2torial #0415:
Learn2 Make Sushi

Roll your own

For the millions who love it, eating sushi can be a nearly spiritual experience. The ingredients are the very best, and they're reverently handled. The glistening, perfect pieces of food are arranged on serving plates with studied attention to aesthetics and philosophical meaning. And sushi chefs may apprentice for years before they're allowed to handle a sushi knife.

But you don't have to get all that serious at home. For sushi as high art, treat yourself to a restaurant meal with an expert chef. For your own enjoyment, make it yourself. Basic sushi techniques are remarkably easy and fun, and the results are delicious.

We won't give detailed recipes or delve into presentation here, but we will guide you through the rudiments of shopping, preparing the ingredients, and making the two most popular sushi forms: nigiri (pieces of seafood or egg on ovals of sticky rice) and maki (seafood, egg, or vegetables rolled in rice and seaweed).

Often, when people hear "sushi," they think "raw fish," but a Japanese-style preparation of raw fish is properly called "sashimi." Sushi often contains uncooked fish, but it's really a rice dish, and several of the most popular preparations are vegetarian.

Hundreds of years ago, the Japanese preserved fish by packing it in raw rice. Eventually, people started cooking the rice and eating it with fresh raw fish. To recapture the flavor that the fermenting fish had given the rice, cooks began dressing unseasoned rice with a mixture of rice vinegar, sugar, and salt. Today, it's actually the vinegar-infused rice, combined with premium-quality raw or cooked fish and vegetables, that's central to all sushi dishes.

Buy the fish

If you'll be using fish for your sushi, your ultimate rule of thumb is to find the freshest stuff possible. If you'll be making vegetarian sushi, skip to Step 2.

The cooked and the raw. Some fish and seafood used for sushi is always or usually served raw; some is always or usually cooked. Popular raw fish choices include yellowtail (called hamachi), tuna (maguro or the fattier toro), sea bass (suzuki), halibut (hirame), and mackerel (saba). Salmon (sake), crab (kani), freshwater eel (unagi), and octopus (tako) will nearly always be cooked or cured (and salmon should always have been deep-frozen at some point). Shrimp is served both raw (ama ebi) and cooked (ebi). Fish eggs, or roe--including herring (kazunoko), flying fish (tobiko), and salmon (ikura) roe--are usually salted or cured; sea urchin roe (uni) is not.

Is it fresh? Use these guidelines to ensure you're buying the best quality fish and seafood you can find:

• Fresh fish should not smell strongly fishy; it should be almost odorless, or have a faint scent of the sea.
• The flesh should be firm and shiny with no discoloration, and it should spring back when you press it.
• You probably won't need a whole fish, but if you're buying one, the eyes should be clear, the scales shiny, and the gills clean and bright red.

Your best bet. Japanese and some other fish markets sell ultra-fresh "sashimi-grade" fish, which is usually farmed in Japan or frozen right on the fishing boat, then thawed under refrigeration by the seller. It's not cheap, but try to use this if you can find it.

For the beginner. The popular California rolls, among others, are often made with artificial crabmeat (surimi), which is actually cooked whitefish made to look and taste like crab. This is a low-cost ingredient that's not intimidating to beginners. Other good first-timer ingredients are avocado, cucumber, tuna, omelet (see Step 4), freshwater eel, and cooked, butterflied shrimp.

Buy the other ingredients

Whether you're making vegetarian or fish-based sushi, you'll need the following ingredients and pieces of equipment.

Sushi rice. Japanese short- to medium-grain polished rice is hands down the best for sushi. Its high content of amylopectin, a glutinous starch, helps it stick together. Unconverted medium-grain white rice can also do in a pinch, but don't use long-grain, wild, brown, or instant rice: They're just not sticky enough. You can get Japanese rice in many supermarkets and in Asian groceries.

Seaweed. Nori, or pressed seaweed, is used to wrap sushi. It's commonly sold in packages of about ten 8 by 7-inch (20 by 17-centimeter) sheets. Nori that's blackish green in color is superior in quality to paler sheets. Buy toasted nori (it should say so on the package).

Condiments. You'll need a few other ingredients to prepare and enjoy sushi. You can find them in Japanese groceries and in many supermarkets:

• Wasabi is green Japanese horseradish. Buy it powdered and reconstitute it with water until it's the consistency of a thick paste, or buy it already prepared in a tube.
• Japanese rice vinegar can be bought seasoned (with sugar, salt, and maybe a little MSG added) or plain. It's easy to season to your taste (we'll tell you how a little later), so go ahead and buy the plain stuff.
• Soy sauce is the standard dipping sauce for sushi. Buy a Japanese brand (many Chinese soy sauces are thick and sweet and not appropriate for sushi).
• Pickled ginger (gari) has a clean, sweet taste that clears the palate between courses of a sushi meal.

Equipment. It's likely that the only thing you'll need to buy (and it's cheap) is a sushi mat (makisu), used to roll maki sushi. The mat is less than a foot (30 centimeters) square and is made of thin pieces of bamboo tied together with string. Japanese groceries sell them.

A note on quantities. For a sushi main course, count on the following quantities for each person:

• 2 to 3 cups (300 to 450 grams) cooked rice (2/3 to 1 cup or 150 to 220 grams uncooked)
• One to three sheets nori (fewer if you are making mostly nigiri, more if mostly maki)
• 8 ounces (230 grams) fish or vegetable filling

Have full (or nearly full) bottles of vinegar and soy sauce, and a few spoonfuls of wasabi, and you shouldn't run short.

Make the rice

Perfect sushi rice is sticky enough to hold nigiri pieces and maki rolls together, and its vinegar seasoning is a delicately balanced mixture of sour, sweet, and salty. The following are general guidelines for cooking and dressing it.

Measure. One cup (150 grams) of raw rice yields about 3 cups (450 grams) of cooked rice. If you're making maki, count on up to 1 cup (150 grams) of cooked rice per roll (six to eight pieces). If you're making nigiri, count on about one-fifth that amount per piece.

Cook. In a pan with a tight-fitting lid, combine one part rice with two parts water. Cover and bring to a rapid boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the rice sit, still covered, for 10 to 15 minutes. Meanwhile, make the dressing.

Dress. If you don't have seasoned rice vinegar, combine four parts unseasoned rice vinegar with two parts sugar and one part salt. Stir rapidly until the sugar and salt are dissolved in the vinegar. Adjust the sugar and salt to taste. Count on 1 to 2 tablespoons (15 to 30 milliliters) of dressing per cup (150 grams) of cooked rice. Make more rather than less the first time. (The dressing keeps for months unrefrigerated.)

Put the hot cooked rice into a wooden, ceramic, or plastic mixing bowl (metal may react with the vinegar), and spoon the dressing over the top one tablespoon at a time. Gently mix it in with a wooden or plastic spoon or spatula, as if you were tossing a salad. Taste it occasionally to see how much vinegar you like in the rice.

Cool. Right after you combine the rice with the dressing, start cooling the rice to room temperature. In Japan, special cooling tubs and fans have been developed to cool the rice perfectly, but you can do the job with your mixing bowl, spoon, and a piece of cardboard or a magazine. Gently turn the rice in the bowl and fan it energetically until it's all cool to the touch, about 5 to 10 minutes.

Store. While you prepare the other sushi ingredients, store the prepared rice in its bowl on the counter, with a damp, clean dishcloth covering the top of the bowl. Don't stick it in the refrigerator to cool or store it: Refrigeration hardens the rice, and cold dulls the delicate flavor of the dressing.

Prepare the other ingredients

Some chefs' deep-fried rolls, special sauces, and signature presentations showcase their creativity and skill. All that could be yours in time, but let's start with handling the basic ingredients.

In general:

• Prepare ingredients as close to the time you'll serve the food as possible.

• Use a very sharp, nonserrated kitchen knife to cut sushi ingredients and maki rolls. Try to avoid a sawing motion when you slice into raw fish; the cuts should be clean, without tearing the flesh.

• Cut fish and seafood across the grain and at about a 30-degree angle.

• Slice one kind of fish at a time, and then wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate until you're ready to assemble the sushi. Wash your cutting board and knife each time you're done slicing an ingredient.

In addition to fish, you may also use tamago (or omelet). Beat a couple of eggs together with a pinch of salt and cook them into a flat, 1/4-inch (6-millimeter) thick omelet.

Nigiri ingredients. The slice of fish or omelet for nigiri is roughly rectangular in shape, and about 2.5 inches (6 centimeters) long by about 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) wide. Slice tender fish about 1/4 inch (6 millimeters) thick; firm fish about 1/8 inch (3 millimeters).

Maki ingredients. Cut fish or seafood, omelet, seedless cucumber, Japanese pickle, reconstituted dried shiitake mushrooms, or avocado into long, thin strips that are 1/2 inch (about 1.2 centimeters) in diameter. You can also use trimmings from your nigiri ingredient preparation. You may use full sheets of nori for your sushi rolls, or cut them in half lengthwise with a pair of scissors.

If your wasabi is not already prepared, mix some with water in a little bowl to form a thick paste. You won't need to make more than a few spoonfuls, since it's fiery hot.

In a small bowl, mix water and a little rice vinegar. This is called su, and it's for moistening your hands so rice doesn't stick to them.

Form nigiri sushi

You may not make perfectly formed nigiri on your first attempt (or your second or third), but your results should look presentable (and be oh, so highly edible). Ideally, sushi is served as it's made, so start assembling it when you and your guests are ready to eat. (Go to Step 7 for some guidelines on serving.)

Prepare. Set rice, prepared nigiri toppings, wasabi paste, su, and serving plates on the counter. Moisten your hands in the su, then shake or clap them once to get rid of extra water.

Mold rice. Each piece of nigiri should be a big mouthful, so scoop up about 2 tablespoons (30 grams) of rice (roughly the size of a turtle egg). Gently press and shape it in your palm into an oval that's slightly smaller than your slices of fish.

Place fish. With your index finger, spread a dab of wasabi down the center of a fish slice. (Omit the wasabi if you prefer.) Gently press the fish into the top of the rice, wasabi side down. The fish should droop a little over the ends of the rice oval. Place the formed nigiri on a serving plate, and make another of the same kind to serve with it.

Note: Some nigiri ingredients, including omelet, eel, and some fish roe, are traditionally held onto the rice with a little strip of nori. If you're using these ingredients, cut nori with scissors into strips 1/4 inch (6 millimeters) wide and 4 inches (10 centimeters) long. Lay the nori widthwise across the top of the nigiri and wrap the long ends under the bottom of the piece. Stick its ends together with a drop of su.

Roll maki sushi

Rolling maki sushi is slightly trickier to master, but once you become adept at the technique, you won't ever want to stop (except briefly, to eat what you've just made).

Prepare. Set the sushi mat down on the counter in front of you, placed so you can roll it away from you. Place a sheet of nori (or a half-sheet if you like), shiny side down, on top of the mat with the shorter axis facing you. Moisten your hands in su and clap or shake them once.

Spread rice. Scoop up about a cup (150 grams) of rice (or half that amount for a half-sheet) and place it on the nori. Gently spread it with your hands in a thin, even layer, leaving a 1/4-inch (6-millimeter) border of nori at the bottom and sides and a 3/4-inch (1.8-centimeter) border at the top.

Fill. Take a little wasabi and spread it in a thin line across the center of the rice, from one side to the other. (Omit the wasabi if you prefer.) On top of the wasabi, lay strips of fish, vegetables, or omelet in a line. If you're using a half-sheet of nori, the filling should be no more than 1/2 inch (1.25 centimeters) thick; if you're using a full sheet, it can be more than 3/4 inch (1.8 centimeters).

Roll. Lift the edge of the bamboo mat closest to you and fold it (and the rice-covered nori inside it) up over the filling in the middle. Picture the mat and nori as a small wave breaking over the top of the filling. When the rice-covered nori touches down on the other side of the filling, the rice will adhere to the rice and nori there.

If you're using a half-sheet, this one fold will probably have met the top edge of the nori, and you'll have a cylinder of sushi. If there's more rice and nori showing at the top of the mat, keep hold of the edge of the bamboo mat. Don't tuck it under the roll, but keep guiding it parallel to the mat and countertop in a straight line (so it keeps a U-shaped curve). Press your other hand lightly on top of the curve of the mat as you roll the sushi cylinder over the remaining nori.

When the nori is all rolled up and adhered together, unroll the mat so it lies flat with the sushi cylinder on top of it. Then re-roll the mat around the sushi cylinder. Encircle the mat-wrapped cylinder with a hand at either end, squeeze gently, and hold for a few seconds. This solidifies the roll. Unroll the mat, and place the sushi cylinder on a cutting board.

Slice. First, trim the ends of the cylinder and eat the trimmings. (Chef's privilege--yum!) Now cut the cylinder in half, and slice each half into three or four pieces of equal size. Arrange on a small serving plate.

Serve the sushi

Presentation can get pretty jazzy (books have been written on the subject); here are the essential items you and your guests will need to enjoy the feast.

Condiments. On each serving dish (or in separate little bowls if you have lots of small serving dishes), put a little mound of wasabi for guests to mix into their soy sauce. Similarly, give them each a small spoonful of pickled ginger. Put out a bottle or small carafe of soy sauce. Each diner should have a little dish for the soy sauce.

Chopsticks. While chopsticks aren't necessary for eating sushi (in fact, aficionados usually eat with their hands), they're handy for stirring together wasabi and soy sauce and for picking up pieces of ginger. The shorter, lightweight Japanese ones are easier to use for sushi than are the longer Chinese ones.

Give each guest a napkin or two (things can get a little messy).

Don't be disheartened if your nigiri and maki don't look very professional at the start. This is one art whose rehearsal is truly its own reward.

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