Making Sushi Rolls at Home

In June 2002 the long awaited and planned trip to Vienna with our secondary class finally came to happen. We had been looking forward to it for a while. Four odd teenage years and a hundreds of agonizing watchful school days later and we were off to experience a different scenery for a whole week. The city was calling my name and I could only see a glimpse of hope, a certain smell of freedom was lingering in the air. I was never the popular kid. No I was the geeky frenchi and I did try my best to avoid troubles and politics, however I was aware of the insults and idiotic words thrown at me. Yet, I was prepared and my plan was to show those kids that they were wrong about me all those years. Seriously, my show was perfect, and yes I did get the respect which I had been striving for. Contact lenses, a dress and my experience for traveling were my weapons. That day was the day when I finally found my self esteem and trust into my self and from that day onwards I had been bolder and I was ready to explore the world in peace.

After visiting Schönbrunn & Belvedere palaces, the St.Stephan’s Cathedral and so on we got the chance to visit the Naschmarkt, an old and popular market area in Vienna. For a few hours we were free to roam about and do our little shopping. I and 2 friends took some time to roam about and then I saw it, a real Sushi Restaurant!! I had never eaten Sushi before, of course I had heard about it and seen it occasionally on TV, but that was about it. So with all my elan I dragged my two friends into the place and somehow convinced them to have some with me. The Sushi was super expensive but I didn’t care, I needed to give it a try. I was in a craze all of a sudden and I could believe that I  controlled everything. The Sushi came, I had a bite and I was smitten, my friends on the other hand didn’t find it that cool. I don’t know why, but I never forgot this day and the Sushi became a  sign for a new beginning in my life.

Ten Year later my love for Sushi has only grown in size. The sole issue for a while now was the fact that certain ingredients were not available here in Goa. Fortunately my Bavarian friend and I had been planning to make homemade sushi for over a year, so she brought some ingredients from Germany back to Goa. Further I arranged for some fresh ingredients such as veggies and prawns for the filling. Making Sushi rolls at home is fun if you have a friend joining the making. Even if you are planning to make it by yourself, you will realize how easy it can be. For sure the Japanese have their special rolling and cutting techniques and of course they own some great knowledge all around their national food, oh and let’s not forget how detailed they are and how well they decorate food. Just look at Nami’s amazing creations, she posts from her Japanese kitchen at Just One Cookbook.

However we were not striving to make the prettiest Sushi or the most unusual, we were set on having a blast and in the same time we decided to fill the Sushis to our liking. Sushi is something special and fresh that comes from the anime and video gaming lands, it is so unique and exotic to us that it holds a special place at least in my food experience. I don’t indulge it that often, I wish I did though, but then most probably it wouldn’t be anything special anymore. Therefore, I believe it is a dish that you can try to make to treat your senses on one fine day when you feel bored at home. A cloudy, cold, rainy day might turn sunny with a colorful scrumptious sushi roll. Or how about calling your neighbor, who you hadn’t had the time to spend with in a while, and plan together on making sushi rolls at home? I can tell you one thing that it is a relaxing therapy to succeed a neat sushi roll and a certain feeling of pride comes to light as well.

I am not an expert, just a lover and crass sushi fan, BUT I decided a making Sushi rolls post was needed because apparently the whole world still thinks that sushi is just raw fish. That isn’t the case, in fact the small amounts of prawns and calamari I used were precooked for a short while. We decided to do that, although our fish was fresh from the Goan harbor, because we wanted to go sure since the temperatures were soaring that day. Here we filled our sushi rolls with Cucumbers, Paprika, Carrots, Prawns and Calamari pieces. Some had all the ingredients some had only cucumbers or prawns, I call it freestyle Sushi making. A few rolls were smaller since we cut the Nori Seeweads into two, but most of them were bigger rolls. I thought today I would just introduce you to the making of Sushi and let you choose a filling of your choice. Have fun!

Making Sushi Rolls at Home

 

Author:

Helene D’Souza

Cuisine: Japanese

Prep time: 15 mins

Total time: 15 mins

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Ingredients

• Cooked Sushi Rice => How to make Sushi Rice http://justonecookbook.com/blog/how-to/how-to-make-sushi-rice/
• Veggies of your choice. We used Cucumber, Yellow Bell Pepper and Carrots.
• Fresh Seafood of your choice. We used Prawns and Calamari. You can also work with Salmon or Tuna cuts.
• Nori Seaweed sheets
• Bamboo Mat for rolling covered with cling foil

Instructions

1. Place a Seaweed sheet on top of the Bamboo mat and add the cooked rice on top of that. Spread the rice well with your hands so that you have a good layer of that. The rice will be sticky so try to keep your hands always a bit wet with water. Add your favorite filling on top. We used in lenght cut Cucumber, Paprika and Carrot (for some crunch) pieces.
2. %http://masalaherb.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Making-Sushi-Rolls-at-Home-11.jpg
3. Time to roll it up! Take the bamboo mat ending as shown and roll it carefully and keep on pressing on the vegetable while rolling the seaweed.
4. Press the roll firmly, the wrap needs to be tight so that nothing falls out. Continue to roll it until it is properly sealed. At this point you can use your finger to shape it into a square if you want.
5. To cut the rolls into sushi bits, I would suggest to use a big sharp knife. I kept on wetting my knife too a bit so that the cutting would work easier and smoother. We made a lots so I kept some rolls in the fridge in between. We realized that when the rolls are cold it is easier to cut them into pieces.
6. You can also make some easier sushi type by forming little amounts of sushi rice in your hands (see picture). We cooked the prawns for 3 minutes in boiling water by first poking a toothpick through the prawns, so that they remain straight while cooking. After they are cooked we cut them open on the belly side, flattened them and placed them on top of the formed sushi rice.
7. Serve and indulge the Sushi with a Wasabi paste/dark liquid Soy Sauce mixture.

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 More useful Sushi making Sources:

How to make Sushi Rice?

How to prepare Shrimp for Sushi?

Temari Sushi Recipe

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Tagged as: homemade, making, prawns, rolls, step by step, sushi, veg