Recipe: How to make tamari sushi at home!
The makizushi that you can eat in sushi restaurants is rolled by bamboo cooking equipment called makisu. Shari vinegared rice and neta ingredient gets pressed together to make the sushi.
In the 1980s, a well-known vinegar brand Mizkan started to promote households to cook temaki sushi at home, an easy way to make sushi, and became very popular by the 1990s.
Although some people go authentic by using the makisu, we want to introduce you to the modern and easiest way using plastic wrap!
1. Make vinegar sushi rice
First, you need to make Vinegar Sushi Rice or "sumeshi"（酢飯）
This looks difficult but it is easy once you know the ratio of the ingredients to mix.
The ratio of the 3 ingredients to make sushi vinegar:
- Rice vinegar: 4
- sugar:2
- salt:1
When you buy a rice cooker from a Japanese brand the cooker will be numbered 1, 2, 3...etc
This 1 is Ichigo（1合）which equals about 330g.
If you were to make sushi vinegar for Ichigo of rice,
- vinegar...20cc(1.3 spoons)
- sugar...10g
- salt...5g(1/2 spoon)
If you can't find rice vinegar, it can be replaced by any grain vinegar. In Japanese grocery stores, it should have sushi vinegar for the easiest way out.
If you don't have vinegar that comes from grain, it can be white, apple, wine vinegar, or even just lemon juice.
2. Mix the rice and vinegar to make vinegared sushi rice
Mix the sushi vinegar and rice, while the rice is hot.
*Slowly add little by little dripping it to the shamoji（しゃもじ）or rice scoop.
If you don't have rice scoop shamoji, you can use the biggest spoon you have.
Mix the rice by scooping the bottom to the top, in big motions, and mixing the vinegar with the rice.
Once the sushi vinegar is mixed with the rice, use smaller motions to kind of "cut" or divide the rice so it's not a big chunk of rice, but more of a spread-out rice with plenty of air in between each rice. （すし飯を切るように手早く混ぜる）
It's not good to mush the rice, keep your mixing motion quick and continue till the sushi rice becomes shiny. We call this "tsuyaga deru."（ツヤがでる）
3. Let the rice cool off to room temperature
Once the sushi rice is mixed evenly with the vinegar, we will cool it to about our body temperature, 35~40 degrees. Replace the top and the bottom once in a while to avoid drying and overcooking the bottom.
Sushioke（寿司桶）or the bowl used to mix the rice and vinegar is made of wood. That will suck the excess water of the rice vinegar. This avoids the rice to become too watery and releases heat. If you're using a bowl, then try to make sure you remove the heat from the rice as much as possible while mixing.
If you don't have an uchiwa fan, you may use anything that you can wave air to the rice, like a clear file or binder.

4. When the rice is cooled off, cover it with a wet towel or cloth.
You shouldn't leave it in the fridge as the sushi rice will lose its texture.
Easy way to make Temari Sushi!
In recent households in Japan, families make Temarisushi with children as it is very easy.
Temari is a traditional ball-shaped toy in Japan, and it is called Temari sushi as it looks similar.
Nigiri sushi requires a skill to make, but Temari is an easy sushi that comes up in our bento lunch boxes, too!
- Put sashimi on a plastic wrap
- Put some rice on top of the sashimi.
- Lift and hold the plastic wrap and make it round.
- Twist the leftover wrap to seal like how some candies would look.
- Let it sit and continue to make the Temari sushi. You can change sashimi, too like the picture below!
Follow me for more to come :)
“When you eat, it’s supposed to go deep into your heart.
Whether you are rich or poor, eating isn’t just to fill your stomach, it is also to fill your heart.”
- Ryu Aomi 青海 龍
Comments
Post a Comment