Sushi for Dummies

Sushi is the new black.

A couple of years ago only brave gourmet seafood lovers ate sushi, but now it’s become the rage. It’s become a new staple food; it isn’t uncommon to see sushi on the shabbos table as an accompaniment to the traditional gefilta fish or salmon. Moms serve it to kids as a guilt free before-dinner snack. Teens justify their expensive splurge lunches in the name of a healthy diet food. Abstinent dieters commit brown rice sushi to their daily plan. Hearty men order fried tempura as a side to their Thursday night cholent. In short sushi is here to stay! But let’s face it-sushi is not cheap, especially when you are serving it to a crowd! By now many a novice has experimented with homemade sushi attempts in an effort to produce more of this versatile food for less money.  We have all been met with varying degrees of success. Some have given up; others have taken to rolling sushi inside out the easy way. Some have moved on to sushi salad. One friend of mine even hired her own private sushi chef once a week in an effort to stay on top of her family’s demand.

With persistence, and being unwilling to hire a chef (I’ll save my money for the cleaning lady) I have been met with moderate success. My sushi is not yet a masterpiece and my rolls are not always symmetrical, nevertheless my family always stands around and watches with bright puppy eyes as the homemade rolls take shape. They are eager to help out by consuming ends, and bits and pieces that are not deemed worthy of the official platterJ.

At the risk of boring you I’ll just give you a few pointers:

Firstly, filling can and should be versatile.  My kids know that leftover salmon often reappears the next day in the rolled form. Cucumber, carrot and avocado all work well, add a little cream cheese for the milchig variety and you have a true Philadelphia roll. Fish sticks can serve as mock kani sticks.  You can mix cooked salmon with flaked Kani sticks and a little mayo to make an easy fish filling. (Kani is mock crab food and can be found in the freezer section of your local grocery I think it’s make from pike.)  Mango is a good twist and sweet potato lovers have been known to include that too.  This all assumes that you are not a lover of the raw fish variety. Let’s not go there!

Cook the sushi rice according to directions. Two cups of raw rice makes enough cooked rice for about five or six rolls. Sometimes you may have to add a bit more water in the end of the cooking process so don’t turn your back or use your trusty rice cooker..

Add one or two tablespoons of rice vinegar; (I like the red pepper flake variety) to the rice and three table spoons of sugar. (My apologies to the abstinent dieters.)

Transfer the rice to a glass bowl and stir with a wooden paddle. (Metallic utensils tamper the flavor of the cooked rice.) Let the rice cool completely.

Prepare your workspace. You will need a little sushi kit which should have a wooden paddle and a bamboo rolling mat. Line the rolling mat with plastic cling wrap. Place the Toasted Nori sheets, AKA seaweed (I use Sushi Maven brand, it comes in packs of fifty or twenty in your local grocery,) on the plastic wrap. If your Nori sheet is square you will want to trim about two inches off to get it to a rectangle, so that the rolls will not look like more rice than filling or like overstuffed sausage.  I get annoyed when the professionals are skimpy on the filling.)

With the wet palm of your hand smear the rice on the Nori try to flatten it as much as possible.  When you are satisfied with your smear, flip the Nori over so the rice faces the plastic.  Place your filling as close to the edge of the Nori as possible in a neat thin row. (Of course your veggies are cut into thin perfect matchsticks in neat rows, right we are perfectionists are we not?) Then you’ll proceed to roll and pull back with the mat use the mat to tighten the roll if you think it’s too loose then roll and pull back again. If the filling pops out of the side that’s a good sign, that means you have a tight roll just nudge it back in. Cut the rolls with a serrated knife. Try to cut them evenly about ¾ inch thick, platter them in the same direction in sets of eight.  Change the plastic wrap between each roll.

Serve with plain old soy sauce or buy some spicy mayo or sweet teriyaki.  I have mixed mayo with a shake of hot sauce and it did the trick. True sushi lovers will invest in ginger and wasabi but I am not a die hard for those. Get out your chop sticks make a blessing and enjoy, if your kids have left any for you while you turned your back.

 If you are serving the sushi the next day wrap a moist piece of bounty around the platter before the sawran wrap and avoid avocado filling as it goes bad overnight..

I hope to bring you more sushi related ideas in the future such as a heaven sushi salad, and perhaps a visit to a home based sushi business but for now………. RUYSAGTW!!!!!

That stands for Roll Up Your Sleeves And Get To Work!   (I knew it was sushi for dummies!)