Basic Kit

• Dark soy sauce
• Rice wine vinegar
• Meshi: sticky, short grain rice
• Nori
• Rice spoon
• Rolling mat (2)
• Wasabi
• Gari

 

Making Meshi

1. Wash the grains in cold water: 3 changes
2. 2 cups sushi or short grain rice + 2 cups water: no salt
3. Bring this to boil over high heat uncovered
4. Cover as soon as we achieve bubblage
5. Leave everything where it is for another 10 minutes
6. 2 tbs. sugar + 1 tbs. kosher salt + 2 tbs. rice wine vinegar in a microwave safe container
7. Mix up
8. Stash for 30 ~ 45 seconds on high heat
9. Dump the rice into a large (wooden, unvarnished) bowl: slow cooling is crucial
10. Once the rice is spread out a little bit, drizzle on the vinegar mixture
11. Cut it into the rice with a spatula: don’t stur; slashing motion
12. Cool the rice and dry the vinegar & sugar syrup onto the outside of the grains for a couple of minutes
13. Place a moist tower over it & stash it in a cool place in your kitchen: do not put it in the refrigerator

 

Where to Get Fish

• Freshness
• Texture
• Flavor

 

Fish to Prepare

• Red snapper
• Mahi-mahi
• Tuna (yellow fin)
• Spanish mackerel
  Cf. portable ice cooler

 

Making of Sushi

• Large wooden board
• Service pieces
• Pickled ginger (gari)
• Nori sheets cut in half
• Bamboo rolling mat (2)
• 1 pint water + 2 spoon rice wine vinegar
• Meshi
• Wasabi for garnish
• Knife

 

1. Leave the fish whole, and cut up what you need as you need it
2. Cut thin against the grain
3. For a round, flat fish fillet, angle it

 

• When ordering sushi, always start with leaner, white fish and progress to fattier (usually darker) fish.

 

Nigiri

1. Do not squish the rice, but does have to be shaped
2. Take a little slice of fish
3. Grate it on some wasabi
4. Flip it over, & press it into a hand-pressed oval of rice

 

Tekka  Maki

1. Slice a couple of pieces off fillet against the grain
2. Split those down in the middle into narrow fingers
3. Lay out your mat; flat side up
4. Bring the edge all the way to the end of your board
5. Nori rough side placed up
6. Get some water on your fingers, web, but not dripping; have a towel nearby
7. Grab some rice
8. Bring it up to right about a ¼” away from the edge of the nori
9. Rub on a little wasabi
10. Tuna down in the middle, overlapping
11. Pull the tuna in place with your fingers
12. Roll the mat over
13. Squeeze just enough to seal the roll; don’t squash it
14. Dip the knife in water
15. Split the roll in half; double it over; split into 6 pieces: full sawing motion; don’t push down
16. Gari + wasabi on each side

 

California Roll

• 1 medium avocado
• 4 crab sticks
• 1 small cucumber
• 1/3 cup sesame seeds
• Plastic-covered mat
• 4 sheets of nori

 

1. On the mat wrapped in cellophane, get your hands wet
2. Get hold of some rice
3. Add some sesame seeds
4. Flip the whole thing over onto the mat
5. Slice one ¼ of avocado very thin (4~5)
6. Avocado goes down on the nori first
7. Krab
8. Cucumber
9. Roll, using even pressure
10. Do not add more than 3 different fillings
11. Apply even pressure to set the rice
    Dip the knife in water
12. Split in half; double up; cut into 6 pieces

 

At Sushi-Ya

• Gari: palate cleanser
• Do not mix wasabi with shoyu unless it is for dipping sashimi
• Go sparing; do not dump the entire bowl of shari inside shoyu
• Always use the big end of the chopsticks when taking sushi from a communal platter.