Everything you want to know about Sushi.... and then some...
The "How-To" of Sushi making is varied according to who is telling the story. As in every kind of cooking Every "Sushi Chef" has their own style of making and presenting Sushi. There is no real set of rules for making sushi as in all cooking.. but there are some guidelines that one should follow in order to come up with something that can be considered good sushi.
These are some of the basic ideas and ingredients for "Good Sushi".
The amount of variety in Sushi ingredients makes it nearly impossible to create a complete list of all of them here or anywhere in one place. This is only a basic list of the ingredients normally used to make sushi in one's own kitchen.
Sushi rice
•Rice for sushi has to be glutinous (sticky) and should be short or
medium grain. Most Japanese style rice available at grocery stores will
suffice. I've been using Nishiki lately and I like it quite a bit. However Cal Rose Botan is less expensive and really works well too. You
can use brown rice, but it takes a bit of practice because it's not
nearly as sticky as white rice.
Vinegar
•Use a rice vinegar. If you can't find rice vinegar you're not looking
very hard. If you must, you can substitute white vinegar for rice
vinegar.
Soy sauce
Dipping Condiment
Wasabi
•Wasabi found in most stores contains little or no real wasabi. It's
usually mustard with green food coloring added. If you can find it, opt
for real wasabi. It can be found in better asian food stores and online.
Gari
•Pickled ginger, it's used to clean the pallet between bites of sushi.
Can be found in most asian markets and many grocery stores. Gari made in
your own kitchen will be more authentic,
Nori
•Seaweed is used extensively in Japanese cooking and is used in most
types of sushi. Make sure you buy enough of it, it's cheap and you'll
make mistakes at first.
Fish
•Fish is the main ingredient in most sushi. Make sure if you're
using raw fish that you select a good grade of fish. Ask the person at
the counter where you buy your fish if he has any sushi or sashimi grade
fish. He won't fib, he doesn't want to be liable if he sells you bad
fish. Some places have fish pre-cut for you, some places make you cut it
yourself. I would suggest for your first few times making sushi you
stick to tuna fish in a can. You can make a simple tuna salad from it
which is useful for both maki and gunkan style sushi, and if you ruin
it, you're not out much financially.
Later, once you are more accustomed to making sushi, you might want to
try with salmon and tuna. Where I buy my fish I have the ability to
purchase pre-sliced fish which is great for nigri, such as tuna, salmon,
freshwater eel, and mackerel.
Fruits and Vegetables
•Most any sort of vegetables you want are acceptable in sushi. I often
use avocado, baby daikon sprouts, cucumbers, and carrots in maki sushi.
Leaf lettuce in a roll gives a nice ruffled appearance as it peeks out
of the end pieces. For vegetarian nigri, you can use steamed asparagus
or other stalky vegetables.
•Fruits can also be used in sushi. For a slightly sweet dessert, try
making apple or kiwi sushi. Fibrous fruits lend themselves well to
sushi, but more juicy fruits like citrus should be used by itself at the
end of a meal for dessert.
Miscellaneous items used in sushi include eggs for omelet and fish eggs
such as tobiko or masago, sugar and salt in preparing sushi rice, sesame
seeds for the outsides of inside-out rolls or to add crunch to the
inside of a regular roll, cooked chicken, cooked shrimp, imitation crab,
cream cheese, etc. Just about anything you can fit inside a roll will
work, even if purists stick their noses up at it.
Check out these video's I found on the web as well... I thought they were pretty informative and followed my own style of Sushi Making...
Most of this is correct.. but must take a lot of it with a grain of salt.. or rice as it were.... lol....
The one thing to remember is to be comfortable with what and how you are doing it...
and remember... always.. ENJOY!!!!!
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