Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Temaki Sushi ~ Hand Rolled Sushi


We have been eating Japanese on and off these two weeks to sort of cool down after the many rich Italian dishes. And sushi has to be the most common staple. It makes simple, healthy meal. Basically, sushi is a combination of rice and seasonal seafood and/or a varieties of vegetables, combined in many ways ~ maki sushi, temaki sushi, futomaki sushi, nigiri-sushi, chirashi-sushi.

Like most Japanese food, sushi can be made easily at home but it must be noted that strictness in terms of ingredients and precision in the making process makes it something that takes professionals many years to master. So homemade sushi will always be homemade, for it would be quite impossible to achieve the proper professional standards especially in the area of knife work. But hey, it is still as tasty.


Among them all, the easiest has to temaki-sushi which is a hand-rolled cone made of nori-seaweed sheets, filled with sushi rice and a variety of other things. This one is easy to do & does not need any special equipment. And in a party environment, you can even get your guests to DIY their own.


Make8-10 pcs
300gm of short grain rice (preferrably Japanese)
350 to 400 gm of water
20ml of Japanese rice vineger (more if you like your rice more sourish)
a pinch of sugar say 1/2 teasp.

1) Wash rice and cook in rice cooker. Once cooked, place rice in a wooden or metal bowl and stir the rice to separate grain. Try slicing motion rather than stirring.

2) Drizzle vinegar and sugar and distribute evenly. Continue stir-slicing while having a fan blowing nearby all the time. Let the rice cool till your hand can hold on to it. If it's too hot, you will spoil the nori sheets (becomes wrinkly). Too cold, rice will be hard.

The best rice texture is slightly sticky yet the grain looks separate from each other.

4-5 nori sheets, slightly trimmed off the two ends and cut into two pieces
1/2 cup of japanese mayonaise
wasabi if you like
You can do basically any filling. Some suggested filling, cut to about 6 or 7 cm long are as following:
Crab stick, fish roe, cucumber, avocado and lettuce
Unagi - grilled eels, lettuce
Fishes like salmon, tuna with cucumber and lettuce
Terayaki chicken, avocados, carrots and lettuce
Deveined and deshelled and cooked jumbo shrimps with avocadoes and cucumber.


3) Take a small fistful of rice and place on the halved nori sheets. Fill up half of nori sheet. Spread and flatten evenly but don't press too tightly. The thickness should be about 3-4 grains of rice. Lift onto your hand.


4) Spread mayonaise and wasabi, followed by fillings, pointing to top left corner of sheets. Take the left bottom corner and fold pointing to the top right corner.



5) Using your finger, start rolling into a cone shape, tightening as you roll.


6) Serve in Temaki stand or place nicely on a nice flat plate.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Maeda Nice meeting you too. thank you for visiting us. i hope i am not embarrassing myself by talking about Jap food in the presence of Japanese.

will visit the site you mentioned. thanks.

WoMbOk™♂ said...

Oo~ Subarashii!

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