INTRODUCTION

I am rather shy to show you my first attempt of making  the most basic sushi rolls.. There are many imperfections in the rolls as the fillings are not centre, it is not round enough, uneven height and etc. After due considerations, I have decided to share with readers who are as new as me and who think that making sushi is difficult or who are willing to prepare their first sushi. Let’s learn together and I hope via my simple local style of explanation, house chefs are able to enjoy simple sushi rolls at home.

I am no expert in Japanese food. I would rate myself as elementary and I do not even know the name of many Japanese ingredients. I have a hard time to get hold of the sushi vinegar and I almost brought the wrong vinegar. I try hard to search for common Japanese sushi rolls ingredients and I ended buying all from Fair Price Finest in Singapore. As I do not eat any sashimi or raw fish, I only buy those that are sold as cooked ingredients.

Very frankly, I am still scratching my head as to the sweet brownish seaweed like ingredients that I bought, I really do not know what is that as almost package was not labelled. I love to eat the yellow omelette (i presumed it is omelette) and yellow daikon, but it was not labelled too.. Some may have label but it is in Japanese that I do not understand. I cannot search for proper identification as I cannot type Japanese. Lol.

Making Sushi is not really difficult if you just want to satisfy home craving and does not have high expectations on the rolling and cutting. The filling is up to your imagination and you can always create new interior fillings. For this illustration, i have use luncheon meat as i have one sitting on the self. The attractiveness of sushi rolls is how you match the colour of the fillings.

As for the cooking of sushi rice, while recipe may have told you, but I would advise to read the packing instructions if any. I am followed what is stated in the packing instructions as above. Sorry for the poor picture as the packaging are using this colour with white wordings.

I could not tell you much about sushi as I am as new as all of you. What i can tell you is to prepare some sushi, the ingredients that you must have is the short grain rice, Nori sheet or seaweed, the sushi vinegar, a rolling mat and fillings of the choice. This recipe is very basic and I will think that if you want to have a detailed recipe in English, I would recommend you to read here: Sushi Rolls 細巻き • Just One Cookbook and I have adapted from her recipe to suit my family’s taste buds.

“Sushi (すし, 寿司, 鮨) is a food preparation originating in Japan, consisting of cooked vinegared rice (鮨飯sushi-meshi) combined with other ingredients (ネタ neta) such as raw seafood, vegetables and sometimes tropical fruits. Ingredients and forms of sushi presentation vary widely, but the ingredient which all sushi have in common is rice (also referred to as shari (しゃり) or sumeshi (酢飯)). Makizushi (巻き寿司, “rolled sushi”), norimaki (海苔巻き, “Nori roll”) or makimono (巻物, “variety of rolls”) is a cylindrical piece, formed with the help of a bamboo mat known as a makisu (巻簾). Makizushi is generally wrapped innori (seaweed), but is occasionally wrapped in a thin omelette, soy paper, cucumber, or shiso (perilla) leaves.Makizushi is usually cut into six or eight pieces, which constitutes a single roll order. Below are some common types of makizushi, but many other kinds exist.” (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sushi)

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings : About 3-4 adult servings

• 3 cups of sushi rice or short grain Japanese rice
• 3.25 to 3.5 cups of water
• 1/3 cup of Japanese sushi rice vinegar
• 3 tablespoons of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 sushi rolling mat (bought at Daiso)
• 10 sheets of Nori or seaweed sheets (bought at Daiso)

Fillings (for reference only)

• Some yellow daikon, some egg omelette, some brown sweet burdock root, some avocado, some Japanese cucumber, some crab meat 

Dips

• Some Japanese Sushi or Sashimi soya sauce
• Some wasabi

* I have bought almost all the ingredients at Fair price Finest except Nori sheet that I bought at Daiso.

STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Wash the rice, put the water and cook in the rice cooker follow rice cooker instruction. If the rice cooker have a sushi rice function, select the function. As for the amount of water required, it is best to check the instruction at the rice packaging.

• Meanwhile, put the rice vinegar, sugar and salt and stir until sugar dissolved. If the sugar refused to dissolve, you can also heat it over the stove and stir until the sugar dissolved.

• Once the rice is cooked, add the rice vinegar, use a pair of chopstick to fluff the rice and let it cool with a wet cloth covering on top to prevent moisture loss.

• Meanwhile, get ready all the filling ingredients by cutting into small stripes. For cucumber, deseed the cucumber at the centre before cutting into small sticks.

• Get ready a 1/2 cup of water and add 3 tablespoons of vinegar . Stir until well mix. This is for wetting the hands before the wrapping.

• Take a piece of Nori and put under the rolling mate. Lightly wet the Nori with some water if preferred.  Lightly wet your hand with vinegar water, take a palm full of sushi rice, squeeze lightly and transfer the rice to the Nori. Use hand to spread it following the shape of the Nori. If the rice is too sticky, wet your hand with more water. Put your desired fillings in the centre.

• Swiftly roll one end to the other end. Use the mat to help the rolling and as you rolled, the sushi will get tighter. Roll it as tight as you can. You can roll two three times if you feel that the rice is not tight enough. Cut your sushi rolls into about 1 inches height and best served with wasabi and Japanese sushi soya sauce.

CONCLUSION

Pardon me for the ugly sushi and I hope readers who have never tried and loved sushi rolls will give it a try. I have prepared this as my kids loved this sushi rolls and I was forced to taking a plunge in making this. Should I have better picture in the next attempt, I will update new pictures.

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