Food
and cooking articles and information:
Rolling
your own sushi - making temaki-zushi is a simple and
fun way to entertain at home
 This
article has been published with the permission of
its author Yukari Pratt. Yukari writes for Tokyo`s
Metropolis magazine and for the The Japan Times. She
has contributed to the guidebook, Time Out Tokyo and
to Time magazine. Yukari has been profiled in GQ Japan
and The Daily Yomiuri. A Japanese food fanatic, whose
mother is Japanese, she is on a mission to bring the
food of Japan to as many people as possible.
Her
hobbies include soaking in "onsen" hot springs,
drinking shochu, fly-fishing, and motorcycling.
Having
friends over is always fun, but the thought of pulling
together a party in a small Tokyo apartment can be stressful.
With a temaki-zushi (hand-rolled sushi) party, the host
just needs to turn on the rice cooker, shop for a few
simple ingredients, and master the “roll.”
Share your knowledge with your guests and let them do
the rest.
The
basic items are:
- Japanese
rice
- sushi
su (rice vinegar flavored with sugar and salt)
- nori
- wasabi
- soy
sauce
- Gari,
the thinly sliced pickled ginger, is optional
If
you are ambitious and want to make the flavored vinegar
from scratch, you will need:
5 tablespoons rice wine vinegar, five
5 tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons salt
Cook
the vinegar, sugar and salt over low heat until the
sugar and salt dissolve. Then allow the mixture to
cool to room temperature before mixing with the cooked
rice.
However,
there really is no need to make it yourself; if you
buy good quality sushi su vinegar, you can keep it on
hand to use whenever you have a temaki-zushi urge.
So,
what to roll? Anything you like - there are no rules
here. Popular combinations include the “unakyu,”
with unagi (eel) and cucumber, or “umekyu,”
with neriume (pickled plum paste) and cucumber. Feel
free to experiment with combinations like Korean-style
kimchi and grilled beef (see the box for ideas). Cut
everything into long strips that can be easily rolled,
and cut the nori sheets in half with scissors to make
rectangles.
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Things
to put in your sushi roll
Salmon, tuna, scallops, shrimp, squid, unagi
or anago (eel) and other types of sashimi;
negitoro (mashed fatty tuna); ikura (salmon
roe); crab; canned tuna and mayo; shrimp
tempura; cucumber; avocado; shiso leaves;
natto; dashimaki tamago (omelet roll); takuan
(pickled daikon).
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Once
the rice is cooked, sprinkle it with the sushi su. A
little goes a long way - you want just enough to give
the rice a nice sheen and a hint of the vinegar taste.
While adding the vinegar, make cuts through the rice
with your shamoji (rice paddle) and toss. This will
help disperse the vinegar without crushing the rice.
If you can get someone to help fan the rice while you’re
tossing it, it will help create the shine you are looking
for. Because of the vinegar the rice will not keep and
cannot be used in other dishes like fried rice; you
need to consume it the same day it is made.
I
prefer to avoid using a makisu (bamboo sushi roller),
and instead roll the sushi into the cone-shaped temaki-zushi:
Put a small amount of rice on one half of the rough
side of the nori, making a square. (The smooth side
is the outside.) Place your ingredients diagonally across
the rice and roll into a cone.
It
is a nice touch to have some oshibori (wet towels) set
out for your guests. For beverages, serve beer, sake,
shochu or, for wine, try an Alsatian riesling, a pinot
noir or champagne. Round out the menu with some salads
or a variety of Japanese tsukemono pickles.
Published
22 August 2006
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