Sushi, Anyone? How to Make the Perfect California Roll

There are few dishes that I eat over and over again when I look for something simple to put together for lunch. Sushi is one of those dishes. Japanese restaurants were always my brother’s and my favorite places to dine when we lived in Bangkok, so I guess eating sushi in a way a helps my homesickness.

You don’t have to be a trained sushi chef who spends years learning how to make proper rice and mastering techniques of sushi to make your own at home; however, you do need a few tools and ingredients.

Sushi actually means “vinegared rice” and consequently is the most important element. You can cook the Japanese short grain rice in a rice cooker, but to mix the rice with vinegar mixture you do need a wooden bowl (hangiri or sushi oki) and wooden spatula (shamoji). Any wooden salad bowl and wooden spoon you might have would be a good substitute. Metal would have chemical reaction with the seasoned rice and change the flavor.

The most essential tool is the bamboo mat—without it you won’t be able to make sushi rolls (norimaki) or uramaki (inside-out sushi), but only hand rolls known as nigiri sushi, oblong shaped seasoned rice top with variety of raw seafood.

You can find all sorts of variations and local versions of sushi in Japanese restaurants. My favorites are the California rolls (crab, avocado and cucumber), spicy tuna, and spicy salmon rolls (by adding spicy sriracha sauce).

Sushi Rice

1 ½ cup Japanese rice

2 cups water

¼ cup rice vinegar

2 tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

Cook rice according to package directions. Mix vinegar, sugar, and salt together in a small bowl. Transfer cooked rice to a wooden rice, drizzle vinegared mixture over rice and fold over until rice is fully incorporated and free of lumps. Let it sit to room temperature before using. Once cool, cover until ready to use.  

California Rolls (uramaki style)

1 recipe sushi rice

3 sheets nori (seaweed), cut in halves

6 crab sticks

½ avocado, slice thinly lengthwise

½ cup cucumber, cut into matchsticks

Japanese mayonnaise (optional)

Wasabi paste

Toasted black or white sesame seeds

Japanese soy sauce (shoyu)

Pickled ginger

Line a mat with plastic wrap to prevent rice sticking to it. Place a nori sheet shiny side down on a mat with the longest end toward you. Using wet hands, spread a thin layer of rice over nori, sprinkle with sesame seeds, then turn the nori over so the rice is against the mat.

Using your finger, spread a small amount of wasabi onto the center of nori, if using mayonnaise, spread it next, then layer avocado, crab, and cucumber accordingly.

Fold the mat over and start to roll, lifting the mat as you go and try to keep the pressure even to make sure it’s tight.

Remove the roll to a cutting board and cut into six pieces with a very sharp and wet knife. Turn the pieces on end onto a serving plate. Repeat the process. Serve with soy sauce and pickled ginger.