Sushi
Short grain white rice *
Unseasoned rice vinegar
Kombu
Sugar
Sea salt
Nori (flat 8x10" sheets of seaweed)
Rice wine
Wasabe (green mustard, powdered or prepared available)
Dark soy sauce
Various fillings (see below)
* Rice brands:
Nishiki=best,
Kohkuo Rose=mediocre,
Tamaki=good,
Botan Calrose=bad
Goya=good
Do I have to buy some bamboo thing?
Yes, buy a sushi mat. In the asian stores here they go for about
$0.99, so I have three. A lot of little 1/8" diameter bamboo sticks,
attached to each other with string to make a square floppy mat a
little bigger than a piece of nori.
What about the rice?
The rice is key to the texture and taste of good sushi. Buy good
rice. I've never made brown rice sushi, but I think you'd need to use
a little less water than normal for brown rice and just cook until
it's done, then season it as below, maybe using a stronger seasoning
mix to make it more sticky.
Wash 3-1/3 cups short grain white rice until water runs clear. Let
stand for a few minutes. Place in a pot along with 4 cups water and a
piece of kombu (thick strips of kelp). Bring to a boil over high
heat, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove cover
and place an absorbent kitchen towel over the top of the pot, then
replace cover and turn off heat. Let rice stand undisturbed
15 minutes. But, if there's still water showing over the top of the
rice after 5 minutes: simmer, allow to simmer a bit longer before
turning off heat.
Dissolve 5 tb white sugar in 5 tb rice vinegar, and add 4 ts sea
salt. After some experience, you may want to change this seasoning
mixture and/or increase the strength of the seasoning.
Turn rice out into a shallow bowl of some slightly porous material. I
use a big Rubbermaid bowl, and it works fine, but my cookbook
recommends wood. Stir gently with a flat spoon, keep from breaking or
mashing rice grains if possible. Sprinkle seasoning mixture onto rice
as you stir. Rice will gradually become slightly shiny and more
sticky. You can fan the rice as you stir to cool it, but lightly
tossing it in a large bowl will cool it as well.
To make sushi rolls, lay out a sheet of nori on your sushi mat so
that the long edge is parallel to the bottom of the mat. Use a flat
spoon to spread a 1/2" (or slightly thinner, as you like) layer of
rice on the nori, covering all but 1/2" at the bottom of the sheet
and 1-1/2" at the top. Lay out a row of fillings on the center of the
rice. Roll the nori around the rice and filling, bringing the bottom
edge of rice and nori over the filling to meet the top edge of the
rice layer and then rolling up the exposed nori to seal the roll.
Wrap the sushi mat around the roll, using it to gently compress the
roll from many directions while maintaining its cylindrical shape.
Slice with a very sharp knife.
What else can you put in besides cucumber?
Anything you put in should be cut into approx. 1/4" strips. Some
things need to be simmered in seasoning broth. I use one pot to do
all simmering, starting with a mixture of equal parts rice wine and
water, plus a little sugar and soy sauce. Cook things in order of
taste, i.e carrots, then mushrooms, then tempeh, so that strong
tasting things don't flavor delicate things. By the end your broth
will be very tasty.
* Lightly steamed asparagus
* Alfalfa sprouts
* Steamed spinach -- with a sesame oil/
garlic sauce for Korean style,
* Plain carrots -- simmer
* Pickled yellow root -- Korean
* Daikon radish -- Soak in sugar water
after cutting
* Dried shiitake mushrooms -- simmer
and remove stems before slicing
* Tempeh -- simmer
* Pickled plums -- weird
* Very fresh tofu -- don't use both
tofu and tempeh
* Baked/marinated tofu
* Kampyo==gourd strips -- cook for a
long time in a separate simmer sauce
with extra sugar and soy
* Avocado -- in which case the sushi
becomes a 'feast'
* Sesame seeds -- just a few for
crunch if you are willing...
Things that I have picked out of sushi rolls because they taste bad:
* Sweet red pepper
From: Cynthia J Gibas <
[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 94 11:34:28 CDT
