Sushi 101

Did you know that fish who spend any time during their lives in a river need to be either cooked or frozen before you eat them so the river parasites the fish eat won't infect you?

With that appetizing thought, my sushi instructor in Sushi 101 passed out the bowls of raw salmon mixed with chile garlic sauce that we could use in rolling our first sushi roll (it had previously been frozen of course).

Don gave me this three-hour class as a birthday present and I went last Friday night, along with 7 other students—two couples, a mom and daughter and two other single women. Our teacher was Hiro, a chef and owner of Chiso’s sushi restaurant in Fremont.

  

Here’s what I learned:

1) Wash rice vigorously at first, rinsing it 2-3 times; continue to wash it less vigorously another 2 times and let it sit in water to rehydrate about 30 minutes before cooking. (Maybe I'll do the rinsing part, but resting for 30 minures? Not.)

2) For sushi rice, use a 2:1 mixture of sugar and vinegar plus some salt. Add kombu, a type of seaweed, if you have some. Kombu is really high in vitamins and minerals.

3) Buy a rice cooker. Hiro asked how many of us owned one.  We all did. He said that they sell so many for a reason – they offer fool-proof rice cooking.

4) When rolling sushi rolls, the textured side of the nori goes on the inside and the shiny side out.

5) When cutting sushi, dip the tip of your knife in a bowl of water and let it run down the front and back. Do this as often as you need to.

6) I really like avocado, cucumber, radish sprouts, cooked crab, cooked shrimp and smoked eel in sushi, with pickled ginger on top. Salmon and the fish roe, not so much.

We started with temaki, or hand rolls.

  



  



This was my favorite shape.   It was easy to roll and I liked eating it in several bites instead of popping one big sushi bite into my mouth.

Next were traditional American sushi.



I did OK on these.







 



   

Hosomaki, or thin rolls, have nori on the outside. These were supposed to be only quarter size piece – nice because they were so easy to eat – and traditionally made with only one ingredient. They were a bit boring though with only cucumber.

  

Futomaki, or fat rolls, are pieces with the nori on the outside, rice on the bottom and one topping (this one has crab). These were the very easiest to make and what I think I would make in the future. You use wide strips of nori and make one piece at a time.


Uramaki, or inside-out rolls, were very pretty with black sesame seeds sprinkled on the rice, but they were the most difficult for me to make and pretty much fell apart when I cut them. The woman sitting next to me had more luck with hers.

I like the flavors of sushi, but may just resort more often to something that Hiro mentioned and that I have in fact made from a recipe in a Gourmet magazine a number of years ago – Sushi Rice Salad. 

Here’s my abbreviated version:

Toss cooked rice (I use brown rice) with a sugar-vinegar-salt dressing and add cut up bits of the same ingredients you would use in a sushi roll.

I like to put in shrimp, avocado, cut up bits of nori seaweed, chopped cucumbers and for added crunch, some diced carrots, a few peanuts or maybe edamame.

Hiro made this caterpillar roll at the end of class.

Leftovers!