I know other people out there are sushi fans. Some of you probably want to try making sushi yourself but are intimidated by the process. Its pretty simple once you have some guidance. There are three key ingredients: sashimi grade fish, rice, and a quality knife.
Sashimi Grade Fish
I stopped at a few sushi restaurants after I got the idea to make my own sushi. I asked the chefs where they got their fish from and I received very ambiguous answers like ’some guy’,'chicago fish market’, or ‘columbus fish market’. I would not be buying in any type of decent quantity, so the travelling fish markets were out. Unfortunately I found that there was no good place in Cleveland to buy reliable sashimi grade fish. Occasionally you can find fish labelled sashimi grade at the grocery store, but it is invariably tuna. there are quite a few other delicious raw fish which you can eat, so limiting your dinner to tuna only defeats the purpose. Sushi making is an exercise in diversity, simplicity, presentation, etc.
Like any new area in your life, terminology can be intimidating. Sushi takes many words from Japanese, which i am not a master of. Here are some common ones:
General Sushi Terms
Sashimi - Raw fish, often served by itself
Sushi - Special Quality short grained Rice
Nigiri - Flat piece of fish laid on top of a bed of rice
Nori - Seaweed paper
Maki - Sushi rice and fish rolled up in nori then often cut into 6 or 8 pieces.
Fish Types
Maguro - Tuna (most popular because of lack of ‘fishy’ taste. good virgin sampler)
Sake - Salmon
Unagi - Freshwater Barbequed Eel
Hamachi - Yellowtail
Tako - Octopus
Ebi - Shrimp
Mackerel - Saba
Now that you have a basic grasp of the terms, where do you buy the fish? Luckily there is a great site called Catalina Offshore Products where you can buy all these varieties of fish and more. They even have complete sushi party sets which deliver all the fish and accessories you need to host a perfect party. Having used them a few times, I will vouch for the fact their fish is of high quality. Many times at a restaurant, the fish will sit in their refridgeration units for a few days causing it to taste poor. Catalina ships the fish frozen via next-day delivery to ensure premium freshness. Thaw the fish in your refridgerator for a few hours and you are ready to start.
Rice
Sushi grade rice you can buy in many places. Make sure it is short grained. You can check out Whole Foods, Wild Oats, or any more boutique food store to find it. Make sure to also have a rice cooker. These you can find for cheap at wal-mart. Before you put the rice in the rice cooker, rinse it thoroughly to get all of the dust off of it. The water will be milky as you rinse it. Keep rinsing until it is mostly clear. At this point start cooking it. Once you have finished cooking it, add a seasoning packet from Catalina to the mixture. Mix thoroughly. You can season the rice yourself, but I prefer the ease of the all-in-one packet. Now that the rice is ready, you are ready to start slicing some cold dead fish.
Knife & Fish Prep
Having a quality knife is key. Fish is tough to slice through and you need a super sharp knife with a long beveled edge to slice correctly. I picked up a special sashimi knife at TJ Maxx for $20. I also bought a knife sharpener stick because keeping it sharp, including sharpening during your prep at times, is essential. It should be so sharp that gently running your thumb across the blade from side to side should produce a noticeable roughness. Dont cut yourself, no one likes blood in their food and you look like an idiot. I’ve only had one cutting incident and it involved someone reaching in to grab a nigiri while i was cutting. I ended up spearing them. If you cant find a good knife, google for sashimi knife. You should be able to find a decent one. Made in Japan is generally better I think. The other key regarding the knife is that besides keeping it very sharp at all times you are cutting is to keep it clean. When you start cutting, the blade gets gummed with rice, fish, etc. Its best to have a small towel soaked with vinegar handy to wipe down the knife between messy cuts. If there is too much garbage on the blade, it will effectively dull and your fish cut will be difficult or impossible.
Now that you have the knife ready to go, get out the fish and form it into easily cuttable blocks. If you are making nigiri, you should be cutting evenly sized slices that fit just over the bed of rice. You also must cut against the grain of the fish. The grain is the fatty striations which run down the fish. Its very easy to see in salmon and easy to see in tuna. The cut you make should be as close to perpendicular to the fatty lines to ensure an even slice. Getting the motion down right for the slice is tough. You need to practice and you will mess up. It is best to do it in one clean motion down the length of the knife and try to avoid a “sawing” motion if at all possible. If you find yourself sawing, the knife is probably too dull or needs to be wiped. Dont worry about wasting fish by cutting it into a block. It is best to have the perfectly shaped nigiri piece. I use the excess I cut off for sashimi or maki later.
To make maki, you will need a small roller. You can buy one from catalina offshore. Put a sheet of Nori down, put a bed of rice and some fish bits then roll up the nori around the bed. You want to arrange the nori, rice, and fish so that it rolls up like a cigar. Practice makes perfect and you will get this wrong a few times. I wet the end of the Nori with water to seal up the roll. Now you have a long tube of maki. Cut it in 6 or 8 pieces depending on length and serve.
Sushi isnt that hard, you will be having fun in no time!
