Definition of Sushi: Cooked Rice with vinegar. Su=vinegar shi=rice. The term "sushi" has nothing to do with fish, as most people think it is. Sushi is not sushi without "vinegar rice".
As I mentioned previously, I signed up to take a sushi class with a friend and the class was held yesterday. I gained a lot of useful information to be a "beginner" sushi chef. Nothing too exciting to make me a professional (of course that takes years and years to reach that status), but it was enough to make me knowledgeable, comfortable, and confident enough in making my own and understanding what to expect with sushi from now on. Will definitely be able to tell which sushi chefs really care about the art of sushi from now on. I will share information throughout.
I pretty much documented the whole class via my camera because I am a visual/kinesthetic learner and would not have remembered anything by just listening to the instructor! The photos show the process of making four different ways of sushi: Cut roll (Makizushi or Hosomaki), Inside-out roll (Uramaki), Hand roll (Temaki), and Fish on sushi rice (Nigiri). I also show what you need to create pieces of art and to make the process of making it easier.
The Sushi Instructor, Nikki. She was wonderful, knowledgeable, and after hearing all her stories from Japan, it made me want to go to Japan even more now than before!
Came prepared with a cutting board, a couple hand towels, and a sharp knife.
Things you need to create works of art:
Makisu. Bamboo rolling mat.
Saucer for your soy dipping sauce.
Bowl of water. A must for working with sushi rice. And whatever you do, do not touch nori (seaweed) with wet hands because it will stick to you. And do not touch your sushi rice without water or it will stick!
Wasabi. "Japanese Horseradish". The instructor recommended buying the powder and making it versus buying it ready-made, due to the shelf-life of already prepared wasabi.
Not pictured: Your hands, chopsticks, and ginger.
Preparing your Makisu:
Lay out a long piece of saran wrap and place the Makisu on top and in the middle.
Pull over one side of the wrap over the Makisu and do the same with the other side as well.
Then grab the edges of the saran wrap from both sides and pull hard to tighten over the Makisu. Then fold over the edges.
Peeling and Slicing a Cucumber:
The instructor demonstrating it for us first.
Starting the Cucumber Process:
Slice off the ends of the cucumber and stand it up on your cutting board.
Take the knife (grip it as closely and as tightly as you can for more control of the knife) and thinly slice the skin away. You don't need to get it all off in one try.
Next, you need to deseed the cucumber so put the knife as close as you can to the seeds and slice one side down.
Now you can put it down on that side to prevent the cucumber from moving around on your board and cut off the remainder three sides.
All four sides are cut.
The seeds are discarded.
The remainder skin is sliced off to your liking.
Cut the cucumber into sticks.
And move them off to the side of your cutting board. I think I did a good job!
Wasabi:
The instructor showing us the wasabi powder. Just added a little water to it to mix until it becomes paste-like.
Wasabi. Ready to flavor anything.
Next up we have
Nori. If you didn't know, Nori has two different sides. One side is rough:
Not appealing to the eye, so they usually place the sushi rice on this side.
The other side is the shiny, smooth side:
They place this side up for aesthetic purposes.
Sushi Rice (no picture) is made to the ratio of 1:1. One cup rice=1 cup water; 5 cups rice:5 cups water=10 cups rice. And for every 10 cups of (medium grain) rice, it requires 1 cup sushi vinegar. That is the requirement to calling this rice "sushi rice". Once the rice is cooked, place into a big bowl, pour the sushi vinegar, mix it around, and let it set. I can make rice on the stove, but I'm thinking about investing in a rice cooker!
The rice must be warm. Ideally, you want the fish cold and the rice warm, and then you eat it right away. You can tell if a sushi chef doesn't care or doesn't know this if you receive cold fish and cold rice or warm fish and warm rice. I'm watching out for this now! And the soy sauce is meant for the fish, not the rice. I notice people dip their Nigiri in the soy sauce rice first, but you need to dip the fish in the sauce to avoid rice breaking apart. Your tongue should taste the soy sauce, the fish, and then the rice.
Sushi four different ways. Take these four styles and create any type of roll you would like.
Makizushi (The cut roll)The example the instructor used to show us this style was the Cucumber roll.
Wet your hands by dipping your fingers into the bowl of water, rub your hands together, and then shake off the excess water. (Excess water will go from the rice to the seaweed and make your roll soggy.) Then grab a decent handful of the rice, working quickly, and place it onto the Nori. Also, notice how I placed a package of chopsticks on one of the edges. This is to leave space so when you roll your sushi, there will be an empty edge to seal the roll and prevent the roll from falling apart.
Gently spread the rice onto the Nori. You do not need to apply pressure to the rice. The rice will stick to the Nori.
If you want wasabi, like I did, just take a small amount with a finger and quickly rub it in a straight line over the rice.
Take two sticks of the cucumber and place them in a long row in the middle of the rice. Do not overlap them.
When rolling it, place your fingers on the cucumber and roll it by taking the Makisu, roll and tuck the cucumber, then pull it back, put the Makisu down, and close the roll shut.
Cut off excess that is sticking out, if you want. Cut the roll gently down the middle then cut into six pieces. Do not apply too much pressure when cutting the roll so that you don't smash it.
Enjoy with soy sauce flavored with wasabi!
Uramaki (Inside-out roll)The instructor used the example of the California Roll to show us this technique.
She also explained to us that the CA Roll here in the US is the cheap, easy way of making it. The traditional California Roll uses a stick of crab (preferrably from Japan) and not torn apart and mixed with mayonnaise.
For the California Roll, you only need a fourth of an avocado. Use an avocado that is not mushy. Firm, but not tough. Cut the avocado in half, lengthwise, remove the pit, cut the halves in half again, stick the knife where the pit used to be, and slice the edges so the avocado is flat, take the peel off the avocado, and cut into sticks, and move alongside the cucumber sticks.
This time, since it is an inside-out roll, you are going to cover the whole side of Nori. I put too much rice on this, but that is okay.
Add toasted sesame seeds to the rice. Only use toasted seeds.
Grab two corners to pick up the roll. Don't worry, it won't fall apart, and flip it over so that the rice is now on the bottom.
Again, add wasabi if you would like it.
I changed the camera direction so you can see the whole thing. Take two cucumber sticks and place in one row. Take two avocado sticks and place next to the cucumber lengthwise, as well. Then take the crab stick, slice in half and place the sticks over the cucumber and avocado sticks, not next to them.
To make the roll, do the same thing you did with the cut roll, by placing your fingers on the inside and pull and tuck. When you move the Makisu, wet your fingers so you can finish and close the roll. You can shape it any way you want it. To make it circular, take the Makisu, wrap it over the roll, and roll it around for a little bit, like a rolling pin. To make it square, like I did, just wrap the Makisu over the roll and gently squeeze the sides and flatten the top. Cut the roll the same way you would to a regular cut roll, gently. The only thing different this time is that you need to dip your knife in the water, hit the handle of your knife on the table, and let the water drip and cover your knife so when you cut your roll, the rice won't stick to the knife.
The one piece on the right was a little flat, but that is okay! I've seen that before!
Temaki (Hand roll)The example the instructor used to show us this hand roll was a Spicy Tuna Hand Roll.
Spicy tuna is made up of chili paste and mayonnaise. The pieces should be slightly chunky, not chopped up into small pieces.
Visually cut the Nori in half. Wet your hands and grab a small handfull of rice. Take the rice and half the square that you visually cut so that it makes two triangles.
Again rub wasabi on the rice if you want. We topped our rice with two sticks of cucumber, my remainder avocado stick, and a few pieces of the spicy tuna.
Take the lower corner and fold it over to touch the other corner of the "square". Take it and roll the rest of it slightly towards the bottom right corner of the other side of the Nori. To close the roll, wet a finger and stick a tiny bit of rice in the corner to seal the hand roll.
Due to its odd shape, you eat it with your hands. (Same thing with nigiri sushi, but now everyone uses chopsticks.
Nigiri (Fish on top of sushi rice)The examples used for this were Shrimp, Yellowtail, and Octopus. Without the sushi rice, this is known as Sashimi. When slicing the fish, cut the fish at an angle so that it appears longer and is also able to grip the sushi rice better.
Look at that octopus!
To prepare the sushi rice, make three small handfuls of the rice and shape by pressing and shaping in the palm of your hand. Lengthwise, you shouldn't see the rice stick out behind two fingers.
Before adding the fish, you can quickly add wasabi to the top of the rice before you add the fish. When topping the sushi rice with the fish, shape the fish so that it sticks to the rice.
Notice the octopus is wrapped with a small strip of Nori, a technique usually used with eel or clam, for example. Place the strip of Nori over the fish and fold over the sides and stick together with a small piece of rice.
There you have it! Four styles of sushi. Most of these ingredients and items can be found in Japanese supermarkets. The instructor recommended just getting all supplies from the Japanese stores since it is more of their specialty. She also gave us the tip of not buying Nori in bulk due to its short shelf-life. She recommends buying in low numbers, even if it is expensive. You must use sushi vinegar in order for the rice to stick and to even call it "sushi". You can make this with the mixture of rice vinegar, sugar, salt, and sometimes kombu (edible kelp; which I found that I like this, in the past). But it was recommended to us to just buy sushi vinegar instead of going through the whole process. I'm hoping to host a sushi party sometime soon now!
Arigato!
