How To Prepare Sushi - 101

Inspired by my daughter’s (Faith) passion for cooking as recently showed by her excellent participation during the Del Monte Test Kitchen’s food preparation activity for kids last April 2.

So the following day, I finally made good on a previous promise to my kids to prepare sushi rolls at home and showed them how to do it. Make no mistake about it, I may have a deep love for Japanese food like sushi and sashimi, but I am not exactly your regular sushi chef from Kyoto, so it was a very interesting learning experience for me as well!

Utensils you need to have:

1. Bamboo rolling mat (makisu): A must have utensil for rolling rice inside wrappers of seaweed. Relatively inexpensive, it should be available in most supermarkets.

2. Chopsticks (saibashi): Long wooden ones are used for Japanese cooking. Though not necessary for preparing sushi, I prefer to use regular chopsticks in eating my sushi for that authentic feel

3. Knife: Based on my experience, you really need a sharp knife to slice through the delicate fish meat. Do not use serrated or saw-toothed knives when cutting fish to avoid tearing the flesh.

4. Wooden sushi rice bowl (hangiri): A low wide bowl made of wood is ideal to cool cooked rice and give it a preferred texture. The wider the bowl the better, to separate the rice grains from each other.

5. Rice paddle (shamoji): A wooden (or plastic) scoop you will use to spread the cooked rice in the hangiri. Said to be the most symbolic kitchen utensil in Japanese culture, it signifies domestic authority. Whoever controls the shamoji without a doubt is in charge of the household affairs. Good thing, my wife doesn’t hold rice paddles that often. :]

Ingredients I used:

1. Cucumbers: Regular cucumbers will do. But if they are available try the Japanese variety. They’re smaller, thinner, and sweeter (and have smaller seeds) than the regular ones.

2. Nori: Dried leaves of the Laver seaweed which are used for wrapping sushi. Sold in the form of sheets, they are also cut into square wrappings for cone sushi. I used the roasted flat type usually sold in supermarkets.

3. Tezu: is the Japanese term for Vinegared water – a mixture of ½ cup water and 1 tablespoon rice vinegar. It is useful for moistening our hands when preparing sushi to prevent the rice from sticking to our fingers. For the rice vinegar, I recommend that you use either a light, mild tangy kind or some sweeter rice wine varieties. I used Del Monte’s Red Vinegar for this sushi preparation.

4. Soy sauce (shoyu): I used the regular Kikkoman soy sauce as condiment for my sushi. But the Kikkoman brand has a sweeter version specifically for sushi and sashimi. Also, Japanese soy sauce rather has a distinct flavor different than the Chinese soy sauce.

5. Japanese mayonnaise: I bought a commercially available Japanese mayonnaise in a squeeze it out container. But a home made version using 3 whole eggs, a teaspoon of Japanese mustard, salt & black pepper (to taste), 3 tablespoons of lime juice, a clove of garlic and about 2 cups of light vegetable oil will also do the trick.

6. Rice: Some prefer the Japanese short-grained rice which tends to be rather expensive. I would suggest other varieties particularly the glutinous type like the locally available fragrant Dinorado rice.

7. Crabsticks: Usually referring to the “imitation” crabstick kind, it is actually composed of some kind of fish meat.

8. Wasabi (Japanese horseradish): Not to be confused with Western horseradish though both generate similarly sharp biting effects on the tongue and the nasal area. A generous amount of this baby immersed in soy sauce to your sushi is guaranteed to wake up your slumbering senses. It’s the Japanese food equivalent of a Slurpee brainfreeze!

9. Raw tuna: Tuna along with shrimps are my all time Japanese food ingredient! On this occasion, I just used raw yellow fin tuna from Davao City.

Fish and Seafood Notes:

The most important factor in preparing raw fish for sushi (or sashimi for that matter) is FRESHNESS! As a general rule, do not use frozen fish or seafood for preparing sushi. Flash frozen tuna and squid are quite the only exceptions I know to this rule. Make sure that only the prime fillets of tuna are used for sushi.

Some other types of fish and sea foods are pre-cooked before being used for sushi like prawns, crabs and lobsters. Salmon is either smoked or salted while squid and eel are often boiled or marinated.

Fish of course could be cut in many ways. For sushi, fish should ideally be sliced into very long thin slices in a single motion with a very sharp knife as not to warm up the fish. Usually the firmer the fish the thinner slices you could slice from it. For the sushi rolls, I sliced the raw tuna fillet into long rectangular bar-like slices.

Sushi Roll Preparation

1. Place the cooked rice on the hangiri. Spread the rice using the shamoji and use a fan to cool it down to room temperature for the next five (5) minutes or so. This process shall help in achieving the desired consistency and texture of the sushi rice.

2. Cut the other ingredients such as the cucumber and crabsticks quite similar to the length and thickness of the sliced raw tuna.

3. Place the makisu in front of you with its strips on a horizontal position. Place a half sheet of the nori on the bamboo mat with the edge of the nori roughly 2 centimeters away from the edge of the mat closer to you.

4. When making the sushi roll, moisten your hands with the tezu. Lightly place your moistened hands on the nori over the makisu as to absorb some of the tezu.

5. Spread about half a cup of the sushi rice on the nori but leave some 2 centimeter space on the farther edge of the nori sheet.

6. Place the tuna, crabstick and cucumber over the middle space of the rice in an orderly manner.

7. To roll the makisu, hold the edge of the mat nearer you with one hand, while the fingers of your other hand press on the cucumber and other ingredients to hold them in place. Roll carefully then the mat over the rice away from you. As you reach the other edge, lift the top edge of the mat so the empty part of the nori strip could seal the sushi roll.

8. Moisten the cutting knife’s blade with tezu before slicing the roll into evenly measured pieces.

9. Basically repeat the same procedure with other ingredients like avocado or mango.

10. By the way, food should not only be pleasing to the palate but to the eyes of the beholder as well. As you will see, plating is also quite important in preparing sushi. Use your creativity in presentation.

11. Serve with soy sauce and wasabi. You may want to squeeze some calamansi juice into the soy sauce for some extra tanginess.

12. Enjoy the food!

The finished products

Joshua, my able assistant had some great sushi prepared as well! Primarily because of the knives, Faith had to be content with observing this activity for now. On the other hand, the whole family actively and joyfully partook in the eating portion!

Our combined sushi preparations

So go out with your family and make some sushi!