Sushi: how to make at home and what to put in them please

[PureBloodMuggle]

I've finally come to the conclusion that sandwiches aren't the way to go with me due to the lead like eyelids and heavy limb feeling they produce in me.

I like sushi and totally and utterly refuse to have to pay five plus euro for a box each day. Especially when it's not 'real' sushi (though to be prefectly honest I don't mind it not being raw fish just I don't want to pay that much for tinned tuna and cucumber)

I'm prepared to make my own at home but I'm a bit clueless, can anyone:

Give me some tips
Tell me what I need (which shouldn't be hard seeing there's a large Asian market nearby - horrah!!)
Suggest what sort of things are nice to put in them

Thank you very much

Tinned tuna and cucumber sushi are precisely what I put in DS1's lunch box this morning!

Get on youtube and type in "how to make sushi". That's how I learned.

I tend to do tinned tuna and cucumber sushi when we are out of stuff for packed lunch. Other nice things I've done are smoked salmon, ham, seared fresh tuna.

If you are rolling maki sushi you need a mat. But you can do all kinds. I do maki for packed lunch because it's easy to scoff.

Thanks - shall take a look at youtube.

Also trying to recall what the rice formed into triangles (or balls) covered in nori were called to be able to look them up!

Certainly not knocking tuna and cucumber - think it's very tasty!!

avocado, carrot, ham, smoke salmon, what ever you fancy really.

you need rice vinegar, japanese gluttonous rice, and nori and wasabi and soy sause. lots of instructions online

Rice balls - onigiri. I did rice balls with chicken once. It was yummy.

Check this out for ideas for lovely looking packed lunches!

Onigiri!! Thankyou!!!

tuna with mayo and chilli powder
smoked salmon and cream cheese
tempura fried prawns with lime mayo
crab meat with mayo, lime and chilli, spring onions

How to make it! This is how I started...
www.rain.org/~hutch/sushi.html#Contents

Best thing is that these days you can get most supplies from local supermarkets -
I used to have to get stuff from little Oriental shops here and there.

Now I have small boy and I just don't have the time to spend 4h on a Saturday making silly amounts of sushi for a dinner party - ah well those times will come again!

(And if you can get some thick pieces of smoked salmon - Waitrose used to call it tsar fillet but now it seems to have vanished from my local :( - it works for both maki and nigiri.)

Oh and if you get serious, do get a proper Japanese knife. I have to hide mine on top of the bookshelves as it will take a finger off...)

that sounds dangerous - caresses fingers fondly

I was in the Asian market today to get a few spices and got some rice and nori whilst I was there so will give it a go

Like those fillings ongakgak

Oooh! I made it for a starter on sunday, LOVE LOVE LOVE sushi! We had Smoked Salmon and Avocado - with a tiny bit of mayo and freshly ground black pepper - California Rolls (with the Nori/Seaweed inside and sesame seeds on the outside). Once you have the rolling mat - which really does help - and all the basic ingredients you can go wild!

If you do temaki rolls you can just provide the ingredients and the guests can roll their own rolls. It's great fun, especially with kids.

I have a 15-year-old kitchen devil knife and it works for cutting sushi - dampen it a bit, and cut quick. It's fine. But sharp Japanese knife. Though a Japanese friend told me that Japanese people get German knives ...

My DH's kitchen knife is German, but even he admits it's not as sharp as my Japanese one. But he can't use the Japanese knife as it's sharpened for a right-hander...

I got it from Divertimenti on a trip to London. It was b. expensive but I was approaching a significant birthday... There are many types, depending on how it's sharpened and what type of steel.

ps Always cover the rolling mat in clingfilm!

Its easy enough when you have done it a few times. Mine are still quite big.

You can get everything you need from Waitrose if you aren't lucky enough to have an Oriental shop like the OP.

YOu can put pretty much anything inside a Maki. Just remember to let the sushi rice cool a little while before you use it.

< hijack > Moonbell what knife is it?

Suffering from knife-envy...

www.japaneseknifecompany.com/
www.divertimenti.co.uk/Knives/Japanese_knives

but ouch they are waaay more expensive than mine. Which now you've all reminded me about it, I find I can't locate! Wah! Must have put it in a very baby-safe place, so safe I stupidly can't remember where...

I've just made DDs Maki rolls for her packed lunch, not allowed seeds/nuts at school or would be a bit more adventurous

but shes happy with any veg combination, such as thin sticks of cucumber & pepper, or carrots, or spinach, & sometimes baby corn with tuna, or bit of salmon with Cucumber

use rice vinegar mixed with agave syrup for a healthier coating to help the rice sticky up, but heat to dissolve a bit of sugar into it otherwise - & Sushi rice is best, but I've used pudding rice before & it worked fine

I find making whilst the rice still warm helps them not fall apart

& having spent ages trying to find a small pot/container to buy for a bit of soy sauce - gave up & then spotted an old (unused ) poo sample pot....you know the brown tube with a spoon attached to the lid......took the label off & it makes a great sauce pot ....no-one has noticed yet - but you could always decorate it

Thanks moonbell! My local kitchen shop has that Global one. Looks good. But 70+ pounds. Hmm. Must think carefully.

I have a vauge memory of Jamie Oliver talking about being on TV in Japan (food show) and chopping the tip of his finger off with the knife they provided!!

Couldn't find a rolling mat in the market yesterday - though I will return, it's a bit of a mad place really, bit of everything and anything you can think of, some things appear randomly like the 200 litre bottle of HP sauce (I may have exaggerated on the amount there a tad!!). But there will be a rolling mat tucked away somewhere!!!

Found it! (phew) and relocated to where we thought it was in the first place.

Houcho by Satake is what I have. Not as expensive today as it was then, oddly. Though the only place who has it now is out of stock. Ah well, glad I found it!

If you need a mat they're about £2 so give us a shout and I'll post one... (pm me)

I made this:

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/11617/japanese-salmon-and-avocado-rice

It was delicious and very simple.

Got the mat today (thanks for the offer moonbells!!)

I'm shock to discover that seeing they are around £2 in UK that we aren't being ripped off in Ireland (for once!!)

Shall get rolling