Sushi Recipe

I wanted to help all those adventurous cooks by posting a real easy sushi recipe that will have your friends and family amazed by your talents. Sushi's popularity is soaring everywhere but did you know it can be one of the easiest foods to make at home? In no time you will be considered a sushi master if you follow these easy steps!

Before I start it's important to clarify one thing. Sushi doesn't need to have raw fish. I know there are lots of folks out there that either are worried about eating raw fish or can't fathom the idea of actually consuming it. Sushi is simply a food of vinegared rice combined with other ingredients. Those other ingredients can either be fish, vegetables or even meat. So, for the purposes of this posting I'm going to outline a sushi recipe that is vegetarian. We are going to make a Cucumber Roll, or what is called in Japanese a "Kappa Maki". In later postings I promise to add another sushi recipe that explains how to make a more fancy roll.

For this sushi recipe we need to do 2 things - (1) make the rice and (2) roll the rice with our cucumber.

PART 1 - RICE SUSHI RECIPE

There are 7 simple steps to making good Sushi rice:

Step 1 - Mix together 1 cup of water with 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar and 1 teaspoon of salt to prepare what is known as Tezu.

Step 2 - Wash 2 cups of rice (preferably sushi rice you can get from your local market) until the water runs clear when draining. Let the rice then strain for 30 minutes before moving it into a heavy pot and adding 2.5 cups of water

Step 3 - Cook the rice until it boils and then put a lid on the pot and simmer the rice to steam for 18 minutes. Then turn the heat off and let the pot stand covered for another 15 minutes.

Step 4 - Prepare Sushi Vinegar by mixing 4 tablespoons of rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt. Heat this mixture until the sugar dissolves and then let the vinegar cool to room temperature.

Step 5 - Take a wooden spatula and cut and fold the rice.

Step 6 - Moisten a flat wooden bowl with a cloth dampened with your Tezu mixture you made in Step 1. Put the hot rice into your bowl and add one-fourth of the vinegar solution from Step 4. Mix with a folding motion so as to not smash the rice. Repeat until all the sushi vinegar is used.

Step 7 -Fan your rice (an electric fan will work) for about 5 or 6 minutes in order to remove excess moisture and create a glossy shine .

PART 2 - MAKING THE CUCUMBER ROLL

Now the easy and fun bit. First cut a cucumber into thin, long sticks. Then put a dried seaweed sheet (called nori) on top of a bamboo mat. You can buy both quite cheap in most mainstream markets. Spread your rice on top of the seaweed sheet and place the cucumber sticks lengthwise on the rice. Finally, roll up the bamboo mat, pressing forward to shape the sushi into a cylinder. Press the bamboo mat firmly and remove it from the sushi. All you have to do now is cut the rolled sushi into bite sized pieces and enjoy, enjoy!

WANT TO LEARN MORE? - MY RECOMMENDATION

If you can't wait to get your hands on another sushi recipe or just want to learn more about this great food I would suggest you get hold of a copy of Sushi for Dummies - which has been invaluable to me. At the end of this hubpage you'll see some links to this book and a few others.

Good luck!