Skip to main content

Sushi for Beginners

I am incredibly nervous. Sushi is one of the things I never thought I could make at home. But the closest sushi restaurant that passes muster (in fact, the only one in Mumbai) is a couple of hours drive away which means I have to go without sushi for rather a lot of days. So slowly, steadily, I've put all the ingredients together. I have a tube of wasabi, a pack of nori sheets and sushi rice in my pantry. A bottle of dark soy sauce in the fridge. All of which became spring onion and tofu maki rolls for dinner last night.

Wash half cup sushi rice in plenty of water at least 3-4 times until the starch gets washed away. Add 3/4 cup water (or as much as your package say), bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat but let the rice remain covered for another 10 minutes. In a small pan, heat 2 tbsp vinegar with 3/4 tbsp sugar and a pinch of salt until well blended. Sushi needs rice vinegar but I didn't have any so I used 1 1/2 tbsp white vinegar mixed with 1/2 tbsp water. Pour the warm vinegar on the warm rice and mix well.

My nori sheets were pre-toasted, but toast yours if they aren't. Place on a mat (okay, a thick napkin since I didn't have the mat) shiny side down. Spread rice all over the nori sheet leaving 1/2 inch at top and bottom free. Arrange spring onions and tofu slices on top of rice at one end of nori sheet. Dot with wasabi and carefully make a roll. Since the rice is warm, the roll will seal automatically.

Cut in 6 slices and serve with dark soy sauce and wasabi for dipping. Pickled ginger is the other typical accompainment, but I am not a big fan so I left it out.

The verdict : I used way too much rice, which gave me plump rolls and had my nori sheets close to tearing. But I loved it. For isn't rice the best part of sushi (in fact, vinegared rice IS sushi. Not raw fish, that's sashimi). But still, the rolls were not perfect. Which means I need to work on it; make this more often. Never heard a better excuse to eat sushi!

And with all this rice, I think sushi makes an apt entry for Srivalli's Rice Mela as well.

Comments

CurryLeaf said…
Lovely dear,Bravo you cooked Japanes,Pass it over here as well.Lovely
Sunshinemom said…
It gives me jitters to try this! Kudos to you for making them! Can you let me know where you found the nori sheets, sushi rice and wasabi? I suppose you will say Inox or something, and I will say OMG!!
Unknown said…
I got them all from the same place. It's Godrej Nature Basket at Lokhandwala.
Bharti said…
Good for you....looks pretty good.
I've made Sushi a couple of times but haven't really developed a taste for it :-(. I know I'm weird.
Srivalli said…
oh...reading gets me nervous...great try simran!
Anonymous said…
To make a better roll, spread a plastic wrap(used for covering left over food) on the mat and pour some soya on it and then place the nori. This way you can get a better and firmer roll.

Popular posts from this blog

Announcing AWED : Britain

Before I ate my first Italian wood fired pizza, before I went to that swanky Japanese sushi bar for the first time, or the neighborhood Chinese joint, the first non-Indian cuisine I encountered was British. Not real food, mind you, but the tempting, oh so delicious descriptions in my favorite novels. From Enid Blyton to Jane Austen to P.G. Wodehouse, every favorite character in every favorite novel seems to have food on their mind. Yes, British food gets ridiculed a lot. But forget their main course dishes for now, and think of the full English breakfast and the elegant afternoon teas. Then try imagining the world without cucumber sandwiches or potato chips and you will realize you can't do without British food. Which is why when I saw that DK was looking for hosts for her monthly event AWED (A Worldly Epicurean's Delight) and there has never been a British AWED, I promptly signed up. The rules are simple really: Make any vegetarian or vegan British dish (eggs are

Aloo Paranthas

In all these years of blogging, I've somehow never managed to talk about aloo paranthas, the potato stuffed flatbread that's a standard breakfast in North India. Possibly because they are such a staple in our home, I found there wouldn't be enough interest in the recipe. But I've also realised over time that my mom's recipe is unique, using a combination of flavours and spices that make these paranthas delicious. But that's not the only reason for this post. I also wanted to tell you about a super cool party and some ways we found to make aloo paranthas even better and believe it or not, healthier. The party in question was hosted by Rushina at her cooking studio a few months back. For a while now, Rushina has been talking about the merits of cling film, parchment and something called cooking foil made by Asahi Kasei. Because we won't believe that you can really cook without oil but using science, she invited a bunch of us over for a potluck lunch.

I've found my perfect cookie

It's a bite sized cookie, with flavors of a pie, shape of a croissant and a pretty, pretty name. It's Rugelach. I first heard of this cookie when it became the baking pick for Tuesdays with Dorrie a couple of months back. The looks, the concept - everything was fascinating. And I've dreamed of making this cookie ever since. I ditched hundreds of recipes floating around and went straight to the master. It's Dorie Greenspan's recipe that I used, and ain't I glad I got it so perfect the very first time. So what's rugelach? It's cream-cheese pastry dough, rolled then cut into wedges, spread with jam and sugar and fillings of choice, rolled into crescents and baked. First the dough. Dorie did it in her processor, but I just went and did it by hand. Put 100 gms cream cheese and 100 gms butter out of the fridge until they were soft but still cold. Added both to a cup of plain flour (I omitted the salt because I use salted butter). Rubbed the flour and but