My secret shame is that any food requiring a tightly rolled pile of ingredients with a fragile shell tends to break under the weight of my enthusiasm. When I smoked, I was bad at making handrolled cigarettes. My jelly rolls always turned into trifles which, while delicious, were not the yule log I was actually attempting to make. It has taken almost a decade for me to consider my home made rolled omelets passable for handrolled sushi night. I am good at making sauces and fillings for maki and my rice is even good but I cannot master the art of rolling. While Rabbit is the past master of making maki look gorgeous I just suck at it. I love sushi. I thought I was going to have to submit myself to begging Rabbit to roll every time we made it or ponying up for what was an extremely expensive taste in the plains even though at the time I was rarely eating the fish kind and mostly stuck with veggie sushi.
About two years after I met my Rabbit, I was hanging out with Rabbit, Sisterlady, Lawyer Duo, and Yeti Lawyer. Sisterlady introduced me to The Editor, her best friend. After a nice day with them hanging out in KC we adjourned to The Editor's house with newly purchased fish. Sisterlady and I helped finish up the veggie chopping while the Editor finished up the miso soup and prepped some fish fillings. When we got to the table there was a soup, big rice cooker full of seasoned rice, several plates of veg filling and two kinds of fish fillings. The Editor then took out 2 pkg of Nori (under 2$ a pkg there as it is here) and cut them into 1/4ths with a pair of scissors and put that on another plate. We folded the squares diagonally stuffed in little bits of rice and fillings and rolled them into cones ...all of which is way easier than making maki, at least for me. Thus was born my habit of making sushi for random dinners, my love affair with the rice cooker and the standby of handroll potlucks (where everyone brings a different topping and the host provides miso soup, rice, nori and beverages. I usually also make sure to make the sauces. The appeal here is that everyone gets what they want. The meaty people get their fish. The vegans can avoid the egg and the soup is still good without the tuna. Sushi is generally dairy free, veggie rich, and gluten free provided one carefully reads labels.
The ingredients:
2 cups Rice + 4 cups water
cook rice as usual In my case this means pulling out my rice cooker
you may stove top..be careful not to stir too much
when cooked mix in
2 tb sugar
3 tb rice vinegar (don't try and sub here...it's foul)
1shot sake or mirin
into your cooked rice
fan with a hand fan (or stir in front of a very clean box fan) as you slowly stir this in until the surface rice is slightly sticky but dry -you will be familiar with the texture if you have eaten sushi
Usual suspect fillings
Shitake- soak dried mushrooms in warm water until plump. squeeze out and stack 3-4. Roll these to slice as you would chiffonade.
Cucumber. Peel or not to peel. That is the question. Either way make 1-2 inch by 1/4 in vertical match sticks pieces and remove the seeds. Use them in gazpacho or something.
Avocado. Save making this until your guests are arriving. Slice in half Vertically.Remove pit by thwacking your knife into the pit and twisting gently. Then remove flesh of avocado with a spoon. Cut into preferred shapes. Assume for 2X as many avocados as you think is reasonable as I have literally only met 1 person who hates avocado enough to pass it up in Sushi.
Kimchi and other pickles- shred so it doesn't bust open your rolls
mung beans sprouts-just wash them
Carrots. Peel and shred.
green onions=cut into 1-2 inch segments and shred vertically.
Spicy tuna filling-
I eat fish. Rabbit does not. There is no local place close enough for me to trust that my tuna will be safe and so I go without most of the time. This is not worth getting if it's just us. If you happen to live near a fishmonger with sushi quality tuna then grab 1 filet of sushi quality tuna on the day you will have your fish/ keep cool and refrigerate immediately.
Use this recipe
tamago-good recipe also on this site
http://www.howtomakegreatsushi.com/2009/12/how-to-make-spicy-tuna-filling.html
Instead I ask for 1-2 tiny slices of lox at the deli and slice it- yes I know this is cheating. It's still yummy in the rolls
we always also add sriracha mayo- or equal parts sriracha and mayo or veganaise stirred with a fork until pinky orange.
Note for gf reader DO NOT buy Aka miso if making miso along side your sushi...there is barley in it. Read the labels to make sure your miso has no modified food starch, msg, barley, or added soysauce as unless labeled otherwise soysauce contains wheat. Generally you will have two or three brands of white miso to select from after reading the 30 varieties usually present as most pan asian markets. Miso lasts for about 6 months so be prepared to use it in a variety of contexts or to make alot of soup (no hardship in my house).
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