the cutting process:  I found it best to use the tip of the knife and turn the roll as I went, continually cutting through the somewhat-crispy outer layer of nori, rather than shove out the filling by smashing the roll down flat with the full blade of the knife.)  And if you have access to ultra-fresh fish, you might want to incorporate that into your rolls as well.

For those sushi lovers who are pursuing the gluten-free life, it is possible to find tamari (very similar to soy sauce) made without wheat.  Difficult, but possible.  Any market with a decent Asian-goods section ought to stock it.

Enjoy!

Tags: brown rice, homemade sushi, japanese, seaweed, sushi