Kate blogs regularly at My Mommy Brain. This recipe was originally featured there.
My kids and I love (cooked) sushi. My 14-year-old will eat pretty much any kind of sushi, even the raw stuff, but I just can’t get over the raw fish factor so I stick to what I call safe things like California Rolls, Caterpillar rolls (my favorite), vegetable rolls and anything with tempura.
I did recently learn that I like seared tuna. I had the opportunity to taste some and my friends pretty much made me give it a try. I’m glad I did as I was pleasantly surprised.
Now, back to the vegetable rolls. With a family of seven, we can’t afford to go out and get sushi as often as we would like. Honestly? It’s just too expensive. Since I love to cook a friend suggested that I start making my own. Truthfully it had never crossed my mind. Make my own sushi? How difficult would that be?
So for the past few months I’ve been eyeing sushi-making kids on Amazon. (All product links included below are affiliate links.) After doing extensive research on all of the different kits, options, and recommendations, I ended up ordering this Sushi Rolling Kit, it had great reviews, simple instructions and didn’t include a lot of things I didn’t need or want cluttering up my already gadget-heavy kitchen.
I also did a lot of research on Nori before finally purchasing Sushi Nori Premium Roasted Organic Seaweed by One Organic.
I wasn’t disappointed with either item.
The only other item I would highly recommend is a very sharp knife. I ended up purchasing the non-stick Sushi Chef’s Knife. It was very sharp and made easy work of cutting the rolls perfectly.
We made three kinds of sushi: California Rolls, Cucumber Rolls, and Vegetable Rolls.
All three were a huge hit, easy to make and were gobbled up so quickly I’m surprised someone didn’t lose a finger.
- 2 cups sushi or short grain rice
- 2 cups water (plus extra for rinsing rice)
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ½ tablespoon kosher salt
- Place the rice into a mixing bowl and cover with cool water.
- Swirl the rice in the water, pour off and repeat 2 to 3 times or until the water is clear.
- Place the rice and 2 cups of water into a medium pan and place over high heat.
- Bring to a boil, uncovered.
- Once it begins to boil, reduce the heat to the lowest setting and cover.
- Cook for 15 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and let stand, covered, for 10 minutes.
- Combine the rice vinegar, sugar and salt in a small bowl and heat in the microwave on high for 30 to 45 seconds.
- Transfer the rice into a large wooden or glass mixing bowl and add the vinegar mixture.
- Fold thoroughly to combine and coat each grain of rice with the mixture.
- Allow to cool to room temperature before using to make sushi or sashimi.
- ½ cucumber, seeded and cut into matchsticks
- 1 carrot, cut into matchsticks
- ½ firm-ripe avocado, peeled, thinly sliced lengthwise, sprinkled with lemon juice
- 4 sheets toasted Nori
- sushi rice
- Place 1 sheet of nori, shiny side down, on the mat.
- Wet your fingers with water and spread about ½ cup of the rice evenly onto the nori leaving with 1½-inches uncovered at the far edge. Line up the fillings about 1-inch from the closest near edge, evenly across the rice. Leave 1-inch of rice uncovered at the far edge.
- Place ⅛ of the cucumber, carrot, and avocado in the center of the sheet.
- Grab the edge of the mat closest to you, keeping the fillings in place with your fingers, and roll it into a tight cylinder, using the mat to shape the cylinder.
- Open the mat, dab unsealed edge of nori with a bit of water and roll the sushi forward to seal.
- Transfer to a plate and cover with damp paper towels.
- Repeat with remaining rice and ingredients.
- Cut each roll into 8 pieces with a sharp, wet knife.
Head over to My Mommy Brain to find the California Rolls recipe.
I hope you’ll give these a try and let me know how they turn out!