Homemade Sushi
Homemade sushi offers a fun, exciting way to enjoy Japanese cuisine right in your own kitchen. One of the greatest advantages of making sushi at home is its versatility. You can customize every aspect, from the type of rice and fish to the fillings and toppings, ensuring that the final product reflects your personal tastes and preferences. Even if you live in an area where fresh fish is not easily accessible, there are numerous alternatives and creative solutions that make homemade sushi achievable for everyone.
If fresh fish isn’t an option, you can use ingredients like imitation crab, cooked shrimp, or even tempura vegetables. These alternatives not only provide delicious flavor but also offer varying textures and colors, making your sushi visually appealing.
Additionally, you can experiment with vegetables, such as avocado, cucumber, and bell peppers, to create vibrant vegetarian rolls. These options allow you to embrace the core idea of sushi—balancing flavors and textures—while accommodating the ingredients available to you.
Making sushi at home is a fun and interactive experience, perfect for gatherings with family and friends. You can set up a sushi-making station with all the ingredients laid out, allowing everyone to customize their rolls to their liking. This communal aspect of sushi-making fosters creativity and can lead to some unexpected and delightful flavor combinations. Whether you’re following traditional methods or getting adventurous with fusion recipes, homemade sushi can be an exciting culinary journey that brings joy to your table.
Bamboo Mat
A bamboo mat, or makisu as it’s known in Japanese, is a traditional tool essential for rolling sushi, especially for making maki rolls. Here is a link to my recommended bamboo mat. It’s relatively cheap, small, and essential to making good sushi at home.
Made from slender bamboo sticks held together with cotton string, the mat provides a flexible yet sturdy surface that makes it easy to shape sushi rolls tightly. The bamboo gives the right amount of support and grip needed to wrap the rice and filling securely in a seaweed sheet (nori) without sticking. This tool is especially useful for getting the perfect, compact roll that holds its shape when cut into pieces.
Using a bamboo mat also adds a touch of authenticity to the sushi-making process, connecting to traditional Japanese culinary practices. Its natural, lightweight design makes it easy to handle and store, and it can even be used to create other rolled dishes, like tamago (Japanese omelet) or rice paper spring rolls.
For beginners, learning to use a bamboo mat can be a rewarding experience, helping them build confidence as they practice the gentle pressure and rolling technique needed to achieve professional-looking sushi.
To keep the bamboo mat clean and prevent rice from sticking, it’s often wrapped in plastic wrap before use. This not only simplifies cleanup but also protects the mat for future use. With just a little practice, the bamboo mat becomes an indispensable tool for any home sushi enthusiast, making it possible to enjoy the beauty and flavor of sushi right from the kitchen.
Sushi Rice
Sushi rice is a crucial component of many Japanese dishes, known for its unique balance of flavors and texture. When making sushi rice, the key is seasoning it with a simple mixture of rice vinegar, sugar, and salt. This combination transforms regular short-grain rice into the slightly sticky, flavorful foundation perfect for sushi, sushi bowls, and even dishes like sushi bakes.
The rice vinegar adds a subtle tang that brightens the rice without overpowering it, while the sugar provides a mild sweetness that balances the acidity. The salt brings all the flavors together and enhances the overall taste. The result is a delicate, well-rounded flavor that complements the fillings and toppings used in sushi, from fish to vegetables.
To prepare it, the seasoning is gently mixed into freshly cooked, warm rice, allowing the grains to absorb the flavors evenly while retaining the perfect sticky texture. The balance of ingredients is important, as too much or too little of any component can throw off the harmony of the sushi rice. The seasoned rice also becomes slightly glossy, giving it that characteristic sushi rice sheen.
If you want to simplify the process, I recommend using JFC International’s Sushi Seasoning. It’s pre-made and store-bought, saving you some time and purchasing other ingredients you may not already have in your pantry.
Recommended Rice Cookers
Using a rice cooker for sushi ensures that the rice is cooked to perfection with minimal supervision. It’s a great way to make a traditional dish more accessible, especially if you’re pressed for time or prefer a hands-off approach to cooking.
I grew up using rice cookers from the brands Tiger and Zojirushi. Here are a few from them that I would recommend. I’ve linked a few options depending on how large of a rice cooker you need.
Key Features to Look For:
- Multiple Cooking Functions: Ensure it has settings for steaming, slow cooking, and possibly even baking.
- Non-Stick Inner Pot: Makes cleaning easier and prevents sticking.
- Timer and Keep Warm Function: Useful for planning meals ahead of time and keeping them warm until you’re ready to eat.
- Steaming Basket or Tray: Allows you to steam vegetables or cook other ingredients while the rice cooks.
Gari (ガリ) is the thinly sliced, pickled ginger served alongside sushi in Japanese cuisine. It has a delicate, pale pink color and a mildly sweet, slightly tangy flavor. The ginger is pickled in a mixture of rice vinegar, sugar, and salt, which enhances its natural flavors and gives it a refreshing taste that complements the richness of sushi. Traditionally, gari is used as a palate cleanser between bites, allowing diners to fully appreciate the distinct flavors of different types of sushi.
The pinkish hue of gari often occurs naturally when young ginger is pickled, although some commercial varieties may use a bit of food coloring. Its crisp, refreshing qualities make gari an essential part of the sushi experience, offering a clean, bright taste that enhances the enjoyment of each dish.
You can typically find gari in the Asian or international aisle of most grocery stores, often near other Japanese products like soy sauce, wasabi, and nori. It’s usually sold in small jars or plastic containers, either in the refrigerated section or alongside shelf-stable condiments. If your local store doesn’t carry it, you can check an Asian market or order it online here.
Homemade Sushi
- Total Time: 50 minutes
Description
Homemade sushi is a customizable and creative way to enjoy fresh, flavorful rolls with your favorite ingredients right from your own kitchen.
Ingredients
- 1 cup Japanese short-grain or medium-grain rice, uncooked – makes about 2 regular sushi rolls (known as chumaki), or 3 rolls with rice on the outside (known as uramaki)
- Water
- 3 tablespoons sushi seasoning
- 1–2 sheets of nori (Japanese seaweed sheets)
- Dipping Options: soy sauce, wasabi, chili crisp, gari (sushi ginger), roasted sesame seeds sriracha mayo, eel sauce (these last two aren’t typical to eat in Japan, but rather more a Westernized ingredient. Still yummy!)
- Optional: tobiko (fish roe) for topping
- Fillings of your choice, cut into strips (lengthwise):
- 1 avocado
- 1 cucumber (1 cucumber is enough to make several rolls of sushi; I recommend cucumbers with lower water content such as Persian or Japanese)
- 1 carrot (similar to cucumber, will make several rolls of sushi)
- 6–8 oz. fresh salmon or tuna
- Takuan (pickled daikon radish)
To Make Sushi Seasoning:
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Begin by giving your rice a good rinse to clean it. Then pour it into the rice cooker, along with the appropriate amount of water. Be sure to follow the instructions on your rice’s package for the correct water amount depending on the type of rice you are using. I used medium-grain rice, which requires 2 cups of water for every 1.5 cups of rice.
- Keep the rice covered and warm until you are ready to begin rolling. I do this by keeping it in my rice cooker and turning on the “Keep Warm” function. If you do not have this function, simply keep your rice covered with a damp cloth to maintain moisture.
- On a flat, clean surface, lay down your nori sheet. It should be a slight rectangle. Fold it in half lengthwise, cutting down the middle.
- Using your nori sheet as a length reference, cut each of your fillings lengthwise into long strips so that they are the same length as the nori.
- Place the sheet of nori, shiny side down, on a bamboo mat. You can either wet your hands, or for maximum stick prevention, wear plastic gloves and lightly coat them with a neutral oil.
- For Chumaki: Spread a thin layer of sushi rice evenly over the nori, leaving a 1/2-inch border at the top. Place your desired fillings in a line across the center of the rice. Using the bamboo mat, start rolling from the bottom, applying gentle pressure to keep the roll tight. Roll until the nori is sealed.
- For Uramaki: Spread a layer of sushi rice evenly over the nori, completely covering it (if you would like, you can sprinkle roasted sesame seeds to the rice after covering the nori sheet). Turn the nori over so the rice is facing down, then add your desired fillings in a line along the center. Using the bamboo mat, roll the sushi away from you, applying gentle pressure. Ensure the fillings are rolled inside the nori. If desired, you can press more rice on the outside of the roll.
- Use a sharp, wet knife to slice the roll into bite-sized pieces. Feel free to also add about 1/2 teaspoon of tobiko to each individual sushi. Serve with your desired condiments.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes