(Thank you Luis for teaching me better ways of doing this)

There are many different types of sushi, and many ways of making them all. This is just one way to make the most common (in America) type.

The California Roll

Ingredients:

Nori (dried sheets of seaweed)

Sticky Rice / Sushi Rice (and Vinegar)

Fish (Swordfish is my favorite) – Salmon is most popular (shrimp / crab is good too)

Vegetables (Pickled Horseradish, or whatever you think will be good)

Pickled Ginger (in the sushi or not, it’s VERY good)

To start you need to decide weather the fish will be cooked or not: (Common misconception that sushi means raw fish, in fact it does not, Sashimi is the Japanese word for raw fish) I do not recommend you use Sashimi for your first few times making sushi, you have to know if the fish is sashimi grade, and if it is, you spent a lot of money on it. I prefer to cook the fish in either sake (Japanese rice wine) or Soy sauce (my wife HATES when I do this. WARNING: this will make the whole house smell like boiling Soy sauce for quite a while).

The rice needs to be perfect, this will take some practice: The trick to the rice is not only in how long you cook it for, but also how it’s cooled, and handled, if you aren’t careful while cooling the rice, you will break some of the grains (this is a bigger deal than it sounds like), you should have a rounded dish with a wall about 2 inches tall, and a wooden rice spoon, there are many tutorials on cooling so I won’t get too in to detail with it. Dripping some vinegar on the rice while fanning and lightly mixing is a great way to not only cool the rice, but it also adds a sweet flavor to it.

Making the roll: Using your fingers, you want to make a layer of rice over the Nori about ¼ inch thick, just enough to completely cover the green, after doing this it’s time to add the other ingredients, in rows you now add the fish (or whatever you chose) and vegetables, along with a small amount of pickled ginger (a little bit goes a long way – trust me) and just roll it up tight, but not tight enough to rip the Nori. After the roll is made, you may notice some spots where it just doesn’t want to stay shut, not to worry, the rice can also be used as a paste, take a grain between your fingers and smash it into a gel, then use that as a paste to keep the roll closed (this will not happen as much with practice)

The perfect cut: Using a good sharp knife, and some running hot water, the cuts are made easier than expected, after every cut run the hot water over the blade (to moisten the rice that gets stuck to the blade, doing this avoids ripping the Nori during the cuts. The best cut is made in the center of the roll, and furthermore in the center of each section you cut, this makes all the pieces you serve even in size.

This was a very basic intro to sushi, hopefully in the future Luis and I will go more in depth