Tutorial Tuesday: Makin' Sushi

OK--I am no sushi making expert. I would even say I'm mildly proficient at it...but I do love it!

Yesterday, Chef Tarah gave us a world-class sushi making course. It was so much fun, and we made SO MUCH SUSHI!

If you want a really good tutorial on making sushi, watch this video:

If you want to look at our pictures from our sushi making extraordinaire and sort of get the gist of how to make sushi, keep on rolling....

OK...so the most difficult (and first step) of making perfect sushi is the rice. It has to be just the right amount of sticky, just the right amount of not sticky, and taste just the right amount like sushi rice. It is a delicate balance.

Early in the day, I made 8 cups (!!) of short grain rice. Make sure you rinse it out until the water runs clear, and use a 1c rice to 1.5c water ratio. You do not need 8 cups of rice. I would say 1 cup for every 3 people is perfect.

Then, cook it like every other type of rice. Bring it up to a boil, cover it, turn the heat down (or off) and let it do its thing for about 25 minutes.

Now...when you have about a minute left to go on your rice, in a small bowl for every cup of rice put in a tablespoon of rice vinegar, sugar and a half teaspoon of salt. Put it in the microwave for about a minute or until everything dissolves nicely.

When the rice is done, put it into a big bowl (preferably not metal) and stir in the vinegar/sugar/salt mixture. Now, you wait until it's at room temperature.

Now, Business time:

Chop up all your veggies, mix up your spicy tuna (good sushi grain tuna + mayo +sriracha), chop your cream cheese into little baby strips. Go to town. I

Things you'll need post-chopping: Plastic Wrap, a sushi wooden wrappy thing, a bowl of water (for your hands...really important for non-sticky hands), and a super sharp knife.

This tutorial will go through an 'inside out' roll (rice on the outside).

Lay a piece of plastic wrap on top of your wooden wrappy thing. Put down a half sheet of seaweed (just break it in half or cut in half) and sprinkle enough rice to barely cover the seaweed plus about a half inch over the edges.

Once it's covered, squish the rice down on to the seaweed. Once it's squished, lift up the plastic wrap so that your seaweed-rice combination flips over.

Like that.

Now, load it up. Put your favorite combination in, but leave about a half inch of seaweed on each side.

This one had spicy salmon (cooked, so Chef Tarah could enjoy without hurting Baby Phineas)

Now, it's rolling time. This would probably be the best time to watch a youtube video. Roll it over onto itself, then tighten as you roll the wrappy thing over the sushi. It's way easier than you think.

Our expert chef helping us start it out.

Another view for clarity's sake.

And then....

Tah DAHHH!!!!!

For those of you that love sashimi, just make little thumb sized 'pucks' of the sushi rice, dab a little bit of wasabi on it, and top with good sushi-grade tuna, cooked shrimp or whatever you want.

Or, if you're spicy, hide a lot of wasabi under one and see who gets it...muah haha.



This is just a small sample of what we had last night: Spicy Tuna Handrolls, Spicy Salmon Rolls, Shrimp Rolls, Tuna Sashimi, Shrimp Sashimi, Smoked Salmon Rolls and every combination in between. We had 3 plates this size:



It was an absolute feast! And so much fun to do as a group!

Then, of course, you need my absolute favorite thing: TINY DISHES!!!

We seriously had so much fun with this. It was fun to try a new 'thing' as a group--and Tarah was an excellent teacher! I think once Baby Phineas (seriously, Tarah, you can't name him anything else) is born, I'm going to bring her over some Tuna Sashimi and Spicy Tuna Rolls immediately...