Maki Time

A funny thing happened today - my lovely wife, Hollis, decided out of the blue to face her darkest fears and give sushi a chance. Maybe being pregnant is messing with her head, but a sushiofile (is that a real word?) like myself was not about to let a chance like this slip through the cracks.

Sushi is often misunderstood, so I would like to clear a few things up before we get started here:

1. Sushi is sushi because of the vinegar seasoned rice, not because of raw fish or anything else. In fact, some sushi items contain no fish at all!
2. There are many different types (styles) of sushi: nigiri, maki, temaki, inari, chirashi, and oshi-zushi - just to name a few. Nigiri and maki are perhaps the most well known in the western world.
3. The toppings or fillings can be fish, meat, vegetables, eggs, etc. and could be raw, cooked, blanched, seared, marinated, cured, or any other such preparation.
4. Sushi chefs are supposed to season each piece with wasabi themselves, so you shouldn't have to.
5. Dipping sushi rice in soy sauce is simply not cool. Not only would the rice fall apart, but it would absorb so much soy that other flavors would be completely overwhelmed. The soy sauce should be used in moderation to season the topping only. Properly made nigiri sushi can be turned upside down to dip the topping in soy sauce without having it fall off.

Okay, I feel better now!

I've made sushi a few times now, with mixed results. Believe it or not, the hardest thing to get right is the rice. Texture and seasoning are such a critical part of the final product, yet typically receive little thought on this side of the ocean. The toppings are the easy part, provided you have a good supplier of fish that you trust and a quality Japanese market nearby. The act of forming the individual sushi pieces can also be difficult, so it's best to stick to something simple at first. For this reason, I decided to go with maki.

Now what to fill them with... Raw items were out of the question (and probably not gonna happen anyways, even with Hollis in such an altered state of mind), so I thought we'd play it safe: cooked shrimp and veggies.



Shrimp Tempura Roll with Spicy Mayo

For each roll:

3 shrimp, fried tempura style and cooled (use a wooden stick while frying to keep shrimp from curling)
A few sticks of cucumber, julienned
1T spicy mayo (I use 2 parts mayo, 1 part chile garlic sauce to make mine)
Green onions, finely sliced
Prepared sushi rice


Cucumber Roll with Chive Cream Cheese

For each roll:

A few sticks of cucumber, julienned
2T cream cheese
1T chives, finely chopped
Prepared sushi rice

Let's start with the shrimp roll. There's quite a lot going into this one, so I decided to do an inside out roll, which allows a little more room on the inside for stuff. Using wet hands, take a tennis ball sized handful of sushi rice and evenly distribute over a half sheet of toasted nori. This might take some practice, and you'll probably end up with sticky rice stubbornly sticking to your fingers. Try not to have a conniption. When that's taken care of, sprinkle the top with toasted sesame seeds, or tobiko (flying fish roe) if you can find it.

Turn nori upside down and place onto a bamboo rolling mat, protected with a sheet of plastic wrap. Put fillings inside, being careful not to overfill. Try to keep all like items close together. It will make the roll look better when you slice it.

Roll nori tightly over toppings, being sure to leave about a half inch or so of nori visible (this is key).

Using the bamboo mat, continue to roll, making sure the end overlaps a bit. Use the mat to gently squeeze the roll so that it holds together.

Repeat for the cucumber, but this time keeping the nori on the outside. This time, make sure to leave a half inch of nori exposed at the top. I know, I know - terrible job of grouping the cucumber sticks together in the roll, not to mention that the pieces are not uniformly cut. Amateur moves, what can I say?

Wet the exposed nori with your finger. Roll the maki, making sure that the top edge wraps completely around the fillings. The wet nori edge should stick to the roll as you apply light pressure with the mat. If you like, you can use the mat to shape your roll (circle, square, etc).

Here's a useful tip - make sure you use a really sharp knife and dip it in water before slicing. This helps prevent the sticky rice from sticking to the blade and ripping the roll apart as you slice. It would be a shame to mess up all your hard work at this point.

Not quite up to the standards of Japanese presentation, is it? But you would eat that... Right???

I have to admit that I didn't care for the cucumber roll. The cream cheese was a little too soft, and just didn't tast like it belonged with the rice. I patterned it after the classic English tea sandwich (which Hollis loves). It was a good idea on paper, but didn't really seem to work.

The shrimp rolls on the other hand were outstanding. I would have been quite happy paying for those at a sushi bar somewhere. Although next time I make it, I will probably throw in some avocado. Love that stuff. This roll would also work really well with some nice raw tuna. That's the beauty of homemade sushi - the opportunities for creativity are endless.

Hopefully, making your own maki provides you with a great deal of satisfaction. A trained sushi chef could probably throw this roll together (and slice and plate it) in about 30 seconds, so don't bother timing yourself if you decide to give it a go - just do it for the fun. Sushi may be intimidating, but with a little practice, it can be conquered, if not mastered.