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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.

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