John and I love sushi. We go out for it at least once a week. For any of you that enjoy it, you know how big of an expense that can be. One day, he and I decided to take a stab at making our own, in an attempt to save some money.
Believe it or not, we were able to get all of our cooking ingredients from our local market. (We went to Whole Foods – not a chain grocery store like Stop & Shop. It was slightly more expensive but not by much…we knew we would get exactly what we were looking for there).
We bought:
- Sushi-grade Salmon
- Sushi-grade Tuna
- Imitation crab sticks
- Avocado
- Cucumber
- Sushi rice
- Nori Seaweed
- Tobiko (small fish eggs for added texture)
- Pickled Ginger
Our fish of choice
John has had experience rolling sushi, as he owns an as-needed catering company – aside from his entertainment business. (He’s only really busy catering around the Holidays). But this was my first attempt at the process. Actually, it’s more like a procedure. Everything has to be precise or else the roll will fall apart on you.
Of course, the first step in the process was cooking the sushi rice. Sushi rice is slightly different in that cooks differently so it can maintain that sticky texture. You can try using other rice, but it won’t hold together as well. Once the rice was cooked and cooled, we began assembling our rolls.
**Disclaimer: if you want to try rolling your own sushi, make sure you dampen your hands with a little water or sesame oil. If you don’t, you’ll have a nice new pair of rice gloves for the winter :). It’s sticky stuff!**
Sushi rice and Nori
Keep a little space of seaweed uncovered so you have something to adhere the other end to.
You can buy sushi rolling kits almost anywhere. My aunt got me and my sister one for Christmas last year. It comes with a bamboo mat that is used for rolling and forming the sushi. Unfortunately, I’m not the one who has it; so we used plastic wrap instead.It didn’t come out as bad as I thought, but the mat definitely would have been easier.
Note to self: steal kit from sister…..
Formed inside-out roll!
I had a hard time assembling the inside-out rolls – the ones where the rice is on the outside. Everything kept falling apart; so I left John in charge of those. I will say, though, that I made a mean looking roll when the seaweed was on the outside!
My handmade Spicy Salmon roll topped with Spicy Mayo
To make some of our rolls spicy, John put together a spicy mayo concoction, which is:
- Mayonnaise
- Sriracha
- Vinegar
- green onions
- and a dash of soy sauce
We made a total of five different rolls. It was a time consuming endeavor, but well worth it.
We’re gluttons, it’s fine.
We figured we spent fifty dollars total on all of the ingredients and was able to get the equivalent of four restaurant meals out of it. Of course, because we’re sushi gluttons, we only got two meals :). When comparing it to the restaurant we usually visit: we get three rolls, soup and salad for $12 a person (that’s the lunch special); but when making it ourselves we estimated it to be around $5 a person. Not bad if I do say so myself :).
A Picky Eater's Adventure in Food 